Hunley: To send Dan Snyder money, or not to send Dan Snyder money

It could be said that columnists who can’t make up their minds shouldn’t be writing ... because, after all, a column is supposed to be a strong expression of opinion.

However, I am having difficulty with this one:

It’s that time of the year when Redskins season ticket holders are supposed to re-up for the next gridiron campaign, and for the first time I’m wavering.

Lots of ’Skins fans complain about owner Daniel Snyder, but I haven’t been one who was particularly vocal about this.

And I’m particularly vocal about most everything.

Snyder’s spat with the Washington City Paper, though, has me wondering about sending him money again this year.

The NFL owner has sued, saying the alternative newspaper has smeared and libeled him, and that it had anti-Semitic intent when publishing a photo of him done up to look like a teenager defaced it with pen and ink: complete with devil horns, unibrow and Fu Manchu facial hair.

Why those characteristics are anti-Semitic, I don’t know. But that’s not for me, as a Presbyterian from Southwest Virginia, to decide, probably.

Nor am I a lawyer. But I don’t really think the City Paper actually libeled Snyder.

The paper was hard on him in a story headlined “The Cranky Redskins Fan’s Guide to Dan Snyder,” sure. But one should expect that potential result when one buys a professional football team.

But it’s difficult for a career newspaperman to send off a sizable amount of dough to someone mad that a publication exercised its First Amendment right.

I haven’t given up my ’Skins tickets just yet, though. But I did want to find out if this newspaper’s Facebook fans had.

Responses to our inquiry on the social-networking site were mixed. Many — not that this is a news flash — will support the team no matter what.

Others, though, are hopping mad at Danny Boy:

“I didn’t renew our tickets this year,” wrote Chris Lail. “I will be cussing/watching from home from now on.”

Similarly, Sandi Drown wrote, “I wish he would sell the team and leave D.C. — I have been a diehard Redskins fan all my life, but I wouldn’t pay to go see a game now.”

Valerie Wilmore Burton perhaps made the best point, though, about the publicity the City Paper story generated:

“I never did think much of Snyder and didn’t think I could possibly think less of him as a person; however, I realized I was wrong when he started this whole thing. He is an idiot. I, and many others, would have never even heard/known of the article if he had not made a federal case out of it.”

And, unfortunately, Dan Donohue made the best point about the Redskins, the economy and the general state of affairs these days:

“I would ditch my tickets, but I can’t afford to buy them in the first place!”

Read more comments at facebook.com/insidenova.

Jonathan Hunley is a columnist for the News & Messenger and editor of PW Business magazine. Contact him at 703-369-5738, or at jhunley@insidenova.com.