Peter King on Zorn Hire

[SC Skins Fan]

I think King sums up my feelings pretty accurately, even though I know some (most?) here don't agree. I think the Fassell hire would have been redemptive in my eyes, would have proven Snyder could forgo the flashy hire, and could ignore public opinion. The way the thing happened was strange, they kept Williams hanging before making the big push to get Fassell, Zorn, and Ryan. When that trio pick-up went south and people got angry about Fassell they backed off, interviewed Spagnuolo, then gave Zorn the head job. All the while they dangled the head job in front of Fassell before turning around and telling him he was out. No matter how it turns out, Snyderatto just does not operate on the up-and-up. Maybe that is just how it is reported, maybe they get a bad rap from guys like La Confora, but its seems like a real pattern to me. I just don't like it but of course there isn't much for me to do.

As King says, Zorn is a good guy and a good coach, but he should be spending all his time with Jason and the offense, not worrying about the delegation, media, etc. that goes with being the head man.

SI.com - Writers - MMQB (cont.) - Monday February 11, 2008 9:26AM
1. I think once Dan Snyder saw the virulent anti-Fassel sentiment all over his fandom, he went looking for anyone to hire as the next Redskins coach but Jim Fassel. A shame. I like Jim Zorn. I think he's bright, I think he was overqualified to be a quarterbacks coach, and I think he will be a thoughtful coach his players will grow to like in Washington. This is not a criticism of Jim Zorn, the coach. It's more of a criticism of the decision, the process and the reaction to the candidacy of Fassel.
Fassel was fired from the Giants after seven years, with a head-coaching record of 60-56-1. That includes a 41-0 whitewashing of the Vikings in the 2000 NFC Championship Game, and a 34-7 loss to Baltimore in Super Bowl XXXV. He's never gotten another chance to be a head coach. He worked for friend Brian Billick as the Ravens' offensive coordinator before being fired with the Ravens 4-2 in 2006.
In my opinion, if Norv Turner got three chances as a head coach, and Lindy Infante, Bruce Coslet and Dave Wannstedt two, Fassel -- the only one of the five to have taken his team to a Super Bowl -- certainly deserved a second shot. The Redskins had a chance to have a winning NFC East coach (Fassel is 6-5 against Andy Reid, 8-6 against Dallas, 7-6-1 against Washington) paired with a bright and up-and-coming quarterback guru in Zorn.
Now they'll have Zorn, who has never called the plays, never coordinated an offense and never been a head coach, running the show in a media-hungry market with an owner far more involved than any Zorn's ever worked with. And they'll have a quarterback, Jason Campbell, who should have had Zorn working with him for hours a day; but a head coach can't spend hours a day with a young quarterback.
A better team would have been Fassel, experienced in the daily calamities of life in the NFC East and Zorn. That would have been better than a rookie coach and whomever Zorn installs as his quarterback and offensive mentors.

[MTK]

I certainly would not have hated the hiring of Fassel, and I do wonder how much of an impact the fan's insanely negative reaction towards him had to do with this decision to pass him over.

But at the same time I liked the decision to gamble on Zorn. Sounds like a lot of the candidates that were interviewed were very high on him, Fassel included, and I guess they finally realized that they had a solid HC candidate right under their noses. Time will tell if this is too much too soon for Zorn, but on the plus side he's got an experienced staff around him that should help ease him into things.

[Joe Ribbs BBQ]

Peter King hit the nail on the head in my opinion

[FRPLG]

I am basically convinced that most media and a lot of fans will never ever look at something Snyder does and think it was done right when it comes to footbal. I am just so tired of all the complaining and bashing. I don't even care what PK says because I just wont read it. I am just done with the negativism. I am not defending DS but in the end he is obviously damned is does and damned if he doesn't on just about everything.

[FRPLG]

Ok I lied and did read it and my reaction is

"...and maybe not"

[MTK]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

I am basically convinced that most media and a lot of fans will never ever look at something Snyder does and think it was done right when it comes to footbal. I am just so tired of all the complaining and bashing. I don't even care what PK says because I just wont read it. I am just done with the negativism. I am not defending DS but in the end he is obviously damned is does and damned if he doesn't on just about everything.

Very true.

But if Zorn works out and we win consistently, the media won't have much of a leg to stand on... until he has to make another coaching decision that is.

[Drago]

I appreciate the fact that D.S. took his time with this hire and didn't rush into it. Obviously he wasn't comfortable with any of the other more qualified candidates or he would have hired them right away and not waited to talk to Spagnoulo. I liked Zorn's press conference, it reeked with knowledge and confidence. I'm looking forward to a fresh start.

[Hog1]

I like the Zorn hire. Zorn has the fire in his eyes
With all due respect to the threads author, NOBODY outside of Snyder's inner circle REALLY knows the chain of events were, or what motivated them. All the rest is pure speculation as is evidenced from all the relible info and conjecture for the past month. TO my knowldge , none of the established pundits called for Zorn to be the HC.
DS doesn't generally get a fair shake in his Skins decisions, and that may well be the case here.
I for one applaud his efforts, and REFUSAL to bow to media and fan pressure to make a possibly premature decision, to be regretted later.
HTTR

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Very true.

But if Zorn works out and we win consistently, the media won't have much of a leg to stand on... until he has to make another coaching decision that is.

BS. I don't think he is ever going to get a fair shake. We'll really need to start running off SBs like NE to quiet them down. Every single thing PK said I can understand what he is saying and I don't necessarily disagree but it all strikes me as so damn speculative. And all the specualtion about the Skins under DS is simply negative.

[hooskins]

FRPLG, PK didn't really say anything negative about Danny. I guess it was more towards the fans for bashing Fassel. No one can argue Danny is unique in listening to the fans, if anything he probably listens to fans the least out of most owners.

[FRPLG]

A better team would have been Fassel, experienced in the daily calamities of life in the NFC East and Zorn. That would have been better than a rookie coach and whomever Zorn installs as his quarterback and offensive mentors.

That is basically saying he hired the wrong guy and I'd say that WTF does he know. He MAY be right but MAYBE Zorn ends up being the greatest coach in the history of the league. SOmehow I think it'll be somewhere in the middle. Agian I didn't say I disagreed I am simply tired of knee-jerk reactions to the FO moves of this team. No one ever talks about the things they do that worked. And they have done plenty.

[sbaughone]

Peter King is a queen...he hates the Redskins and kicks us at every chance he gets. Lemme ask Peter one question: If fossil is so good, why isn't he writing about how Atlanta passed him by? Why didn't Parcells hire him? Maybe it's because snyder saw what everyone else did: Fossil ain't that impressive.

Here's a funny video on peter king the queen: On the RAC: Redskins Appreciation Club, the Humurous Redskins' Fan Site.

[redwagonskins]

Originally Posted by Hog1

I like the Zorn hire. Zorn has the fire in his eyes
With all due respect to the threads author, NOBODY outside of Snyder's inner circle REALLY knows the chain of events were, or what motivated them. All the rest is pure speculation as is evidenced from all the relible info and conjecture for the past month. TO my knowldge , none of the established pundits called for Zorn to be the HC.
DS doesn't generally get a fair shake in his Skins decisions, and that may well be the case here.
I for one applaud his efforts, and REFUSAL to bow to media and fan pressure to make a possibly premature decision, to be regretted later.
HTTR

That is mostly true but VC was on the radio for 15 minutes talking about the process and a lot of the speculation was pretty right on. JZ was not on the list of HC candidates until after the Spags interview. It sounds as if they were very impressed with him and after the other interviews were done, they decided to re-interview him for the HC position. To hear Vinny and Dan tell the story, after whatever happened with Spags (either they didn't offer the job, or he didn't take it, no one but those guys knows), they called up JZ and asked him if he'd like to interview for the job.

It was actually a very interesting discussion with Vinny and it was refreshing to hear from the FO about the process. However, make no mistake about it, JZ wasn't a HC candidate until after he joined to team as the OC and after the Spags interview.

[wilsowilso]

If Zorn were to turn around the Offense in any kind of significant way he would be outta here in a year or two as a head coach somewhere else and we would have Fassel. I don't mind taking a chance on Zorn at all although I didn't really have a problem with Fassel either. For some reason when I heard Matt Hasselbeck say a few weeks ago that we should have hired Zorn as the head coach I just had a feeling that he might be on to something.

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

I am basically convinced that most media and a lot of fans will never ever look at something Snyder does and think it was done right when it comes to footbal. I am just so tired of all the complaining and bashing. I don't even care what PK says because I just wont read it. I am just done with the negativism. I am not defending DS but in the end he is obviously damned is does and damned if he doesn't on just about everything.

What if he had hired GW as head coach? Or hired a GM to handle business more effectively and fired Vinny C? I cant stand negativism either, but he brings it on himself.