According to Snyder "one of my worst moves" he made
(9/1/2006Washingtonian Magazine Article)
The Dan Snyder You Don't Know - Sports (washingtonian.com)
Snyder took over the Washington Redskins on July 14, 1999. He inherited Norv Turner as coach and Charley Casserly as general manager.
“They were fighting like cats and dogs,” he says. “We were in trouble. I couldn’t have these two guys sniping at one another.”
So he fired Casserly in September.
“You fired the wrong guy,” Casserly told him.
“If you’re right,” Snyder shot back, “you’ll be one of the first to know.”
Snyder also fired a bunch of longtime front-office workers. He brought in his own PR team, lead by Karl Swanson.
Hoping for a quick trip to the Super Bowl, he paid big money for aging stars Bruce Smith and Deion Sanders.
Snyder stuck with Norv Turner through the 1999 season, which was lackluster. With three games left in the 2000 season, the Redskins had a 7–6 record, and Snyder lost patience. He called Turner into his office at 11 am on December 4 and let him go.
“It was one of my worst moves,” he says. “It was plain stupid. I was a new owner pissed about losing.”
It was also the first move that showed fans and reporters Dan Snyder’s impatient side. In business, Snyder could replace a manager in the dead of night with a phone call. The Redskins were considered a public utility, and every move was blared in the media and dissected on sports-radio talk shows.
After Snyder fired Turner, he says, he called Casserly and said, “You were right.”