The Owners

Immediately after the fire, Triangle owners Blanck and Harris declared in interviews that their building was fireproof, and that it had just been approved by the Department of Buildings. Yet the call for bringing those responsible to justice and reports that the doors of the factory were locked at the time of the fire prompted the District Attorney's office to seek an indictment against the owners. On April 11, a grand jury indicted Harris and Blanck on seven counts, charging them with manslaughter in the second degree under section 80 of the Labor Code, which mandated that doors should not be locked during working hours.

The Owners

On December 27, twenty-three days after the trial had started, a jury acquitted Blanck and Harris of any wrong doing. The task of the jurors had been to determine whether the owners knew that the doors were locked at the time of the fire.

In December of 1913, the interior of his factory was found to be littered with rubbish piled six feet high, with scraps kept in non-regulation, flammable wicker baskets. This time, instead of a court appearance and a fine, he was served a stern warning. The Triangle Waist Company was to cease operations in 1918, but the owners maintained throughout that their factory was a "model of cleanliness and sanitary conditions," and that it was "second to none in the country."

For purposes of the Enhanced STAR exemption, all of the owners must be at least 65 years of age as of December 31 of this year, except where the property is owned by a married couple or by siblings. If the property is owned by a married couple or siblings, only one of the owners needs to be age 65 by that date. The property must be owned by the age-eligible spouse or sibling, and it must be the primary residence of that individual.

Our records indicate that one or more of the owners of your property will be under age 65 on December 31 of this year. Nothing in our records indicates that the owners are spouses or siblings. Accordingly, based on the information available to us, the Enhanced STAR exemption may not be granted. However, you will receive the Basic STAR exemption as long as your income is less than or equal to the legal limit (currently $250,000) and the property is the primary residence of at least one of the owners.

Multiple owners and league and team sources say they've been told that Dan Snyder instructed his law firms to hire private investigators to look into other owners and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. (3:06)

DAN SNYDER DOES this thing when he feels cornered, say those who know him well. He paces in a hotel suite, or on his superyacht, or at River View, his $48 million Virginia estate. Cradling a drink in one hand, he tells members of his inner circle about the dirt he has accumulated on fellow owners, coaches, executives, even his own employees -- all the stuff he's learned from other sources, including private investigative firms. He never says exactly what he knows, only that in his 23 years as owner of the Washington Commanders, he knows a lot. And that in the zero-sum world of billionaires, this is how you survive. Snyder recently told a close associate that he has gathered enough secrets to "blow up" several NFL owners, the league office and even commissioner Roger Goodell.

Senior team executives and confidants have heard him say it since he was considered merely one of the worst owners in sports. Now that he's facing investigations on multiple fronts and running out of high-powered allies, he alludes more than ever to the dirty work. Snyder, now 57 years old, has told associates he will not lose his beloved franchise without a fight that would end with multiple casualties.

Something has to give, possibly as soon as the NFL league meetings in New York on Tuesday. Many owners and top league executives tell ESPN they would like to see Snyder removed as owner. It would clean the slate for a storied team and a cherished fan base and reignite the pursuit for a desperately needed stadium.

WHY IS DAN Snyder still an NFL team owner? And how has he managed to survive allegations of a toxic club culture, sexual harassment, accounting misdeeds and the bungling of a new stadium proposal that once seemed inevitable and is now met with hard resistance by the public and officials in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.? Those questions have bewildered fans, league and team executives and some fellow owners, and the lawyers for former Commanders employees who say they were victims of the team's culture of sexual harassment and abuse. "Our clients and the public at large deserve transparency," said Lisa Banks, attorney for nearly a dozen former team employees and cheerleaders who publicly revealed the team's toxic culture in 2020 and are still calling for the NFL to make public its investigative report on Snyder. "If not," Banks said in a statement last year, "the NFL and Roger Goodell must explain why they appear intent on protecting" the team and "Dan Snyder at all costs."

According to more than 30 owners, league and team executives, lawyers and current and former Commanders employees interviewed by ESPN, the fear of reprisal that Snyder has instilled in his franchise, poisoning it on the field and off, has expanded to some of his fellow owners. Multiple owners and league and team sources say they've been told that Snyder instructed his law firms to hire private investigators to look into other owners -- and Goodell.

League sources say the NFL is aware that Snyder has claimed to be tracking owners. But none of the owners or sources would reveal how they learned of Snyder's alleged effort to use private investigators. It's also unclear how many owners are said to have been targeted, though sources say they believe it's at least six. One owner was told by Snyder directly that he "has dirt on Jerry Jones," a team source told ESPN, though the nature of the information was unclear. Another source confirmed that Snyder has told a confidant that he has "a file" on Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner who has served as Snyder's friend, mentor and longtime firewall of support.

The Commanders declined to make team officials, including Dan Snyder and his wife, Tanya, available for interviews but issued a statement attributed to a group including team employees and law firms. A Commanders spokesperson and outside lawyers denied that Snyder has hired or authorized private investigators to track another team's owner and league office executives, including Goodell. "This is categorically false," said John Brownlee and Stuart Nash, partners at Holland & Knight. "He has no 'dossiers' compiled on any owners."

A team spokesperson called it "simply ridiculous and utterly false" that Snyder ever said that he could blow up the league, or that the league "can't f---" with him, or that "the NFL is a mafia" or "all owners hate each other."

Most sources declined to go on the record for this story; Goodell has warned owners that they could be fined millions of dollars for leaking to reporters. Snyder "thinks he has enough on all of them," says a former longtime senior Commanders executive. "He thinks he's got stuff on Roger." Another former Commanders executive routinely called Snyder "the most powerful owner in the NFL" because of what he knows, a source says.

Several owners say that they see the threats about damaging dossiers as a desperate tactic intended to scare owners from voting to remove Snyder. "He's backed into a corner," says a veteran owner who says he's aware Snyder has gathered dirt on some owners. "He's behaving like a mad dog cornered."

THE POTENTIAL FOR mutually assured destruction might help explain why Snyder has survived years of scandals. Or it might merely reveal that Snyder is running out of options. He is under attack from multiple fronts: His team, his employees and his own conduct have been investigated by Congress, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the league office twice. At least 24 owners are required to force Snyder to sell his team, a fate that he has told multiple sources he will never accept. An associate who has met with Snyder multiple times recently says Snyder has become "paranoid" about owners and league office executives, and about former employees breaking their non-disclosure agreements and telling investigators and reporters what they know. Snyder sees "evil lurking in every shadow and around every corner," the associate says. "Someone is always out to get them."

In a bid to shore up support, Snyder has visited a handful of owners around the country, sources say, and he has told associates that he is confident that he won't be voted out. "As a longtime owner, Dan has the support of many of his peers," the team spokesperson said. If any such vote about Snyder's fate is held, it won't likely be because the commissioner has pushed for one. Goodell has made clear that Snyder's permanent status is an ownership decision, and he has avoided mentioning Snyder at closed-door meetings. Sources say Goodell is clearly more comfortable challenging owners on issues related to the integrity of the game than the culture of their businesses. Indeed, it galls some owners and league and team executives that the NFL has been in lockstep with Washington on many fronts, "propping up" the franchise, in the words of one owner, by burying attorney Beth Wilkinson's report about the team's toxic workplace last year, and by helping the Commanders avoid penalties for repeated violations of the Rooney Rule. It's clear, one owner says, that Goodell "doesn't want to touch this."

That's what Paul Tagliabue said in May 1999, when the commissioner presided over the sale of the storied Washington franchise for $800 million, making the 34-year-old Snyder the youngest-ever person to buy an NFL franchise. It didn't take long for some owners to disagree with Tagliabue's sunny assessment. During the first run of owners meetings he attended, Snyder came across as brash and sharp-elbowed, impatient and disrespectful toward owners twice his age. Asked for his early view of Snyder, a veteran owner now says: "Arrogant. Obnoxious. Standoffish. Selfish." 041b061a72