My perspective on Ron is different.
I don’t see his tenure or public behavior the same way you do. I will grant you that his winning percentage was the same as Zorn’s.
I also think Ron is an honorable man in the vein of Joe Gibbs (albeit infinitely worse at coaching football) who is going to take the high road with his employer. What Ron really thinks of Snyder we will never know, and we shouldn’t quite honestly. I also give Ron a bit of a pass for his cancer battle. I can’t imagine having to deal with everything he was dealing with in the organization and fight that as well. Lesser men would’ve probably quit.
I agree with you, he is in the vein of Joe Gibbs—a man with a stellar reputation who was nevertheless seduced by Snyder’s money and never had a bad word to say about the man because he let them do whatever they wanted. I think it’s a failing of an honorable man to stand by and ignore the things that came out about Snyder, and yet Gibbs, who everyone respects very much, continued to speak in support of Snyder over the years and continued to help convince other established coaches to take the job under him. Even after the trickle of reports about his deviant and borderline evil behavior became a veritable flood.
It’s their right to say whatever they wish, but I don’t consider the kind words said about Snyder even after the reports of harassment and mistreatment to be among the finer moments of either man. I’m nobody so it doesn’t matter, but my opinion of both men dropped multiple notches due to the blind spot they had for Snyder. So I agree, they are in the same vein in that regard (although Rivera had a cowardly habit at the podium of throwing other people under the bus whereas Gibbs was always the ultimate shield for his people, taking real accountability always. So I don’t consider them similar in other ways).
With Gibbs, it was continuing to run interference for Snyder over the years despite all the reports, right through the Rivera hire and beyond, despite being severed from the franchise and not obligated whatsoever. He’s older and not plugged into the league, focus on NASCAR and family, etc. So I get it to a degree. But nobody is that ignorant of what’s going on in the news regarding the franchise they hold most dear, Snyder had a bad reputation with everyone in the world who he wasn’t actively paying. Gibbs chose to honor his personal relationship with Snyder over the credible reports of abusive, repugnant behavior over the years. Which is pretty much how all abusers keep abusing, because the influential people they’re nice to don’t find it appropriate to make a stir.
For Rivera, it was still speaking well of Snyder, almost defiantly, after the sale to Harris was final and he was no longer his employer. It would’ve been unprofessional to trash Snyder at the podium, that’s not even what I’m suggesting. I would never expect him to go full Jason Wright, who is an opportunistic McKinsey viper. But he could’ve had no comment or been politically correct while saying nothing. But he wasn’t. He outwardly supported a bad man till the bitter end and beyond. That stuck with me, clearly. You can’t cling to your rep as a good man while running cover for a bad man who treated you well and made you richer. There’s a disconnect there.
Your last comment, about how a lesser man would have quit, I disagree with vehemently. Rivera was too burned out and hollowed out to do the job and coasted while delegating everything in order to keep earning his millions until he was fired. That last year after Eric Bieneimy was brought in, beat guys said it was hard to even ascertain what role Rivera even still had in the org as he was letting Bieneimy de facto run the team, arrange the weekly schedules and meetings, plan practice times, etc. He was a ghost in that building. But most importantly, Snyder was being pressured to sell and revelations about his abhorrent behavior were releasing every other day it felt like. And he kept supporting him and taking the bullets for him at pressers. A greater man, already rich beyond belief and not doing his job as HC anyways, would’ve quit on Snyder to make a statement about the kind of man that should be allowed to own a team in this league. A lesser man keeps taking the blood money he doesn’t need and keeps running interference and publicly supporting the evil bastard.
I’ll drop it though, a lot of people don’t agree (and will especially dislike my mild Gibbs criticism) and there’s more interesting chatter to be had in this thread, while we’re going down negative memory lane 😂
 }})
now has to last for the rest of my fan life. What an asshole. But I digress.
