"Something's not right" - Mike Florio questions Brian Davis' 'out of the blue' appearance to bid for Commanders

Sports personality Mike Florio could not make any sense of Brian Davis’ $7 billion bid to purchase the Washington Commanders.

As things stand, Commanders owner Dan Snyder has agreed in principle to sell the franchise for $6.05 billion to the Josh Harris-led ownership group. The consortium includes Enovis chairman Mitchell Rales and five-time NBA champion Magic Johnson.

The Pro Football Talk host crunched the numbers to make Davis’ bid come true. He said:

“Here's the bottom line: if you are going to own the team, if you're going to be the primary owner of a team that you're paying seven billion for, you gotta have, in cash, not literally, you're gonna be able to transfer the value of $2.1 billion. You gotta own 30 percent of the team yourself.

“For Brian Davis, he's gotta have $2.1 billion that he can acquire that 30 percent with. And then, he's gotta have the resources to run the team afterward. You gotta pass rigorous financial examination to be a primary owner of an NFL team."

A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports shared WUSA’s report that Davis earned $50 billion from selling intellectual property. A source close to Davis claims that he has a smart-city concept that generates solar power and sells excess energy back to power companies. However, no verified projects have used his smart city concept.

Florio added that he could not put the pieces together on how Brian Davis allegedly made his fortune:

“I look at this way as 'Hey, maybe the guy's got $2.1 billion.' But, if he does, he's the most secret and clandestine billionaire the world has ever seen. Because it's hard to hide when you're a billionaire.

“How does this guy that no one has ever heard of that played basketball for Duke, played for the Minnesota Timberwolves for a couple of years, and by all appearances and accounts disappeared, he's got $2.1 billion that he can use to buy a football team all of a sudden? Congratulations if it's true, but there's just something about it, Chris. It doesn't seem right.”

Some speculate that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund will finance Davis’ bid for the Commanders franchise, as it currently supports LIV Golf. However, in an interview with WUSA’s Darren Haynes, the former Duke basketball standout refuted the claim:

“That capital is coming from private investors who are located here in America who are domestic. I have a great amount of respect for the Saudi Arabian people and Arab people in Islam in general. I love them. But the money's not Saudi Arabian, and I've never been to Saudi Arabia in my life."

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More questions arise about Brian Davis’ portfolio

Brian Davis and his former Duke teammate Christian Laettner attempted to purchase majority ownership of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2006. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough funds to finalize the transaction.

Retired NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman sued the duo in 2009 after ceasing to pay for the loan they took from him two years earlier. That’s why the three-time All-Pro defensive player called Davis’ bluff on the Commanders bid. Merriman tweeted:

“BS Brian Davis doesn’t have the funds, tried to get me for 3m, took his a*s to court, and won $4m. He owes a bunch of athletes money the other owners will never approve this.”

In 2009, Davis and Laettner’s real estate venture received a breach of contract lawsuit from J.D. Holdings. The complainant lent $500,000 to Blue Devil Ventures, which they did not receive back in full. J.D. Holdings forced them to resolve the debt, which stood at $671,000.

Seven years later, Brian Davis invested in a property in Atlantic City for a green mixed-use development. However, there were no construction projects or any advancements in the property as of November 2021.

Davis also described in the bid documents submitted that his company, Urban Echo Energy LLC, is “a LEED-certified developer of renewable energy assets." However, in the same report by Haynes, a spokesperson for the U.S. Green Building Council said that they do not certify developers.

These red flags fuel Florio’s claim that Brian Davis’ bid for the Commanders was strange. He closed his argument:

“It's gotta be real. And then there's no indication to think it's real. It feels like some sort of strange PR campaign, and the guy is getting free publicity. We’re talking about him now when we otherwise wouldn't have been.

“But it seems odd to me that it happens out of the blue. It's significantly more than the $6.05 billion, and the question I want answered is does this guy have $2.1 billion that he can immediately transfer to be the primary owner. And the fact that it doesn't seem to be taken seriously by the league underscores something's not right."