It must be in the water. Is it the state of Maryland? Maybe. But I can’t take credit for this comparison. Jason La Canfora of the Washington Post first made the observation in his Redskins Insider blog.
Dan Snyder has out ‘angelos-ed’ Peter Angelos. In fact it’s at such a high level Snyder deserves his own new verb – He’s ‘snyder-ed’ the Redskins.
In the course of two weeks Snyder has successfully done the following things:
• made the Redskins the laughing stock of sports, not just the NFL
• destroyed the team that Joe Gibbs put together
• made it such that at least the near term future for the Redskins will be as unbearable as the Norv – Spurrier era
Lies
Snyder lied to the fans. He lied about continuity. He lied about having learned from Gibbs. And he lied about feeling this team is close to being consistently competitive. Either that or he has the logic of an amoeba. Wait. That’s unfair to the amoeba.
Is it ‘continuity’ to bring in an entirely new coaching staff who will want their own type of players? Or at the least would require the players to learn an entirely new system? With the hiring of Jim Zorn as the new Offensive Coordinator, it will mean at the least that QB Jason Campbell will be learning his 3rd new system in the NFL in just his 4th year in the league. Is that considered progress? Is that considered, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?
And while we’re on the topic, why was Al Saunders so vilified by Snyder and Vinny Cerrato? Did they expect that Saunders should have been successful in year 1 here under an aging QB in Mark Brunell? Todd Collins, who was under Saunders’ system for seven years, said that it would take at least 1 year to grasp the offense. Or did Snyder and Cerrato believe that Campbell should have been playing like Trent Green in his prime during this past season? Or maybe the Seattle playoff game had them thinking that a timing offense can’t work against a quick defense? Never mind that fact that the ‘Skins were playing in the noisiest stadium in the league limiting their ability to get off the snap quickly and that the right side of the offensive line consisted of an undrafted rookie tackle and a backup guard.
Disrespect
Snyder has disrespected Gibbs, the coaching staff he left behind, the fans, and the players. Heck, even Jim Fassel feels “used”.
By blowing up the coaching staff assembled by Gibbs, Snyder is in effect saying to Gibbs, “Thanks for everything, but no thanks. The people you chose suck and I can do better.” Joe Gibbs chose the people on this staff not to fill job vacancies, but for their ability to carry the Redskins into the future. Gibbs knew that this time around, that it would be sooner rather than later he’d be leaving. Gibbs loves the Redskins. Gibbs loves the fans. He wouldn’t have come back if he didn’t. Gibbs wanted to put the Redskins organization back on the path of being a consistent winner for the organization and the fans. What better way to do that than to put in a staff that can carry on once you decide to step down? It was his every intention to make sure that transition would be smooth once he left. Obviously, Snyder feels he has more football acumen than a Hall of Fame coach.
To compound this, Snyder makes Gibbs do the dirty work of ‘apologizing’ to the current staff that the search is taking so long. Snyder doesn’t have the decency to do this himself. But of course he does everything behind the scenes, like run a smear campaign against Gregg Williams, stating that Williams disrespected Gibbs in the interviews. I guess Snyder disrespects the fans enough to believe they are gullible enough to accept this. I’m sure this is an attempt to quell fan outrage that Williams won’t be hired as the next head coach.
And how do you think the players feel about this? Granted, it’s the players’ job to play football, not run the front office, but almost every player has come out in support of Williams. Let’s face it. At the end of the day, teams are about talent and chemistry. I can’t see there being much chemistry if the players feel their thoughts about the situation aren’t being respected.
Failure
The lies and disrespect will all add up to failure for the Washington Redskins. This team will be even more dysfunctional than when before Gibbs came back. The players that stay will have to learn whole new systems. Those that have no choice but to stay won’t want to play for the new staff, but rather will just be collecting checks. The cap issues which the Redskins have always been able to manage to this point will actually become real issues. There are rumors that because of the current happenings, some players will refuse to renegotiate which will force the Redskins to release them. For a team that’s currently $20 million over the cap, it will mean the loss of a lot of talent and lots of dead cap space.
All of this seemed unfathomable just 3 weeks ago. Especially with the tragedy of Sean Taylor’s death and how it brought the team together to end the season so strongly. There was real hope for this team that it finally had the major pieces in place talent-wise along with the new found bond among staff and players that would propel the Redskins to greater success next season.
In just two weeks, Snyder has destroyed all that.