Toxic Atmosphere Surrounding Redskins Is Turning the Franchise into a Joke

We should have known better than to believe it was just a Mike Shanahan thing. Because the reality is it's always been a Daniel Snyder thing. 

The Washington Redskins were a hot mess before Shanahan took over as head coach, they were a hotter mess during Shanahan's four-year reign, and they're just as hot and just as messy during the first year of the post-Shanahan era. 

I mean, look at the state of this train wreck of a franchise. 

• On the field, it's lost 20 of its last 26 games and is currently on track to finish dead last in the NFC East for the sixth time in seven years. 
• Criticism of the Redskins' name continues to grow while team brass continues to botch its defense of the name in every way possible. 
• The latest protest against the name, which involved thousands of Native Americans in Minnesota Sunday, is being billed as the largest yet.  
• To get a feel for just how poorly this team grasps optics and how greatly it lacks self-awareness, take its latest attempt to defend the name: It has launched a lawsuit against five Native Americans who complained about it to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  
• There are legitimate questions regarding how much support franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III has in the dressing room. ESPN reported that when Griffin spoke to the media last Friday, teammates were deliberately shouting in order to sabotage the conversation. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post has details of the reports as well as multiple tweets from reporters who claim that those antics weren't a showing of disrespect for Griffin but instead an immature protest against the PR staff. 
• Still, as Jason Reid of the Post notes, "Griffin appeared embarrassed by the unprofessionalism of his teammates, who clearly demonstrated a lack of respect for Washington’s supposed franchise quarterback."
• According to Reid, those shouting as Griffin attempted to speak were "ignoring a high-ranking team official’s repeated requests to tone it down." He added that "a day prior to the Griffin interview fiasco, a team official had a contentious exchange with a player who refused to turn down loud music while reporters attempted to work." What's worse, disrespecting your quarterback or defying your bosses? 
• After the Week 8 victory over the Cowboys, team PR honcho Tony Wyllie embarrassed himself with an over-the-top attempt to pull quarterback Colt McCoy from an interview, screaming WWE-style at a respected ESPN Deportes correspondent live on Monday Night Football. 
• It isn't the first time Wyllie has come under fire for his antics. 
• Less than a month ago, players faced criticism for reportedly smiling and laughing in the dressing room following a loss to the Seattle Seahawks, something head coach Jay Gruden was forced to address. 
• Before losing Sunday in Minnesota, two team buses collided with one another on the freeway. Nobody was seriously hurt, but the accident only highlighted the Murphy's Law atmosphere surrounding the organization. 
• Their pets' heads are falling off!

With so much dysfunction, they've truly become a microcosm of the city they represent. 

The common denominator in regard to all of their problems isn't Shanahan or his son or Albert Haynesworth or Robert Griffin III. It's owner Dan Snyder, who has more influence over this organization than anybody else while possessing a dangerous combination of hubris, ignorance, a lack of football-related experience and a penchant for micromanagement. 

What makes it particularly sad is you get the feeling the Redskins don't even realize they've become a laughingstock. They're wildly popular despite being bad at football, PR and pretty much anything else related to business and/or sports, which hasn't caused Snyder and Co. to feel the need to become introspective. 

We're laughing at them, not with them, but they don't hear us laughing at all. 

You know how pets often resemble their owners? That applies far too often to the world of sports, which probably makes sense when you consider the dynamic involved with billionaires buying franchises solely for entertainment purposes. 

The Redskins resemble Snyder. They've become smart alecks with an overly defiant approach to the media and an obnoxious approach to doing business. Snyder had no football background when he purchased this once-proud franchise in 1999, yet he involved himself in important football decisions. So it's no surprise that he's done nothing but lose games while alienating fans, coaches, players and media. 

"Years of front office and locker room skullduggery have made the Redskins such a breeding ground of intrigue," wrote Bleacher Report's Mike Tanier this week, "that you can usually trace the origin of a rumor based on its pro-coach, pro-Snyder, pro-quarterback or anti-anyone message."

Era	Win%	Playoff	Super Bowls	Avg. coaching tenure
Pre-Dan Snyder	.574	13 for 33	3 for 33	4.1 years
Dan Snyder era	.430	4 for 15	0 for 15	2.0 years

It's clear Snyder's influence has perniciously trickled down into the front office, spreading like a virus into meeting rooms, dressing rooms and onto the field. He's the head of the snake, and the Redskins' problems might never be solved so long as he's running the show. 

We've seen the same phenomenon with the Dallas Cowboys, who have had more harm than good done by their very own overgrown child, Jerry Jones. And at the end of the Al Davis era in Oakland, the Raiders were similarly affected by the poison leaking from the owner's box. 

Those pets look or have looked far too much like their owners, which is why they've all become the butt of jokes in recent years. The opposite applies to the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants and New England Patriots, all of whom generally avoid drama and embarrassment and have owners who are widely respected. 

"Someday, that'll stop," Griffin said recently of the drama, per USA Today's Tom Pelissero. "I truly believe that. I believe someday the negativity will stop and people will stop trying to tear us down from the outside in and make it look like it's coming from the inside out. I believe that. I believe God has a plan and we'll make it work."

A positive attitude never hurts, but the problem is Griffin has failed to recognize—or at least admit publicly—where the fault lies. Why would anybody care to "tear" the Redskins "down"? Why them? Why not the Steelers, Patriots and Giants, who win all the time? Why not the gong show Cowboys or the criminal-laden San Francisco 49ers?  

Drama doesn't find you. You invite it over for dinner. And when you defend a racist nickname in ignorant and thoughtless fashion, and when you continually make the same mistakes from a personnel standpoint, and when you get caught cheating the salary cap, and when your employees consistently leak damaging and/or embarrassing information about you to the public...well, you're destined to become the center of negative attention. 

“I don’t know if they have more [stuff] going on than everyone else or not,” an unnamed executive with one NFL team told Mark Maske of the Washington Post Sunday. “But when you watch TV, that’s sure how it seems. It’s either that they don’t conduct their business properly, or they have the same [stuff] going on as everyone else and they just don’t do a good job of keeping their dirty laundry from airing publicly.”

Is there an end in sight? With Snyder in control and Griffin looking like less of a franchise-caliber quarterback with each passing month, this organization doesn't possess a lot of hope right now. It can solve this by winning consistently for the first time since the early 1990s, when Snyder was merely a millionaire working in the marketing and advertising world, but that's easier said than done. 

The Redskins have become a punchline inside and outside of the sports world, and it doesn't appear as though that's going to change anytime soon.  

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFC East for Bleacher Report since 2012.

Follow @Brad_Gagnon