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Patience.
It may be a virtue, but for Redskins fans, it is a commodity in short supply.
And who can blame them? With a new regime rotating in and out of Ashburn triennially, Skins fans have been in a state of constant flux between despair and unbridled optimism that 'this time’ things will be different.
Let’s face it – NFL fans are hardly renowned for calm, rational judiciousness. We are creatures of passion. We’ve turned crucifying Daniel Snyder into a national pastime. He thinks he can 'buy a championship’, he runs the Redskins like he’s 'playing the lottery’, he isn’t willing to 'do the hard things’ it takes to build a 'winning organization’, he 'meddles’. And the biggest criticism of all – Daniel Snyder has no long-term plan. We’ve said all those things and a lot worse.
Yet, while excoriating Snyder for a lack of patience, Redskins fans themselves have little stomach for it.
The facts are pretty cut and dry folks. Daniel Snyder made perhaps his biggest ownership blunder in hiring the terminally-nice but woefully unqualified Jim Zorn. The disastrous results of that hire need no further explanation. Snyder could have shown 'patience’ and given Zorn a five or six year run to work out the kinks and possibly develop into a successful head coach. No sentient being would argue he should have. The NFL, after all, is an evidenced-based business. Risk-taking in encouraged, and sometimes even rewarded. But jumping off a ledge and praying for divine intervention? Not so much. Apparently 'patience’ alone is not always a virtue, and in the case of the Jim Zorn debacle, I give Snyder credit for a decisive change of course.
Gleeful over the hire of a Super Bowl-winning head coach with decades of solid experience, Redskins fans nearly swooned at the thought of Mike Shanahan leading their beloved team. Add to the mix his offensive wunderkind son, and a proven General Manager in Bruce Allen, fans of the burgundy and gold were beside themselves with optimism. Fast forward to a sub .500 record, and a nationally televised drubbing of nearly epic proportions by a hated rival, and some Redskins fans are on suicide watch.
They shouldn’t be.
This team is exactly where we should expect it to be. Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen know what they are doing. They just aren’t Jesus. They can’t turn C- talent into A+ performances, any more than water to wine. They have a plan, and they are executing it. Plan, you say…what is this plan you speak of?...
To get your free subscription to Hail! Magazine and read the rest of 'Taking Our Medicine', click HERE
It may be a virtue, but for Redskins fans, it is a commodity in short supply.
And who can blame them? With a new regime rotating in and out of Ashburn triennially, Skins fans have been in a state of constant flux between despair and unbridled optimism that 'this time’ things will be different.
Let’s face it – NFL fans are hardly renowned for calm, rational judiciousness. We are creatures of passion. We’ve turned crucifying Daniel Snyder into a national pastime. He thinks he can 'buy a championship’, he runs the Redskins like he’s 'playing the lottery’, he isn’t willing to 'do the hard things’ it takes to build a 'winning organization’, he 'meddles’. And the biggest criticism of all – Daniel Snyder has no long-term plan. We’ve said all those things and a lot worse.
Yet, while excoriating Snyder for a lack of patience, Redskins fans themselves have little stomach for it.
The facts are pretty cut and dry folks. Daniel Snyder made perhaps his biggest ownership blunder in hiring the terminally-nice but woefully unqualified Jim Zorn. The disastrous results of that hire need no further explanation. Snyder could have shown 'patience’ and given Zorn a five or six year run to work out the kinks and possibly develop into a successful head coach. No sentient being would argue he should have. The NFL, after all, is an evidenced-based business. Risk-taking in encouraged, and sometimes even rewarded. But jumping off a ledge and praying for divine intervention? Not so much. Apparently 'patience’ alone is not always a virtue, and in the case of the Jim Zorn debacle, I give Snyder credit for a decisive change of course.
Gleeful over the hire of a Super Bowl-winning head coach with decades of solid experience, Redskins fans nearly swooned at the thought of Mike Shanahan leading their beloved team. Add to the mix his offensive wunderkind son, and a proven General Manager in Bruce Allen, fans of the burgundy and gold were beside themselves with optimism. Fast forward to a sub .500 record, and a nationally televised drubbing of nearly epic proportions by a hated rival, and some Redskins fans are on suicide watch.
They shouldn’t be.
This team is exactly where we should expect it to be. Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen know what they are doing. They just aren’t Jesus. They can’t turn C- talent into A+ performances, any more than water to wine. They have a plan, and they are executing it. Plan, you say…what is this plan you speak of?...
To get your free subscription to Hail! Magazine and read the rest of 'Taking Our Medicine', click HERE
