Dear Sarge

[Sarge]

Make no mistake, I want to see the Skins win it all. But like Alaskan, I'll head to the head during the presentation ceremony so as to not throw up seeing the worm succeed.

In the meantime, I'll sit back and enjoy watching Lord Farquuad flounder in all of his endeavors. He's even gotten so desparate to fill FedEx that he's offering those scummy military types a "deal"





However, one military family appreciation event that made me chuckle is from the NFL’s Washington Redskins, and completely at the other end of the spectrum. The Washington Redskins offered a “Military Appreciation Campaign” and are providing a discount for season tickets, including “2 pre-season and 8 regular season home games for the 2010 Season,” a news release said.

“Seats are available at three different price levels: $869, $704 and $484. The $869 tickets are for seats in Section 426, Row 15 and Section 451, Row 15. The $704 tickets are in Section 403, Row 23, Section 420, Row 20, Section 441, Row 15 and Section 414 Row 13. The $484 tickets are in Section 442, Row 21 and Section 414, Row 23.”

Not a bad deal if you consider the “cheap” seats are more than $3,000. If you’re military, and you can afford this, please drop us a line and let us know how.

Wait, did I forget to mention parking at the field is “$350″? Yes, sorry that’s right. It’s $350!

 

[kirbster]

Who said he is a successful owner of the Wizards? He's been owner for what, 3-4 days? But he is a successful owner, period, and he's applying the same principles to the Wizards. They now have the #1 pick in the draft to start the process in this franchise. Good leadership is good leadership, period. Guess you can't understand that.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Nobody is saying he's a successful basketball owner yet - he's done it for less than a week. But kirbster is right in that he has built the Capitals the right way, and is definitely the best owner in DC hands down.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

I didn't think I jumped all over anyone, just stated my opinion on it. Certainly wasn't my intention.

 

[Elephant]

guess I cant understand it? Uhh, what is there to understand that I obviously "cant"?

like Om and I both said, he is a great owner but he also got very fortunate to get Ovechkin. I dont see any of those players in the draft this year and with just trading away all the players we did we arent going to make the same dramatic turnaround.

Sarges letter itself says "Look and learn Danny" like the letter is a blueprint of how it should be done and that he is doing something that Danny isnt.

Mike, you and Om were both correct in your assertion that Ovie dropped into Leonsis' lap, but what neither of you has taken into consideration is that when Dan Snyder took over the Redskins, he had the #2 and #3 overall picks in the draft in which the Redskins took a cornerstone on defense and a cornerstone on offense. This was an opportunity to build the team through youth, but what we saw over the next 9 years was something entirely different.

They simply neglected to build on this beginning like Leonsis has w/ Ovie. Instead, Snyder began to play puppeteer. He and his minions began to bring in over priced old veterans, moves I can't say I didn't like at the time. The unfortunate part is many of us bought into it. I defended Snyder for years saying he was a Redskins fan so I gave him the benefit of the doubt knowing he wanted to win as badly as the Obsessed. It was not until until the Zorn hiring after Gibbs left when Danny Boy fell right back into full control that I said no more. The only constant in all the misery was Snyder.

If the Redskins had continued to draft quality young players like these guys (Arrington and Samuels), left a solid coach in place w/ Marty Shottenheimer, and Snyder had stayed out of the way, I am convinced the Redskins would have been at the top of the league for Snyder's entire tenure and Brian Shottenheimer would be coaching the highest powered offense in the league here in DC.

 

[kirbster]

Sarges letter itself says "Look and learn Danny" like the letter is a blueprint of how it should be done and that he is doing something that Danny isnt.

And that is exactly what Leonsis is doing, something that Danny isn't, or at least hasn't until recently. Ted is copying the same blueprint he's followed for the Caps very successfully.

 

[Om]

We're not really going to equate having the #2 and #3 picks in the NFL Draft, in a year when the 2nd and 3rd best players available were the physcially gifted but cement-headed LB LaVar Arrington and the excellent (but hardly HOF material) LT Chris Samuels, with getting the #1 overall pick in a year when an Ovechkin, the best player in the world in his sport, happened to be coming out ... are we?

In sports as wildly different in terms of what kind of one impact a single (non-Franchise QB) player can have?

Apples and oranges much?

If Snyder had had the #1 pick in a year a Peyton Manning came out ... that would be different. But he didn't. Nor has he had a Tom Brady fall from the sky like the Patriots owner did to suddenly make him a great owner.

Snyder is and has been many things since buying the Redskins---some of them not so good. But lucky ain't really one of them.

 

[Elephant]

Apples and Oranges in the sense that neither player turned out to be the best player in the world, retrospect shows that. But you said Leonsis was lucky enough to have Ovie drop into his lap and then they built from there.

I merely suggest that Snyder had the same type of luck (more luck if you take into consideration the Redskins had those picks w/out being terrible at the time) having, arguably, the #1 and #2 players in the draft drop into his lap in his first draft as the owner of the Redskins. What Leonsis has done with his luck is not what Snyder did with his.

Leonsis built the team around Ovechkin through acquiring young talent that would compliment him. Snyder began to throw money at every over priced Vet who was looking for a pay day, in the process giving away valuable draft picks.

I am saying that Snyder was lucky to have two players drop into his lap who could have been the anchors of both sides of the ball for years to come. My point isn't about how things turned out with those players, it is about the luck the owners had early in their tenures. Snyder fell into a potential gold mine the same way Leonsis did. It is what Leonsis did with his gold mine.

 

[Om]

And I'll say it again too. There were no players available to Snyder in the 2000 draft even remotely comparable to Ovechkin. Had Snyder had the #1 pick, perhaps, in the year Peyton Manning came out, you could compare them apples to apples. To say "what he did with them" is unfair. You can't make filet mignon from mutton.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Om, with all due respect, your post is nonsense.

Yes, Ovechkin was the consensus #1 overall pick, and Leonsis "lucked" into winning the lottery and getting the first pick. But as in any draft, there is no guarantee Ovi was going to pan out. Not to mention, the team was dominant without him this year, and several other not-so-heralded draft picks have contributed, and are becoming stars in their own right.

And as to Snyder not being lucky - that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Certain teams continuously pick much lower than the Redskins every year (when we even HAVE picks to make), and yet somehow continue to find solid contributors to their teams. Even when their picks DON'T work out, somehow it still manages to be all right, and they still compete.

One example of many is that Bob Sanders is a phenomenal safety, but has barely seen the field because he's a fragile flower. Yet the Colts keep winning ball games, and keep making it to superbowls.

To suggest (as I think you are suggesting) that Snyder's bad luck in 2000 with his #3 draft pick (while Chris Samuels may not be HOF worthy, but he was way better than solid for the majority of his career) is somehow the cause of a decade of mediocrity, I call bull****. It was decades of trading away (with little in return) and misusing draft picks that have put the Skins where they are now. Prime example: The Clinton Portis trade. Shutdown corner is pretty much the consensus best player to have outside of a franchise QB, yet somehow the Broncos fleeced us out of an additional 2nd round pick.

Snyder has run this franchise into the ground, and there is simply no excuse for it. Some organizations take a poor-pick in stride, and turn it around anyway (see Leaf, Ryan).

 

[Om]

With all due respect, your calling my post nonsense is nonsense.

Ovechkin was the consensus #1 overall pick and almost universally hailed as a sure thing. He's turned out to be just that ... and he IS the main reason the team is at the level it is now. A smart owner with a decent GM can build around a guy like that fairly quickly, and that's exactly what Leonsis did. He'd not have been as lucky had the #1 pick come in a year Mr. Ovechkin was not available.

As to building an NFL team ... I trust you are not a QB Theory guy, LL. It's not just about the Franchise QB, it's about how having one makes building the rest of the team so DAMN much easier. But let's not go down that road here. Been there, done that.

Snyder, for all his faults (and I sense you, like so many other Snyder haters, assume that anyone who doesn't believe he's the devil and has singlehandedly ruined the Redskins franchise for all eternity is an apologist or thinks he's done a great job), has not been as lucky as Ted Leonsis. That is what I said, and what I will maintain. Could he have made himself a little luckier, perhaps, by recognizing Vinny Cerrato was not a competent GM? Probably. Would whoever he brought in to replace him have been any luckier in finding the one thing this team has been missing for a generation---a legitimate NFL quarterback? Maybe. We'll never know.

What we DO know is that one of the first orders of business under the new regime was to pull the trigger on bringing in a legitimate NFL QB. Which almost makes the standard criticism of Cerrato (and of course Snyder, because everyone knows Snyder actually makes all the football decisions that don't work out) trying his damndest to land one last offseason shine in a slightly different light.

If we're not actually operating in the dark, that is.

 

[Elephant]

And I'll say it again too. There were no players available to Snyder in the 2000 draft even remotely comparable to Ovechkin. Had Snyder had the #1 pick, perhaps, in the year Peyton Manning came out, you could compare them apples to apples. To say "what he did with them" is unfair. You can't make filet mignon from mutton.

Mutton? Dan Snyder went into the 2000 draft with a team that had just made a legitimate run at an NFC Championship game. They were entering the draft with the #2 and #3 overall picks in the draft. You are saying that this scenario is less lucky than Leonsis having the #1 pick in the draft in a year when he "could" be drafting the best playing in the world?

I am not buying it. Snyder fell ass backwards into a franchise that had so much potential, especially considering the talent they had and the draft picks, plural, that lent themselves to building for the future. It may not have been Peyton Manning, but Arrington was a top tier talent who would have been number one if his college team mate was not more of a necessity for the team that chose him. He and Samuels were the building blocks of the future. But they were surrounded by older vets on the down hill swing of their careers instead of being supported by younger players.

Mismanagement of the gold mine that was dropped into his lap, unlike Ted who managed the gold mine that he received for being the worst team in the league I believe.

 

[Om]

Let's not turn the 1999 Redskins into filet mignon either, El. If we go back and take a look at that team and the year the NFC had around it, I'm not sure many would spend a lot of time arguing it was close to becoming a perennial contender.

Again ... not sure why this is causing such a commotion, but ... Alex Ovechkin is a superstar in a sport where one guy can lift a franchise pretty quickly. In the NFL only a QB can do that. The Redskins, for a variety of reasons, have not been able to secure that guy since well before Snyder bought the team. Ted Leonsis got his "franchise QB" early, and the results have not been surprising. Not to me anyway.

I consider that, on a certain level, "lucky." I don't think Snyder's had "luck" on anywhere near that level since he's been here. That's pretty much all I'm saying.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

I will conceded that Snyder has not been as lucky as Leonsis, however, luck is only part of the equation. Yes, Snyder should have 86'd Cerrato a long time ago, assuming Snyder wasn't the one making executive decisions. Just look at the Zorn hiring-debacle of 2008 - do you think Leonsis would have blundered through the head-coach hiring process so badly in his 8th season as manager? Leonsis recognized after the failed Jagr experiment that he wasn't on the right path to a successful franchise. He and George McPhee decided on a change in philosophy, and cut the dead and overpriced weight (similar to what the Skins did this past February). An honest to goodness rebuilding process.

I go back and forth on the QB theory, but I do think a franchise QB on a horrible team won't do much until he has solid pieces around him. Conversely, a solid QB on an excellent team will also perform well - its just probably equally as hard to find excellence everywhere else, but it happens. So the truth lies somewhere in the middle - yes a franchise QB is great for winning, but you can't downplay the importance of the rest of the team.

No, I do not think you're an apologist, and I do not think Snyder has ruined the Redskins for all of eternity. He has taken the correct first step in righting the ship by hiring a (presumably) competent GM. I do think Snyder is responsible for the past 10 years of mediocrity, and that blame is squarely on his shoulders and no one elses.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Let's also not forget the Chargers had a chance to draft Manning, and opted for Leaf. Manning was considered the best QB in the draft by many, and almost no one thought he'd bust compared to the amount of people who were skeptical of Leaf. Yet the Chargers took Leaf anyway, being completely sold on their guy. Let's not forget that Evgeni Malkin was the 2nd overall pick in that draft - what if the Caps had been sold on him as a C instead of Ovechkin? Unlikely, but then a lot of people said the same thing about Leaf over Manning.

My point is - as blatantly obvious the Ovechkin pick was, the Caps did the right thing and MADE the pick...which may be a dumb point, but its happened before *coughAlDavisHeyward-Beycough*

 

[Elephant]

Let's not turn the 1999 Redskins into filet mignon either, El. If we go back and take a look at that team and the year the NFC had around it, I'm not sure many would spend a lot of time arguing it was close to becoming a perennial contender.

...

I consider that, on a certain level, "lucky." I don't think Snyder's had "luck" on anywhere near that level since he's been here. That's pretty much all I'm saying.

I agree that the 1999 Redskins were not world shakers, but they had potential given the right direction. I think you are minimizing the "luck" that Snyder had in his first year as an owner. You can't get much luckier than Snyder to have acquired an organization that was set up to win long into the future had they been managed correctly. Luckier, in my estimation than having the best player in the world fall into your lap, but having the wherewithal to know what to do with it.

Do I need to mention Jeff George?

 

[Om]

I don't follow the Caps as closely as some, but I'm pretty sure I recall some funky changeover in the coaching ranks there, too. I believe Ted is on his fourth head coach since he bought the team? In fact, wasn't current golden boy Boudreau brought in when his predecessor was fired during the '07 season? Imagine that---firing a coach during the regular season.

As to who is "responsible" for the Redskins dismal decade past, I think it's unfair and a little simplistic to suggest it is the fault of any one man. Perhaps we should start a thread where we try to list all the factors that might have contributed to that---including of course "Snyder Is the Owner"---and rank them in order of importance/percentage to blame.

Hey, why not? It's the offseason and as someone pointed out, this place is dead.

 

[Om]

Let's also not forget the Chargers had a chance to draft Manning, and opted for Leaf. Manning was considered the best QB in the draft by many, and almost no one thought he'd bust compared to the amount of people who were skeptical of Leaf. Yet the Chargers took Leaf anyway, being completely sold on their guy. Let's not forget that Evgeni Malkin was the 2nd overall pick in that draft - what if the Caps had been sold on him as a C instead of Ovechkin? Unlikely, but then a lot of people said the same thing about Leaf over Manning.

My point is - as blatantly obvious the Ovechkin pick was, the Caps did the right thing and MADE the pick...which may be a dumb point, but its happened before *coughAlDavisHeyward-Beycough*

Er ... the Colts had the #1 pick and used it to take Manning. Not sure how the Chargers, picking #2, "had a chance" to draft Peyton?

 

[Om]

El, I think I'm having serious deja vu. Please tell me I've read your last post before.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Yes, the Caps have been through 4 coaches in Leonsis's tenure. In the same time period, the Redskins have gone through 6 (7 if you include Robiskie which I should, since he was a mid-season replacement like Boudreau).