On the surface, a guy like Daniel Snyder is an incredibly smart businessman. He purchased the Washington Redskins back in 1999 for around $800 million. The Redskins are now worth over $1.3 BILLION. Too bad the football side of things hasn't been as prosperous as the financial portion of the organization.
If you don't know about the Redskins, they have been one of the greatest and most recognizable franchises in football history. When people heard the team's name, they instantly thought of Hall of Famer and legendary coach Joe Gibbs.
They thought of the franchise's three Super Bowl championships from 1982 (XVII), 1987 (XXII), and 1991 (XXVI). Heck, if people are old enough to remember, they think of the team's 1932 inception as the Boston Braves!
Unfortunately, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has flushed those memories down the sports toilet with his horrendous mismanagement. Sure, you could say the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders have far worse ownership from a talent evaluation standpoint (when it comes to scouting and hiring the right people to do so), but Snyder is a different cat.
His vice puppet...I mean...President of Football Operations is just a...well...puppet (or talking head to put it nicely).
Five head coaches in ten years and signing countless veterans who haven't had Father Time on their side (according to The Washington Post, the team has 17 players over age 30. The team average in the NFL is 10.) will do that to you.
You would think a guy who spent years with the San Francisco 49ers (when they were still good to great in the '90s) could do a better job of drafting and assembling a team.
So much for that type of success in this millennium (although who know how much influence Cerrato actually has at this point).
Two playoff appearances in four years seems like a recent accomplishment for the the Cerrato-Snyder regime, but this is the Redskins we're talking about (or was THE Redskins . Now they're just...the Redskins and mediocre).
The NFL is a “What have you done for me lately?” league. Since the 2008 season, the 'Skins are 10-14 with zero playoff games played and none likely to be held for the team in 2009. That's not good.
It's bad enough Snyder hired a lame duck coach in Jim Zorn, who seems like a good man that's simply not cut out for his position (at least at this stage of his career). After all, the guy was never an offensive coordinator before until he was hired by Snyder and them boom--later became head coach in a month or so.
Not bad for a guy that was a pretty good quarterbacks coach with the Seattle Seahawks, famous for developing former Pro Bowler Matt Hasselbeck (pre-injury plagued seasons). Too bad he's shown his unqualifiedness (yes, I just made that word up. Sue me).
That's not Zorn's fault, though. I would have taken the millions thrown at him too. It's also not Zorn's fault that Snyder hired a man that was out of the NFL for five years in Sherman Lewis to call the offense.
Lewis was qualified many years ago, considering he was an offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers from 1992-1999 (aka some of Brett Favre's golden years).
Too bad for the last five years he worked at a senior center playing Bingo games and delivering Meals on Wheels. Again, Lewis too seems like a nice guy, but the game of football has changed since 2004 when he last called plays. If Lewis was hired in the offseason, then I could understand this move to an extent...
But the middle of the season?!
It was only a few weeks ago that Vice President Cerrato (a title/name Redskins fans must hate by now) announced that Zorn would have job security until the end of the season, after the constant media circus kept badgering the organization about the subject.
I don't blame the media nor the fans for wondering what the heck is exactly happening to that once-great organization. Props to Zorn for keeping his head up and not resigning. And shame on Daniel Snyder.
Snyder comes off as a big jerk in recent years. Despite that, he cares about his players enough to pay them handsomely. I'll give him credit for the fact he writes the big checks and attempted to apologize for this awful start to the season, but I'll stop there.
How can fans get behind a team whose ownership makes their head coach look like a cadaver? You fans tell me.
Actually, there might be less 'Skins fans by the time this is published.
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