Do you trust Snyder?

It is not a matter of trust, it is a matter of football knowledge and ability.
Dan Snyder like Jack Kent Cooke is an incredible businessman. However Mr. Cooke did not have the ego that Mr. Snyder has to believe he has the experience and skills to make all of the major football operation decisions. Mr. Cooke hired professionals, let them do their jobs and held them accountable. Mr. Cooke won three super bowls.
Mr. Snyder on the other hand has won one playoff game in eight years?

I really think Mr. Snyder saw Jerry Jones of the Cowboys and thought he could do what Jerry Jones is doing. The problems is Jerry Jones had a huge football background before he took charge of the Cowboys. Jones was a star running back at North Little Rock High School and eventually received a scholarship to play guard at the University of Arkansas. Among his Arkansas teammates were Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, both of whom he would later hire to coach the Cowboys.
Snyder on the other hand does not have any football background other than watching the Redskins on TV. He did not even play football in high school.
What makes him think he can run football operations for a billion dollar team?
Mr. Snyder, let a professional make you look good, you are in over your head.
You are competing against football professionals. You are not a football professional.

Wow Defensewins, the NFL game and high school/college (especially when Jerry Jones played college) are soo different. Having played football as a youth gives Jones no advantage over Snyder as a "football man" other than being a more athletic youngster. Is that really an advantage for an owner or General Manager?

I think people who already have their negative opinions of Snyder set in stone are trying to rationalize to themselves why the Redskins can't be successful with him.

If "do the right thing" = "maximize team revenues and profits", then absolutely Danny Boy will do the right thing.


If "do the right thing" = "make the single best football decision for the team", then Danny Boy is not likely to do the right thing. HOWEVER, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while...


If "do the right thing" = "hiring a coach with sufficient 'celeb value' such that Danny Boy gets more than 2 minutes of face time on TV", you can count on him doing the right thing.


Let me pose an ancillary question here:

What makes Redskins' fans think that Danny Boy gives a fig about what they think or what they wish for the team? During the winding path of his goofy moves over the past eight or nine years, how often have the fans rebuked him in any meaningful way?

Redskins' fans have taught Danny Boy that he can ignore them and he can even do precisely what they don't want him to do - - and they'll be back spending their money on his product without abatement.

There are only two things valuable to Danny Boy. One is his wealth and the business empire he controls. Two is his ego. Unless Redskin fans rebuke one of those two things when Danny Boy does something they don't like, he will continue to patronize them some of the time and ignore them most of the time.

Jack Kent Cooke had no ego? You're kidding right? JKC had a huge ego.

Furthermore,

WashingtonPost.com: Gibbs Hired as Redskins Coach After Meeting With Cooke (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/redskins/history/gibbs/articles/jghired.htm)

"Cooke wants to make the Redskin games "fun for the fans" and he wants to see more passing and more progressive thinking on offense. Cooke was very impressed with the Chargers this season, especially because they were entertaining even when they lost."

If Snyder had chimed in like that in this day and age, whether he's right or not, there'd be people with torches ready to burn his house down.

Wow Defensewins, the NFL game and high school/college (especially when Jerry Jones played college) are soo different. Having played football as a youth gives Jones no advantage over Snyder as a "football man" other than being a more athletic youngster. Is that really an advantage for an owner or General Manager?

I think people who already have their negative opinions of Snyder set in stone are trying to rationalize to themselves why the Redskins can't be successful with him.

Thank you. Congratulations on being my first signature sponsor of 2008

Wow Defensewins, the NFL game and high school/college (especially when Jerry Jones played college) are soo different. Having played football as a youth gives Jones no advantage over Snyder as a "football man" other than being a more athletic youngster. Is that really an advantage for an owner or General Manager?

I think people who already have their negative opinions of Snyder set in stone are trying to rationalize to themselves why the Redskins can't be successful with him.

It is called experience. You are going to say a guy that played in and was part of a major college program has NO advantage over a guy that never was around any organized football team? Jones saw first hand how a successful major college program is run. He saw this from the inside. You are saying he did not learn anything from this experience?
I have no set in stone opinions of Snyder other than the track record Snyder has created for himself. Before Gibbs arrived Snyder did not do a good job of running the Redskins. Hey if Snyder begins to do a better job of being co-GM with Cerratto, I will be the first person to praise them and wish many more years of continuing success. Until then, all I have to go on is their history.

He is the freaking owner of the team and I have never heard of an owner turning over hiring of his head coach to someone else. so Thats crazy to think doing the right thing is letting someone else hire your coach. Yes I'm sure Gibbs will have a hugh role in thid decision but it all comes back to Snyder for the final say.

Here's an example for you: Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Miami Dolphins, has given Bill Parcells the responsibility of hiring the next Dolphins coach. Parcells has been named team president of the Dolphins, and he promptly fired coach Cam Cameron, and he will be hiring the Dolphins next coach. Parcells, I'm sure, will have to inform Wayne H. of his choice before the official announcement is made of Parcells' decision, but the decision on hiring and firing coaches is commonly left to general managers and/or team presidents.

I think Snyder's, Gibbs, and Williams conversation went something like this.

Snyder: Gregg, Joe and I think the world of you and what you've done for this organization...myself included. Now, you and I haven't always seen eye to eye on things, but we believe you're our guy. But you know that business is business, and we have to go through the process of looking at all the options on the table...other candidates.

What we're going to do is bring in, per your suggestion, Jimmy later this week and sit down with him and see where he's at with things, you know. You two know each other and everything, so it's not a big deal. I think what Joe and I are gonna do from there is fly down to Arizona and talk to Russ about things.

Gibbs: Now, Gregg I've been up front with you from day one. (Williams nodding) In my heart, I think you're probably the guy that I'm hoping to take this thing over and keep it going in the right direction. To me, Gregg, you're a Redskin, and that's the most important thing, first of all. I was telling Pat just the other day how close I've become to you and your boys and how I think the world of you all--okay... and you know how I personally feel about family and things like that. But like Danny said, we just have to go through this process and kick the tires a little bit just to make sure everybody up there is okay with the way we handled everything. But like I said, I think with everything that has gone on from Sean to Jason and the way you handled the situtation with Carlos and Rocky going down, we feel you're a class act. I don't think anyone could have kept things together over there any better than you did after we loss Sean. Anything you have for us?

Williams: I love you, man.

Jack Kent Cooke had no ego? You're kidding right? JKC had a huge ego.

Furthermore,

WashingtonPost.com: Gibbs Hired as Redskins Coach After Meeting With Cooke (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/redskins/history/gibbs/articles/jghired.htm)

"Cooke wants to make the Redskin games "fun for the fans" and he wants to see more passing and more progressive thinking on offense. Cooke was very impressed with the Chargers this season, especially because they were entertaining even when they lost."

If Snyder had chimed in like that in this day and age, whether he's right or not, there'd be people with torches ready to burn his house down.

I did not say Mr. Cooke had no ego. I said Mr. Cooke did not have an ego to let him think he had the experience and knowledge to make football decisions like drafting players and getting involved in the day to day personnel decisions that Snyder gets involved in. That is all.

SmootSmack:

Of course JKC had an ego. And it got in HIS way too. The short version of why he couldn't manage to leave his team to his son is that he had it figured out how he could evade loads of estate taxes with his monumentally complicated estate plan and it all came crashing down like a house of cards because of two factors. One was that the actual value of the Chrysler Bldg in NYC - which he owned - wasn't worth nearly what he thought it was. Two was that he drained off too high a fraction of his liquid assets in building Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in RalJon Maryland to create a monument to himself. Check the name of the "town" he fictionalized as the home of his stadium to realize how much of a monument to himself all of that was.

JKC was not a meddling owner in the way Danny Boy was/is. So the only things he did that might annoy fans was when he took to the microphone once or twice a year and droned on and on and on in his sing-song voice. Danny Boy keeps a much higher profile than that.

Just one example: Danny Boy scouts college talent and convinces the "football people" to draft that strong armed QB he found named Patrick Ramsey. Danny Boy wants people to think he is part of making the Redskins a winner because he knows about football. JKC didn't do that kind of thing. All JKC did was to spend his money lavishly on the team. To be fair, JKC didn't have to worry about salary caps for most of his tenure as owner and Danny Boy does.

JKC maintained an image of an eccentric old coot whose marriages were sure to provide grist for gossip columns and humor writers. Danny Boy seems to have generated an image of an arrogant young know-it-all who has yet to show that he even knows more than a little bit about putting together a winning football team.

FWIW...