On the eve of the Redskins’ season-opener, owner Dan Snyder dismissed his lawsuit against Washington City Paper and writer Dave McKenna over “The Cranky Redskins Fan’s Guide to Dan Snyder,” which the paper published on November 19, 2010.

Here’s an excerpt from the statement City Paper released Saturday responding to the news:

From the beginning, we have believed that Snyder’s lawsuit was a baseless one, designed to intimidate a journalist and a publication that have been among his most persistent critics. We’ve also argued—in our pages, and in court—that our article never said any of the allegedly libelous things Snyder claimed it did. As we defended ourselves, we got unprecedented support from loyal readers who donated thousands of dollars of their own money to help us protect our rights. And we were fortunate to have an ownership group who understood the stakes and stood by us. We’re confident that the court would have seen things our way, too, thanks to the strong laws the District of Columbia has in place to protect free speech. But we’re also glad that it won’t have to go that far. … Today, we got what we wanted all along: dismissal of a case expressly designed to pressure us, and filed by a man who now apparently says he never even read the story in the first place. Now we’re eager to get back to our business of covering the city’s politics and culture—including its sports culture—without this distraction. And we hope the end of this case means Snyder can get back to focusing his energy on making our shared home team as good as it can be.