Cause and effect?

 Sometimes it isn't hard to find the connections between things. And this doesn't include the loonies in our public sphere who see connections where none exist.

(Some of whom are going to get elected Tuesday. God save the Republic)

No, the connections sometimes are a 12-lane freeway, cause and effect writ large. And so here are a couple of news items that popped up yesterday. See if you can figure out how they might be companion pieces.

Item No. 1: ESPN reports the U.S. attorney's office in Eastern Virginia is opening an investigation into alleged "financial improprieties" involving the Washington Commanders.

Item No. 2: Commanders owners Daniel and Tanya Snyder announce they've hired Bank of American Securities to explore, ahem, "potential transactions."

Somehow I doubt the "potential transactions" involve hiring a new catering service.

More likely the specific transaction in question is the selling of the team itself, even if the Snyders didn't say so. And the fact news about a looming investigation into the Commanders' business practices broke the same day seems like more than just a coincidence, at least to the Blob.

The Blob is an agnostic when it comes to coincidences, see. Plus Jim Irsay letting the cat out of the bag about how the other owners feel about Snyder -- that he's a revolting sleazebag with a mobster's mentality -- would seem to indicate they want him out.

Now, I have no clue what sort of back channel chatter has been going on between Snyder and the other owners, and Snyder and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. With the exception of Irsay, they've all been publicly supportive of him -- disgustingly so. But I suspect there has been some back channel chatter, and the gist has been this: "Danny boy, it's time to retire. Your yacht needs you."

Snyder was initially defiant when the first calls to sell surfaced, but of course he was initially defiant about changing the team's racist nickname, too. But then the investors and business partners came knocking, and suddenly the Washington Racist Nicknames were the Washington Football Team, and then the Washington Commanders.

Seems like Danny Boy's had yet another change of heart.

And this time, apparently, it's the legal system that's come knocking.