Redskins Not Getting the Signs

The Washington Redskins - who now have stooped to making up rules as they go along, like the ones stopping fans from bringing signs into FedEx Field - are doing the entire sports-loving world a favor. They’re teaching a long-overdue lesson about what it means to be a good “fan’’ (which is derived from “fanatic’’) and to be a good “customer’’ (derived from “gimme what I’m paying for, dammit’’).

Think about all the times organizations have put lousy products on the field, all the times fans have gotten fed up and stopped showing up – and all the times that someone has chided them for being “bad fans.’’ The times they’ve been called a “bad sports town.’’ The times they’ve been told they don’t “support their team,’’ and that heck, why not, just move them to another city that’ll appreciate that lousy product on the field.

(Continue to The Steele Drum)

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Snyder Needs to Get Out of the Way

The removal of Redskins head coach Jim Zorn's playcalling duties and bringing in longtime NFL assistant Sherman Lewis as a consultant to call plays for the struggling Skins is the latest episode in the daily soap opera of an owner who runs the team like he's playing in the Yahoo fantasy football league.

While it's not news that the Redskins owner is woefully deficient in his football I.Q., you have to wonder why he didn't just go all the way and fire Zorn and get it over with rather than cutting off his gonads and allowing him to twist in the wind.

But as my significant other often tells me it's like bringing logic to a situation that steadfastedly resists it. The Redskins during Snyder's tenure have been a classic example of a bizzare situation trying to figure out which way is up, something they have yet to figure out.

After all, this is an ownership that brought you Steve Spurrier with former Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel leading the offense until they found out that Vanderbilt and Kentucky don't play in the NFC East.

(Continue to NFC 'Easter)

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Redskins Alums Missing Real Target

There was a time when the Washington Redskins actually went about their business on and off the field in a classy, dignified manner, and expected to compete for championships year in and year out. They were a model organization that did things the right way, even if they represented a city that has so often had it wrong.

I guess, then, it's mighty decent of these current Redskins to lower themselves several notches, so they no longer stand out in Washington's sea of dysfunction.

The new version of the Redskins wouldn't know class if they were handed the book. They are run by a maniacal little creep of an owner, Dan Snyder (pictured), whose wise-guy smirk has become the face of the organization.

(Continue to The Grill Room)

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You Can't Fire the Owner

For a sports fan, nothing is more agonizing than wanting to fire not the coach, not the GM, not the quarterback or cleanup hitter or point guard … but the owner.

Nothing makes you feel more powerless, more impotent, more feeble in your rage.

Consider Sunday’s Lions-Redskins game in Detroit. In the wake of the worst loss in most ‘Skins fans’ lifetime, there’s the usual venting about firing novice head coach Jim Zorn and former first-round quarterback Jason Campbell and the defensive coordinator and the overpaid defensive tackle and all the usual suspects. But the common theme aims blame straight at the top, at owner Dan Snyder, who has done a masterful job of alienating one of pro sports’ most rabid supporters within just a decade.

(Continue to The Steele Drum)

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