Hey, Ax.
It's not that I like the Patriots, Steelers or Packers colors, but I do happen to notice that most years ALL of these teams are in the playoffs, and all of them have won Super Bowls since 2000.
Everybody noticed it, BT. It's not clairvoyance here. You just come off as believing that having Brady, Rapistburger, and Rodgers is only a minor detail in there current success. The Patriots, pre-Brady, were nothing. A year or 2 after he's gone, they'll likely return to nothing. Unless, like the Packers, they pull off a Favre to Rodgers exchange. But that's the exception, not the rule. And the Steelers, with the stability of Labeau's defense, re-established their long running success. They're the more consistent franchise. Stability in coaching and philosophy are their greatest assets over the years. We'd all like to see that.
But all three experienced lots of dumb luck too. And 29 other clubs, including our Redskins, have failed to replicate their success.
The other thing that has NOT escaped my notice, as I am sure it has not for other long-suffering Washington fans, is the various systems and front office configurations we have seen since 2000 with the Redskins have so far yielded bupkis on the field, despite the hype.
Signing Deion Sanders, signing Albert Haynesworth, trading a mess of high picks for Griffin who never played in a pro style offense under center in college, etc.
All of these moves at the time drew great media attention and landed the Redskins on the home page of every sports website in the country.
But in the end, it didn't mean anything.
Again, contrary to your apparent belief, this hasn't escaped ANYBODY'S notice. Just because we don't face the east and chant it 3 times a day, doesn't mean we didn't notice. Doesn't mean we're not frustrated by it. And doesn't mean we don't want it to end. The past, we all hope, is something you learn from. But once it's the past, regurgitating it over, and over, and over, just isn't everyone's style. If you wish to dwell on it, that's you're prerogative. The front office is what it is. And while it doesn't always appear to be running at top efficiency. It's rarely as bad as some fans, and most of the media, profess it to be. I have, and still do contend, that the modern social media/24hr sportstalk/internet message boards have been more detrimental to sports fandom, than helpful. It's most persistent accomplishment is turning molehills into mountains. In fact, if it weren't for the folks here at BGO, we'd all be better off without it.
The Giants, who rarely went into free agency or traded draft picks while Coughlin was there, won 2 Super Bowls while we were busy winning the offseason.
Doesn't that make you want to see things change?
Lot's of things make me want to see change. But the Giants don't get the credit. As much as anything, the Giants showed that if a middle of the road team, gets hot at the right time, with God sprinkling in a couple un****ingbelieveable catches, you can win a Super Bowl.
If the reports are true that Dan/Bruce overruled Scot McCloughan and decided to keep Kedric Golston and Kory Lichtensteiger an extra season or two on the roster, it's just evidence that not that much has in fact changed.
Ah, seems like a rare moment for you. Including "if the reports are true" in anything that bashes Allen. You seem, to me, to buy every...single...negative...thing...that's put out about the guy. Even without a shred of hard evidence, or named sources. Funny how, just a couple/few months ago, I remember you posting about how we all need to give him some credit for the 2014 draft. Now, after "unnamed team sources", and "sources with knowledge of the team", very likely McCloo and his allies, he's back to being an almost daily target of yours. If he and the current FO configuration, continue with drafts like 2014, in combination with consistent, hopefully improved coaching, on both sides of the ball, we'll be just fine. Even more so if #8 can firmly establish himself as our guy, with a LTD in his pocket.
But the fact is, we will never get the full, unbiased story, about what happened. But, whatever it is, it's spilled milk. You can't change it. I can't change it. But being predominately negative about anything, is a choice. Always. I may just be a blind homer, but until there is proof of something, I don't usually let it dominate my thinking. Or completely sour me on someone. Give me some evidence, of meaningful, malicious "Crimes Against the Team", and I'll turn on him like a rattlesnake. We are far from that, currently.
I see the same things at work with DeAngelo Hall.
Hall is an engaging guy. He's good with the media, team officials like him.
I get that.
But you can't let sentimentality override your football judgment.
Well, again, that he was kept on the roster last season is spilled milk. Duly noted, that you, and others, wouldn't have done so. As for this season, like Boone, I'll save my criticism for keeping him, if and when it happens.
All of those teams I mentioned in the previous post continue to be successful BECAUSE they are willing to walk from players that are asking for too much money based on their contributions or are getting older and have slowed down and are not what they once were.
We have to get back to that.
The Patriots do it much more than the other 2. They all get away with it because of having guaranteed future HOF quarterbacks. Period. And, in Brady's case, a HOF QB that has given the team hometown discounts on every contract he's ever signed. NOBODY else gets that. Not to the degree the Patriots do. Not by a long shot. He could have crippled them financially, and he never has. Hell, we all WANT that. But it's Fantasy Disco to actually think you can make it happen. It'll either just happen, or more likely, it won't. It's ridiculous the way you and others hold these teams up as an example. If it were THAT cut and dried easy, every team in the league would have done it long ago.
And don't fool yourself. Even though there was no salary cap at the time and he had a warm smile to the media, Joe Gibbs was ruthless off the field and got guys off the roster in the 1980's that weren't performing or were constantly on IR with one malady or another.
I remember him cutting the Redskins top draft pick, Brian Davis, a corner after a couple of years because he just couldn't stay on the field and was on the injured list and in the tub repeatedly.
As Gibbs liked to say and I still believe, 'one of a player's best abilities in the NFL has to be durability'
Joe Gibbs could be ruthless. He also pandered to stars. His wanting to hold on to veteran players is what led to Beathard's departure. Talk about a power struggle. Do you not remember that? Or did you not know it? Or are you willingly ignoring it? If it had happened in today's "instant information age" we'd be fools to not think it would be getting reported as being just as dysfunctional as today. Hell, if they hadn't been winning, it would've been just as bad, then. On the flipside, if we were winning now, this all would be a minor deal.
Oh, and Brian Davis, on top of not being able to stay on the field, pretty much sucked when he was on the field. That's also why he was cut.
I might add, he was another turrible Bobby Beathard pick. I say this because you also bring him up often, singing only his praises, while ignoring his many, many warts.
But, as wiser men, and women have said, winning cures everything.
Lastly, please keep in mind that you are one of favorite posters here. I know I can come off sounding personal at times. But it's the "idea" of some of your assertions that I'm in conflict with. Not you personally.
Hail To The Redskins!!!