The future site of a new stadium for the NFL's Washington Redskins is turning into a real political football, and it's no surprise whose side members of the media are taking. The team's new home could be in D.C., Maryland or Virginia and, like virtually every new stadium in America, likely will get help in the form of corporate welfare. Congress has some say in the matter, and it's complicated. Deadspin staff writer Chris Thompson is convinced the Redskins, sleazy Republicans and the "insanely crooked administration" are conspiring to "screw D.C. residents" on a stadium deal.
The Redskins currently play home games at Fed Ex Stadium in Maryland. One of the sites under consideration for the new stadium is the location of the Redskins' former home, RFK Stadium in the District of Columbia. This property is under the control of the federal government, and, according to a story earlier this week in The Washington Post, the GOP-controlled Congress is attempting to pass a spending bill that would return the team to D.C. before Democrats take over the House of Representatives in January. Thompson ignores the Democrats' own rich history of wild spending and writes that the process of determining the new stadium location is "scuzzy as hell."
Redskins' team owner Dan Snyder (photographed above) and "certain slimy allies are working behind the scenes to get a provision squeezed into this month’s massive federal spending bill that will grease the skids for his lousy, dysfunctional team’s triumphant return to the District of Columbia," says Thompson, leaving little doubt as to the identity of the political party he's criticizing.
More from Thompson:
"Because the D.C. government has limited home rule, congressional Republicans in particular think very little of dropping provisions into must-pass federal legislation in order to screw district residents."
D.C. councilmember at-large David Grosso told Deadspin he is fighting this "backdoor attempt," and that "historically Democrats could be relied upon to protect district residents 'from this kind of maneuver,' but that the current makeup of the federal government puts the district in a vulnerable position."
“Now with the Republicans in control, and Trump in the White House, there’s less of a desire to hold onto public lands in the federal government,” Grosso said.
Thompson says that Snyder and government officials "fear that the coming change in House control from Republicans to Democrats could complicate future attempts to secure the RFK site, according to multiple local and federal officials familiar with the discussions."
Snyder has badly damaged his team’s fan base and destroyed the goodwill his franchise once enjoyed in D.C., says Thompson. And "now he’s counting on sleazy outgoing Republicans and an insanely crooked administration to help him defile public lands without the consent or support of those same locals. It’s not the usual stadium scam—not yet—but he’ll get there eventually. In the meantime, a tidy little amuse-bouche scam, a nice “fuck you” to the locals who are stuck with his shit-show for the foreseeable future."
