With the Nationals firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Major Leagues and the Redskins getting ready to start the season with a new head coach, another new offensive system, and a smattering of injuries, it is tough to get excited about Washington area sports right now. Given that the Redskins are 70-79 since Dan Snyder purchased the team in 1999, and the Nationals are 150-204 since the Lerners took the helm, it is easy to blame the ownership for their teams’ woes. That would be wrong; Dan Snyder and Ted Lerner are both excellent owners. The problem for Washington sports fans is that they own the wrong teams.

Let us say that Dan Synder was the owner of the Nationals. Given Dan’s propensity to sign big name players for too much money, and just generally overpay for everything, can you imagine what he would do without a salary cap? A short list of free agents that Danny could have overpaid for are: Tim Wakefield, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, Alfonso Soriano, Greg Maddux, Bobby Abreu, and Alex Rodriguez. A Snyder-led Nationals would definitely be near the top of the league in payroll, and probably have Barry Bonds wearing a curly W.

The current salary cap for the NFL is $116,729,000, and the Redskins are projected to exceed that by $3,239,580, giving them a total payroll of $119,968,580 (note: the Redskins are currently under the salary cap, but the number has shifted in the last few days. If the Redskins spend up to the Salary Cap they would have the 10th highest payroll in MLB). In Major League Baseball, that salary would put the Nationals as the 6th highest paid team. Since 2000, the teams with the six highest payrolls have a record of 4267-3509, or a .548 winning percentage. Also, those top six teams have made the playoffs 52 percent of the time, and have won half of the World Series Championships since 2000. Finally, in that time period (48 complete seasons), those teams have only had 7 losing seasons.

Unfettered, I am convinced that Snyder could give the Yankees a run. While crazy spending does not guarantee a championship, crazy spending would have probably scored more than 3 runs in the last 5 games.

So while the Nationals would clearly be better off with all of Dan Snyder’s money, would the Redskins be better off with Ted Lerner at the helm? Given the relative parity in the NFL, and the short history the Lerners have as sports owners, this question is harder to answer.

Incredibly poor photoshopping job by Matt Bourque