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John Feinstein wrote a piece in the Washington Post about Danny Snyder, but, as a Cowboy fan, it sent shivers down my back. Just replace a few names... Though, to be fair with Danny and Al Davis around, the bottom rungs of the worst owners list is filled...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...2/29/AR2008122900984.html?hpid=topnews&sub=AR
[SIZE=+2]For Commanders, Another Year of Mediocrity[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]By John Feinstein
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, December 29, 2008; 1:17 PM
[/SIZE]
And so, another season in the on-going soap opera, "Days of the Mediocre," has come to an end.
As with any good soap, the usual cliff-hanger questions are being asked:
Is the quarterback good enough to lead the gritty, never-give-up team to a championship?
Can the good-guy coach survive to take his team someday to the Promised Land?
Which free agents will be re-signed? Which veterans won't be back?
When will our heroes get the breaks they deserve that will allow them to beat such juggernauts as Cincinnati (4-11-1) and St. Louis (2-14)?
Please. Stop.
The problem with the Washington Commanders is really pretty simple: the wrong questions are being asked each and every year. The other problem is this: you can't fire the owner.
In today's world of professional sports everything about a team starts with the owner. He not only handles the purse strings but has final say on critical decisions involving everything from on- and off-the-field hirings to fan relations.
Dan Snyder has failed in every possible way during his ten seasons as an owner. It is no coincidence that the Commanders best season under Snyder's ownership was the first one, 1999, when the team put together by Charley Casserly and Norv Turner went 10-6, won a first round playoff game and barely lost in Tampa with a chance to play the next week for the conference title.
Since then, when Snyder began to put his stamp on the team with bad free agent signings (remember Deion Sanders, Jeff George and Bruce Smith?), the constant badgering and firing of coaches and the bad feeling he brings to any building he is in, the Commanders record (even with all the money that's been spent) is 67-80 with two playoff appearances (both as wildcards) and one postseason victory.
Even bringing back the great Joe Gibbs only resulted in a slightly higher level of mediocrity. Gibbs made the playoffs twice -- getting that one win in 2005 in Tampa -- but his four year record was 31-36. Even so, it can be argued that the personnel decisions he made are the reason the team has remained respectable. If Snyder's reign of error had continued after Steve Spurrier walked away in disgust, the Commanders might be in Detroit Lions territory right now.
History shows that owners who think they know enough about sports to make key decisions fail. When did the Yankees finally become a championship team in the 1990s? When George Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball and Gene Michael and Buck Showalter did not trade prospects like Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. When Steinbrenner decided to talk control again after the Yankees just missed winning the World Series in 2001 the Yankees payroll soared and the run of championships stopped.
How have the Orioles done since Peter Angelos told Pat Gillick he would have final say on trades and free agent signings 12 years ago? The Cowboys did win a Super Bowl after Jerry Jones (who at least played college football) forced Jimmy Johnson out after two Super Bowl wins because he wanted final say on personnel. But they won that Super Bowl with the team built by Johnson. How do they look these days?
Snyder did give control to Gibbs but remained very much involved in the decisions being made away from the field. When Gibbs retired two things happened: Snyder couldn't find anyone who wanted to be the sixth coach to work for him in 10 seasons and had to elevate Jim Zorn, who had never been a coordinator prior to 2008, to the head coaching position. And he said that his pal Vinny Cerrato would have final say on personnel.
Cerrato proceeded to use the Commanders first three draft picks in April on three receivers who combined to catch 18 passes for the season while the offensive and defensive lines got another year older and showed cracks -- fissures some might call them -- at key moments. He also used a draft pick on a punter who was cut halfway through the season.
As a general manager Cerrato proved to be a pretty good talk show host -- except on the Monday after the loss to Cincinnati when he decided not to show up at the radio station owned by Snyder.
And yet, there hasn't been a single word of speculation about Cerrato's future with the franchise. As the team collapsed from 6-2 to 8-8 all the questions raised were about Zorn and whether he would return. Was he responsible for drafting 10 players, only one of whom has made a serious contribution to the team this season?
Let's not even attempt to make the argument that no one can turn a team around in one offseason. The Baltimore Ravens, Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins won a total of 10 games last season. A year later with rookie coaches -- three men who had never even been head coaches before -- they won 11 games each. All will be playing this coming weekend.
Go one step further. Every single week Jason Campbell's progress or lack of it is analyzed at length in print and on-air. Who were the quarterbacks for the three turn-around teams: two rookies -- Joe Flacco in Baltimore and Matt Ryan in Atlanta -- and Chad Pennington, a so-called "weak-armed," free agent literally tossed aside by the New York Jets on the day they traded for Brett Favre. (Note to Favre: do yourself and everyone else in football a favor and retire with what's left of your dignity now. The last month brought back painful memories in New York of Willie Mays in the Mets outfield in 1973).
The fact that Zorn chose not to play almost all of his draft picks even in a meaningless game Sunday isn't a condemnation of Zorn but of Cerrato. And yet there is the radio talk show host to say that he is committed to bringing Zorn back next year.
Zorn, who comes across as one of the world's nicer people, must be sitting home at night thinking, "this guy is judging me?"
The only good news for Commanders fans is that at that moment the team only has four picks in this year's draft. That means Cerrato will have a lot fewer chances to draft next year's Malcolm Kelly.
Snyder -- like the Steinbrenners -- always claims he wants to win for the fans -- the same fans he gouges every chance he gets. Snyder wants to win for Snyder, period. That's fine. But if he ever wants to win, really win, not just sneak into the playoffs with a 9-7 record and talk about what a great year it was, he has to go back to square one.
If he wants to keep Cerrato around because he's his pal, that's fine -- give him a title and tell him to show up for all his radio gigs. He needs to hire a real general manager: Bill Parcells may be available and he's just the kind of splashy hire Snyder loves. The problem is the first time Snyder disagrees with Parcells, he might be looking for his next GM because Parcells not only insists on absolute power he brooks no questioning of his authority.
The case can be made that Phil Savage was a disaster in Cleveland but the case can also be made that he got the Browns to 10-6 a year ago because he's one of the smarter personnel guys in the game and he's probably learned from the mistakes made the last four years. Eric DeCosta, the Ravens' director of scouting, is one of football's really bright young minds but Snyder's ego would never allow him to hire someone from the Steve Bisciotti/Ozzie Newsome-run franchise. It's worth noting that it was DeCosta who scouted Flacco and talked Newsome into using the 18th pick in the draft on a quarterback from Delaware.
There are others out there. What's more, a new GM would bring (and should bring) a brand new stable of scouts with him. The point is this: Zorn is not the Commanders problem. Neither is Campbell -- who had only six interceptions all season. Clinton Portis rushed for almost 1,500 yards and Santana Moss caught passes from more than 1,000 yards.
The problem is that there's no depth on the 45 man roster. The team has plenty of stars but not nearly enough solid pros who don't get paid millions but help teams win football games. Bill Belichick lost the best quarterback in football in the first quarter of the first game of the season; lost his top two running backs and his best defensive back and went 11-5, mostly with guys (other than Randy Moss and his aging linebackers) few people who are not Patriot-geeks have heard of even today at season's end.
That's because he and Scott Pioli know what they're doing. The Commanders owner and personnel director don't know what they're doing. That's why, with all the money spent in ten years all it has bought is consistent mediocrity.
Sadly, the owner can't be fired. The guys he has hired who have failed miserably can be fired.
None of them is named Jim Zorn.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...2/29/AR2008122900984.html?hpid=topnews&sub=AR
[SIZE=+2]For Commanders, Another Year of Mediocrity[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]By John Feinstein
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, December 29, 2008; 1:17 PM
[/SIZE]
And so, another season in the on-going soap opera, "Days of the Mediocre," has come to an end.
As with any good soap, the usual cliff-hanger questions are being asked:
Is the quarterback good enough to lead the gritty, never-give-up team to a championship?
Can the good-guy coach survive to take his team someday to the Promised Land?
Which free agents will be re-signed? Which veterans won't be back?
When will our heroes get the breaks they deserve that will allow them to beat such juggernauts as Cincinnati (4-11-1) and St. Louis (2-14)?
Please. Stop.
The problem with the Washington Commanders is really pretty simple: the wrong questions are being asked each and every year. The other problem is this: you can't fire the owner.
In today's world of professional sports everything about a team starts with the owner. He not only handles the purse strings but has final say on critical decisions involving everything from on- and off-the-field hirings to fan relations.
Dan Snyder has failed in every possible way during his ten seasons as an owner. It is no coincidence that the Commanders best season under Snyder's ownership was the first one, 1999, when the team put together by Charley Casserly and Norv Turner went 10-6, won a first round playoff game and barely lost in Tampa with a chance to play the next week for the conference title.
Since then, when Snyder began to put his stamp on the team with bad free agent signings (remember Deion Sanders, Jeff George and Bruce Smith?), the constant badgering and firing of coaches and the bad feeling he brings to any building he is in, the Commanders record (even with all the money that's been spent) is 67-80 with two playoff appearances (both as wildcards) and one postseason victory.
Even bringing back the great Joe Gibbs only resulted in a slightly higher level of mediocrity. Gibbs made the playoffs twice -- getting that one win in 2005 in Tampa -- but his four year record was 31-36. Even so, it can be argued that the personnel decisions he made are the reason the team has remained respectable. If Snyder's reign of error had continued after Steve Spurrier walked away in disgust, the Commanders might be in Detroit Lions territory right now.
History shows that owners who think they know enough about sports to make key decisions fail. When did the Yankees finally become a championship team in the 1990s? When George Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball and Gene Michael and Buck Showalter did not trade prospects like Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. When Steinbrenner decided to talk control again after the Yankees just missed winning the World Series in 2001 the Yankees payroll soared and the run of championships stopped.
How have the Orioles done since Peter Angelos told Pat Gillick he would have final say on trades and free agent signings 12 years ago? The Cowboys did win a Super Bowl after Jerry Jones (who at least played college football) forced Jimmy Johnson out after two Super Bowl wins because he wanted final say on personnel. But they won that Super Bowl with the team built by Johnson. How do they look these days?
Snyder did give control to Gibbs but remained very much involved in the decisions being made away from the field. When Gibbs retired two things happened: Snyder couldn't find anyone who wanted to be the sixth coach to work for him in 10 seasons and had to elevate Jim Zorn, who had never been a coordinator prior to 2008, to the head coaching position. And he said that his pal Vinny Cerrato would have final say on personnel.
Cerrato proceeded to use the Commanders first three draft picks in April on three receivers who combined to catch 18 passes for the season while the offensive and defensive lines got another year older and showed cracks -- fissures some might call them -- at key moments. He also used a draft pick on a punter who was cut halfway through the season.
As a general manager Cerrato proved to be a pretty good talk show host -- except on the Monday after the loss to Cincinnati when he decided not to show up at the radio station owned by Snyder.
And yet, there hasn't been a single word of speculation about Cerrato's future with the franchise. As the team collapsed from 6-2 to 8-8 all the questions raised were about Zorn and whether he would return. Was he responsible for drafting 10 players, only one of whom has made a serious contribution to the team this season?
Let's not even attempt to make the argument that no one can turn a team around in one offseason. The Baltimore Ravens, Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins won a total of 10 games last season. A year later with rookie coaches -- three men who had never even been head coaches before -- they won 11 games each. All will be playing this coming weekend.
Go one step further. Every single week Jason Campbell's progress or lack of it is analyzed at length in print and on-air. Who were the quarterbacks for the three turn-around teams: two rookies -- Joe Flacco in Baltimore and Matt Ryan in Atlanta -- and Chad Pennington, a so-called "weak-armed," free agent literally tossed aside by the New York Jets on the day they traded for Brett Favre. (Note to Favre: do yourself and everyone else in football a favor and retire with what's left of your dignity now. The last month brought back painful memories in New York of Willie Mays in the Mets outfield in 1973).
The fact that Zorn chose not to play almost all of his draft picks even in a meaningless game Sunday isn't a condemnation of Zorn but of Cerrato. And yet there is the radio talk show host to say that he is committed to bringing Zorn back next year.
Zorn, who comes across as one of the world's nicer people, must be sitting home at night thinking, "this guy is judging me?"
The only good news for Commanders fans is that at that moment the team only has four picks in this year's draft. That means Cerrato will have a lot fewer chances to draft next year's Malcolm Kelly.
Snyder -- like the Steinbrenners -- always claims he wants to win for the fans -- the same fans he gouges every chance he gets. Snyder wants to win for Snyder, period. That's fine. But if he ever wants to win, really win, not just sneak into the playoffs with a 9-7 record and talk about what a great year it was, he has to go back to square one.
If he wants to keep Cerrato around because he's his pal, that's fine -- give him a title and tell him to show up for all his radio gigs. He needs to hire a real general manager: Bill Parcells may be available and he's just the kind of splashy hire Snyder loves. The problem is the first time Snyder disagrees with Parcells, he might be looking for his next GM because Parcells not only insists on absolute power he brooks no questioning of his authority.
The case can be made that Phil Savage was a disaster in Cleveland but the case can also be made that he got the Browns to 10-6 a year ago because he's one of the smarter personnel guys in the game and he's probably learned from the mistakes made the last four years. Eric DeCosta, the Ravens' director of scouting, is one of football's really bright young minds but Snyder's ego would never allow him to hire someone from the Steve Bisciotti/Ozzie Newsome-run franchise. It's worth noting that it was DeCosta who scouted Flacco and talked Newsome into using the 18th pick in the draft on a quarterback from Delaware.
There are others out there. What's more, a new GM would bring (and should bring) a brand new stable of scouts with him. The point is this: Zorn is not the Commanders problem. Neither is Campbell -- who had only six interceptions all season. Clinton Portis rushed for almost 1,500 yards and Santana Moss caught passes from more than 1,000 yards.
The problem is that there's no depth on the 45 man roster. The team has plenty of stars but not nearly enough solid pros who don't get paid millions but help teams win football games. Bill Belichick lost the best quarterback in football in the first quarter of the first game of the season; lost his top two running backs and his best defensive back and went 11-5, mostly with guys (other than Randy Moss and his aging linebackers) few people who are not Patriot-geeks have heard of even today at season's end.
That's because he and Scott Pioli know what they're doing. The Commanders owner and personnel director don't know what they're doing. That's why, with all the money spent in ten years all it has bought is consistent mediocrity.
Sadly, the owner can't be fired. The guys he has hired who have failed miserably can be fired.
None of them is named Jim Zorn.
