Washington Redskins: The Coaching Job No One Should Want

It may not be Mike Holmgren , but eventually, someone is going to take a lot of money to be the head coach of the Washington Redskins, and if the pile of cash is sitting on top of a contract reading “I won’t interfere” signed by Daniel Snyder, it would be wise for someone to take the job.

But, in its current state of weakness and influence, being head coach of the Washington Redskins should be the last job anyone should want, for any amount of cash for any amount of time.

The compromise between dollars and sense is hard for anyone to negotiate, specifically someone with the opportunity to live and work in the shadow of the nation’s capital.

But there are two positions in D.C.-area sports that absolutely no one should covet; the head coach of the Washington Redskins, and to be the starting quarterback of the Washington Redskins.

All of that isn’t because of Daniel Snyder; much of that has to do with the success of Joe Gibbs, and the brief-but-fruitful tenures of players like Joe Thiesmann, Doug Williams, and Mark Rypien.

Snyder came of age as a Redskins fan in the heyday of the first Joe Gibbs era and witnessed what a Washington franchise could be. He’s been chasing that model for the past 10 years, oblivious to the notion that the Redskins are a football franchise first, and a lucrative business model second.

He has been heavy-handed where light touches were needed, tarnished reputations, and alienated fans , not in a quest to improve the team or win the Super Bowl, but to exact a sweet revenge to those who openly challenge his business acumen.

The coaches have classically taken the fall under Snyder’s impatient and petulant dictatorship. When coaches can’t integrate the players that Snyder covets into a system for which they aren’t conditioned, the easiest person to blame is the one that doesn’t wear his name on a jersey.

Maybe its the money, maybe its the arrogance that induces coaches to believe that they can provide the antidote to Snyder’s cancerous leadership of the franchise. But the hope is that league-wide, at some point, coaches realize that they can’t trump Daniel Snyder on either account.

And if you can’t beat him, why join him in the first place?