Fail to the Redskins!

[Chavez]

http://www.onmilwaukee.com/sports/articles...anredksins.html

 

 

 

The Washington Redskins 2006 season is finally over.

 

My pre-season prediction: 12-4 ("And I don't know HOW they will lose four!")

 

Final record: 5-11.

 

Oops.

 

Cue up The Who playing "Won't Get Fooled Again."

 

Let's just say this: I don't know if Dan Snyder has learned his lesson, but I have certainly learned mine. I am no longer going to get sucked into the annual March Madness of Redskin press conferences and flurry of gigantic signing bonuses for players of dubious "stardom."

 

Here's a little factoid that may interest you: since Dan Snyder took over in 1999, not a single high-priced free agent he has brought in has made the Pro Bowl. (NOTE: 2005 Pro-Bowlers Portis and Moss were traded for, remember. Give something to get something.)

 

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my Redskin "fandom" lately. No, don't worry. I'm not "jumping ship." I'll be a Redskins fan for life. I plan to outlive Snyder too, even if only by a few years.

 

(Note: I can see the day now. I'll be 82 years old sitting in a home somewhere and the news will flash across the HDTV glasses I am wearing. I'll shake a fist in the air, and wheeze: "Damn Snyder! Bout time we got an owner who cares about the draft!")

 

Here's my new attitude about my beloved football team: when it WINS I am going to be a "fan", and when it LOSES I am going to be an "analyst."

 

Is that "fair-weather?"

 

Hardly. Here's my point. For the entire Snyder regime, I have beat myself up emotionally about the team's failings. It has angered me to the point of rage. I have ranted and railed and opened up the cannons, both on the air and off.

 

I have raged against the machine.

 

And, what good has it done me? What change has it affected?

 

I know that to be a true "die-hard" fan, you have to die a little bit with every loss, just like George Allen once said. But at the same time, I have to realize that this is not "MY" team anymore.

 

It's Snyder's.

 

While Jack Kent Cooke was neither angel nor genius, he certainly operated the team as more of a "public trust" than Snyder. Even though it certainly was Mr. Cooke's team back then, it at least FELT like it was OUR team too.

 

No longer.

 

This is Snyder's team, to either bring to unprecedented modern glory (waiting), or drive straight into the ditch of someday having home TV blackouts (I'm not kidding.) Or more likely, it's his franchise to drive aimlessly in a new direction every single year.

 

I'm just strapped into the backseat of the car, powerless. Every fan with an ounce of football sense has been screaming at Snyder for years to stop throwing money around at marginal players. But like your dad when he was certainly going the wrong way on a family vacation, he is driving, and your opinion doesn't matter.

 

Does Dan Snyder do any outreach to the fans, like other modern new-money sports owners? No.

 

Does Dan Snyder make himself accountable through the media for his actions in regard to the football team? No.

 

So why then, should I beat myself up, for HIS football stupidity?

 

I think the Redskins are settling in for a good, long, six to seven-year run (maybe longer) of sub-.500 football. The roster is capped out, the draft picks are almost all gone (but weren't TJ Duckett and Brandon Lloyd fun!), and surely Joe the Beloved will close the books on his comeback within 24 months (at the latest.)

 

There will be a new churn and burn among coaches and regimes. Snyder will try yet ANOTHER way of doing things. And the rest of the league will snicker.

 

Meanwhile, I'm grabbing a Snickers. We're not going anywhere for a while. But that's OK; I'm going to get comfortable. When the team does something remarkable – like, say... makes the playoffs for TWO years in a row – then I'll be impressed.

 

I'll be happy when they win, but philosophical when they lose. It's my team, but it's not really MY team.

 

Get my drift?

 

I didn't splurge for Adam Archuleta, only to scapegoat him. I didn't throw away two draft picks for a malcontent 3rd wideout like Brandon Lloyd.

 

I didn't do any of this. So why get mad about it?

[isleseeya]

Does gibbs stay on ? ...skins certainly underachieved

 

And a lot of players they brought in did not show up ..shoot I forgot they even had brandon lloyd as I do not remember him doing a thing

 

Not sure campbell is the right qb for the future ( we know brunell is not ) as well

 

Not easy times fir the redskins faithful