Josh Harris’ group reaches agreement to buy Washington Commanders for $6 billion

Something we’ve been tracking for this entire calendar year appears to have reached a conclusion. The investment group led by Philadelphia 76ers managing partner Josh Harris has reportedly reached an agreement to purchase the NFL’s Washington Commanders for $6 billion.

The purchase price will be the highest ever for a U.S. sports franchise, well above last year’s sale of the Denver Broncos for $4.6 billion. Harris’ group was chosen over that of Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos, who also submitted a fully-funded $6 billion bid. Despite much speculation, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos never made a formal bid for the franchise. Harris will now have the Sixers, Commanders, New Jersey Devils, and Crystal Palace F.C. under his investment portfolio.

We’ve discussed this topic a few times previously here at Liberty Ballers, so let’s just quickly touch upon the salient talking points. Getting Dan Snyder out of the sports world is surely a good thing, although $6 billion is a heck of a golden parachute. There is certainly a possibility that this change in ownership benefits an Eagles’ division rival, as the Washington franchise had become something of a dumpster fire under Snyder’s leadership. However, the Devils haven’t actually experienced a great deal of success over the past decade under Harris’ watch, so it’s not like we should instantly expect big things from the Commanders.

In the wake of the new NBA collective bargaining agreement, Sixers fans just don’t want to hear that the organization is worried about the second luxury tax apron line or something like that because Josh Harris went out and bought a shiny, new $6 billion toy. Make James Harden an offer this summer based on what he deserves from an on-court perspective, not from a cash flow perspective for the Harris family estate. If those things happen, no one will care that Josh isn’t doing an E-A-G-L-E-S chant when the division rivals meet.

Plus, we get Magic Johnson diving into a whole new sport to enliven our Twitter feeds and bring us hard-hitting analysis like this:

He’s no stranger to NFL coverage:

Anyway, good for Washington fans, but as always, Go Birds!