Sad Observation By Mrs. 06 Yesterday

[Yusuf06]

OK, so I'm watching the game yesterday in my usual state of inert acceptance of futility. As usual, my wife was in and out of the room while I'm watching.

After the game my wife asks me the usual question, i.e. "So, how did you guys do today." In years past it was always a rhetorical question as she'd generally know based on the amount of cussin' or cheering what had happened.

When I told her that we had lost, she replied "You all lost to the Lions? Really, The Lions? They're not very good are they?" I mentioned their 19game losing streak and that we'd helped them get off the Schnyde.

So she then asks, "What's up with you guys? Ya'll have mostly sucked since we've known each other and that's what, 10 years? Even the Falcons have finally figured it out, what's wrong with you guys?"

And there it was. All our dirty laundry laid out on the table, streaked undies, yellowed armpits and all.

How could I reply to such barefaced, self-evident, and yes, painful truth? After composing my thoughts for a second, my response to her was simple. "The Falcons finally got an owner that halfway knew what he was doing, learned from his mistakes and left football decisions to football people."

So there it was in a nutshell. Even a non-Skins fan who only marginally follows football through her husband can see the problem. What I can't wrap my head around is why can't someone who's experienced nothing but futility for over a decade doing it "his way", see the same thing? Why is it always that the media hates him or that unfair criticism is being thrown his way and that this next hire is "the one"? Why can't this idiot see that we have met the enemy, and he is us?

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. ---Einstein

I have followed the Skins for about the last 35 years or so and I've never, ever, felt this hopeless about our long-term prospects as now. I hit a diminished state of caring sometime during Joe Gibbs' last year. At the time, I figured if Joe Gibbs couldn't turn our mediocrity around, nobody could. I thought that was rock bottom but I was wrong, this is rock bottom. The knowlege that we're mired in mediocrity was bad enough. However, the realization that we're not just mediocre, but bad, Cinci Bungles, (old) AZ Cards, intractibly bad and that it's even worse than initially feared. Sigh.

**This probably would have made a good blog post but alas, I don't have one and no plans of starting one so a thread will have to do.

 

[Pravda]

It all has to come back to Snyder, doesn't it, right?

Who's the person that's putting people in positions to make the decisions to get us where we need to be.

Snyder hired Zorn and Snyder hired Cerratto.

These are the people that are directly responsible for where the team is now. And Snyder is directly responsible for hiring both of them.

And I think we all know the hows and whys for Zorn and Cerratto's culpability for our current plight.

So, on the ultimate accountability for the current state of the Redskins, I think Snyder has to be the guy.

But I don't see anything changing--at least not until fans stop coming to games and stop paying for tickets and merchandise.

There's no kick in the seat of the pants like an empty stadium.

 

[Sarge]

He is the one, common denominator for the past ten years

 

[Neophyte]

Management 101 - It all comes down from the top, good or bad.

 

[Henry]

Diminished state of caring.

That's a good way to put it.

 

[riggins44]

Think most of my problem today is that I have put up with this mediocre crap and wait till next year for past 10 years.

The only say I have is with my wallet. Stop buying merchandise is the only way can get opinion and feelings across to Snyder.

 

[Sarge]

Boycott Time. Don't show up for Tampa. If you do feel the need to go having already put down money and all, don't buy any crap

Money is the only thing the danny understands or cares about

 

[Elephant]

To answer your question as to why our owner can't see what your wife see, he is 44 years old and worth 1.3 billion dollars and has an ego the size of JKC Stadium.

I was checking his age on Wiki before I posted this and this is the first part on Snyder:

"Daniel Snyder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daniel M. Snyder (born November 23, 1965) is the current owner of the Washington Redskins American football team, Chairman of the Board of Six Flags Inc.[1], the world's largest amusement park and theme park operator, owner of the Johnny Rockets restaurant chain, and primary investor in Red Zebra Broadcasting, which is home to the Redskins Radio Network. Snyder has a net worth of $1.3 billion.

Snyder is considered by many to be one of the worst owners in the NFL. He has greatly diminished the goodwill that his predecessor Jack Kent Cooke built up."

 

[Chris]

I see nothing wrong with this team that a few free-agent acquisitions couldn't fix.

 

[Elephant]

I see nothing wrong with this team that a few free-agent acquisitions couldn't fix.

Are you just stirring the pot?

 

[Chris]

Are you just stirring the pot?

 

[Pravda]

I see nothing wrong with this team that a few free-agent acquisitions couldn't fix.

You mean like 53 free agent acquisitions, right?

 

[Chris]

You mean like 53 free agent acquisitions, right?

No, silly, about half that many.

(We would need the other half to rework their contracts, extending them well into the far-distant future, in order for the organization to conjure up the cap magic needed to pay for them.)

 

[Yusuf06]

I see nothing wrong with this team that a few free-agent acquisitions couldn't fix.

You're actually on the right track there Chris, but it would only take one high-profile F.A. acquisition to fix things, a new owner.

 

[Pravda]

You're actually on the right track there Chris, but it would only take one high-profile F.A. acquisition to fix things, a new owner.

I really wonder whether Snyder would sell the team--if it someone were willing to pay a 30% premium over it's current Forbes-estimated value--

I think we may be stuck with him for the rest of his life (or ours, really).

 

[Yusuf06]

I hear you Pravda however I'm hoping that Snyder will get a jolt in the next year or two that would work. What might that be, you ask? I'd like to see the valuation of the franchise drop below the $1B mark. I think that would be enough to scare him into either selling the team or taking the extraordinary step (in his mind anyway) of hiring someone to run football operations and staying out of their way.

The possibility of losing that kind of valuation seems remote but if the fans stop buying Skins crap and ticket sales slack off, it could happen. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

 

[ntotoro]

My Wife's words yesterday during the game:

"Why are the Redskins down 7-0 to the Lions?"

 

[Chris]

My Wife's words yesterday during the game:

"Why are the Redskins down 7-0 to the Lions?"

You know, the fans of any team that we beat this year will hear from their wives:

"Your team lost to the team that lost to the Lions?".

 

[beamish]

zorn seems all but cooked, but why do i get the stinkin feeling danny hangs on to his yes man vinny and the cycle of futility perpetuates itself through another coaching era?

 

[Sarge]

I don't know.

Maybe it's because he's shown no ability to learn from the past ten years?