Josh Harris and Co. can begin cleanup job in Washington as Dan Snyder’s failed ownership ends

Early on, when the stories centered on suing grandmothers who fell behind on season ticket payments, firing valued executives to replace them with obsequious friends and treating even others in the NFL universe with a sneering smartest-guy-in-the-room arrogance, the NFL and everyone else was able to mostly look the other way when it came to Daniel Snyder.

Sports leagues have no shortage of unlikeable owners, and they certainly have no problem with bottom-line business tactics, and what the league and Snyder's fellow owners were sure they knew was that Snyder was smart and ambitious and knew how to make money. For years, Snyder remained firmly in control of the team, even as, we have since learned, the behavior inside the Washington organization was growing more grotesque. The racist team nickname was still defended by those inside and outside the organization. And after an investigation revealed a workplace rife with sexual harassment, the NFL went easy on Snyder, pointedly noting that the independent counsel in charge "was not specifically tasked with confirming or rejecting any particular allegation of inappropriate conduct." Snyder was protected by the release of only a cursory summary of the investigation and a suspension that wasn't even called that.

A subsequent Congressional investigation found Snyder engaged in misconduct himself and interfered with both the Congressional and initial independent investigation. It also uncovered potential financial improprieties by the team and it criticized the NFL for having "misled the public" in its first look at the Washington franchise.

Finally, when the accrual of investigations was too great and regularly besmirching the NFL, and when the inability to conduct meaningful