Shanahan will go, but we’re stuck with Snyder
In the end, it doesn’t matter if Dan Snyder fires Mike Shanahan, if Shanahan resigns, or if Bruce Allen emerges from his cubicle, sees his shadow, and reminds everyone he is still affiliated with this team. the ones who tried to pull a fast one on the NFL with their salary cap sleight of hand. I still think they were unfairly punished, but the NFL clearly does not, and the ton of bricks that came down on Snyder has cost this team dearly.
But apparently, while Snyder appeared to be taking a hands-off approach, that wasn’t the case, where Robert Griffin III is concerned. We’ve all seen Snyder’s need to rub elbows with stars, his own or otherwise, and even if he had good intentions, Griffin — with his charisma and marketability — must have seemed irresistible to a man with little charisma and a love for marketing. So this is who Snyder is, and any new coach will have to accept this fact.
I moved to Washington when D.C. street cleaners were still finding the occasional piece of confetti from the 1992 Super Bowl parade. I’ve never seen this franchise at its very best, but I’ve been dismayed to watch it sink to the level it reached Sunday — and that was against the team for which I root. Washington fans are passionate and loyal and they deserve better. They simply aren’t going to get it.
The pattern is well-established now. Snyder likes a “name” coach, but what kind of coach, “name” or otherwise, is Snyder going to attract? This assumes, of course, that Shanahan is not going to return for the 2014 season. If half the reports of squabbling are true, that seems a safe assumption. In fact, he might not finish the 2013 season.
However, the timing hardly matters. Once again, we’re going to sit through a coaching search. Once again, Snyder will go after his “A” list, the high-profile guys making good money working in TV booths, the ones who’ve watched the disaster this team has become and want no part of it.
Then he’ll go to his “B” list, guys who know how it’s going to end but might be swayed by the money. (After all, if you’re dating a man who has been married seven times in 14 years, you’re a fool if you think you’re the one for whom he’s been waiting.) These guys will figure, “What the heck, how bad could it be for a few years? And then I will have dough to put my kids through college.”
And we’ll start this circle of nonsense all over again. Wasn’t it a relief last year — during those weeks between the bye and the ill-fated decision to put Griffin back into the playoff game despite his injury — not to be worried about coaching changes and new systems and Griffin’s health and all this other malarkey?
“Constantly, I come to these press conferences and get asked questions about nonfootball things,” Griffin said Sunday. “I’m getting frustrated.”
Bad news, kid: There is a lot of that going around. And there is no cure in sight.