News & Politics

Glenn Beck Wants to Be Dan Snyder’s New Best Friend

Yes, really.

Photograph by Flickr user Gage Skidmore.

Local NFL executive Dan Snyder’s list of friends keeps getting better. His latest ally? Conservative commentator and occasional conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck, who said on his Blaze online channel Tuesday that he’ll be sitting in Snyder’s box at FedEx Field on Sunday when Washington plays the Tennessee Titans.

Beck, he told his production crew and cohosts, is apparently inspired by the example set last Sunday in Arizona by Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, who attempted to lend Snyder some Native American credibility in the fight over the Washington team’s dictionary-defined racial slur of a name. (Shelly, it was widely pointed out, supports Snyder over the wishes of his own tribal council, which voted 9-2 this year to officially oppose the name of Snyder’s team, a position that potentially contributed to his fourth-place finish in a recent primary to keep his job.)

“You know who’s going to be in the owner’s box Sunday wearing a Redskins hat?” Beck gleefully asked his cohosts.

Beck’s going all-in for Snyder, even if he admits to not knowing a whit about football. “I don’t know anything about him,” he said. “Somebody give me some research on him so I know about him, because I’m certainly not going to be able to talk to him about [football].”

But how will the potential scene of the NFL’s most stubborn owner and a political commentator who sometimes raves about how well-intentioned government programs like AmeriCorps and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are fronts for “Obama’s civilian army” play out? Even Beck’s cronies have their misgivings.

“He’s gotta know bringing you into the owner’s box is not a good idea, but he’s doing it anyway,” one of his co-hosts said.

Beck was not deterred. “I love the guy,” he said.

(h/t DC Sports Bog)

Watch the full clip below:

Find Benjamin Freed on Twitter at @brfreed.

Staff Writer

Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.