USA TODAY International Edition
WILLIAMS’ TIME NOW
Redskins would be wise to give GM job to former QB
If there ever was a time for Doug Williams to secure the opportunity he has envisioned for years of becoming a general manager in the NFL, that time is now. If not yesterday.
Williams, 61, the first AfricanAmerican quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl with an MVP performance for Washington a generation ago, returned to the team in 2014. As a personnel executive, he has had a key, behind- the- scenes role in the postMike Shanahan rebuilding job.
Yet he’s apparently waiting like everyone else to see exactly what team President Bruce Allen and, by extension, team owner Dan Snyder will do about filling the general manager post that became vacant in late March when Scot McCloughan was finally fired after an extended absence linked to personal issues.
They should roll with Williams — who, along with others, had expanded duties for the recent draft — and give him the type of shot that would resonate as a major statement inside Redskins Park and outside with a rabid fan base that includes a large percentage of African Americans. Go ahead, Bruce. Just do it. John Lynch, a former all- pro safety, just orchestrated his first draft as San Francisco 49ers general manager, and the reviews have been through the roof. Lynch is surrounded by strong support with coach Kyle Shanahan and personnel executives Martin Mayhew ( a former GM) and Adam Peters. The bottom line is so far, the optics look good.
Williams has paid dues to warrant consideration. Two stints as a head coach at Grambling, his alma mater. A year at Morehouse. Seven years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as personnel executive and pro scouting coordinator.
Guess who gave Williams his first NFL personnel job? Allen, then the Bucs’ GM, who hired Williams for his current job.
Years ago, Williams told me that when Allen hired him with the Bucs he told him that his ultimate goal was to be sitting in Allen’s GM chair.
Fast- forward to now. Allen has moved up, having helped groom Williams. It won’t hurt Williams that he goes back to 1982 with coach Jay Gruden, who was 15 when his father, Jim, became the Bucs’ running backs coach.
Of more significance, Williams has been in the mix with Washington for three years, developing working relationships galore. With scouts and other personnel executives. With any and everybody in the building, from the front office to the locker room. Institutional knowledge of the players would help a transition.
As of Friday, though, Williams had not interviewed for the vacant job, and there was no clear indication of Allen’s timeline — or whether he would hire a GM after the makeshift measures following McCloughan’s departure flowed well during the draft.
When Allen hired McCloughan in 2015, he retained personnel authority. “I’m still responsible,” he said at this year’s combine.
John Wooten, chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, which monitors and promotes minority hiring in the NFL, told USA TODAY Sports on Friday that if Allen didn’t hire a GM, he would still need to interview a minority candidate for the top football post to comply with the Rooney Rule.
The team hasn’t submitted a plan to the NFL regarding its structure, but Wooten — who has publicly endorsed Williams for the job — is like some at league headquarters, awaiting answers.
Unlike most team presidents, Allen, once Al Davis’ right- hand man for the Oakland Raiders and a lawyer, has a wide- ranging background. He has been kneedeep in scouting and worked on the other side, too, as an agent.
So, if Williams were to land the GM job, the power for final decisions would surely rest with Allen. Keeping such power would also make it more difficult to attract candidates from the outside.
“We know Bruce knows what he’s doing,” Wooten said. “But we are waiting to see exactly what they’re going to do.”
Neither Williams nor Allen was available for comment. Allen on Friday relayed through a team spokesman that he wouldn’t comment until there was an announcement to make, presumably the hiring of a GM or a declaration clarifying the structure they would proceed with.
If Williams gets the call as GM, the historical significance would be tremendous, considering the franchise’s stained racial history.
Despite Williams’ distinction from Super Bowl XXII — a major source of pride for African Americans, given stereotypes about leadership roles — Washington was the last NFL franchise to integrate. And it happened under pressure in 1962. The franchise’s founder, George Preston Marshall, marketed his team to the segregated South for decades.
More recently, the franchise has been under fire for a team nickname considered by some as disparaging to Native Americans.
Promoting Williams, though, is not only about the historical marker. It’s also about the opportunity for a Super Bowl hero to perhaps get hot all over again.