Big Al suspended for the remainder of season

[sportscurmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

I agree that reporting facts is not lazy, but trotting those names out whenever they type REDSKINS or SNYDER is what I am referring to. If Chris Johnson, Calvin Johnson and Patrick Willis were free agents and the Redskins signed them all, the lazy journalists I refer to would be saying, 'This is just like Deion, Bruce Smith and Haynesworth' because we spent money. We have made some terrible decisions, but report each case on it's merit rather than using 10 year old references to reinforce a point.

For example, watching ATH today, 3-4 "journalists" were calling Shanahan a failure already in DC because of the state of the team today, of course bringing up the 'same old Redskins' and even went as far as to question if we are even better than we were last year. Seriously? Can you tell me a legitimate sports journalist would even question if we are in better hands organizationally with Allen and Shanahan than we were with Cerrato and Zorn??? Yes, we've been ass crack lint for the better part of 10+ years, but can anyone NOT see how much better hands we are in long term, today being a major step in that direction. Shanahan & Co. demand professionalism, accountability and respect like nobody around here in a long time, INCLUDING Gibbs 2.0.

There is no way on the planet that anyone can say that the 2010 Redskins are worse than the 2009 Redskins. With 4 games to play, this year's team has one more win than last year's team. You are what your record says you are - - and in this case it says the Redskins aren't real good but they are improved over last year when they were really awful.

Having said that, I would say that Mike Shanahan has fallen way short of expectations for this year. That is not to say he is a failure nor is it to say this team should have 9 wins at this point of the season. His "failures" have been in terms of building cohesion on the squad to make it into a team. It's not just Haynesworth - - and by the way that opera went on a lot longer than it should have.

We had DeAngelo Hall declaring that it is his defense and he is going to track the opposition's #1 receiver all over the field no matter what the defensive coordinator called or said. Even if he didn't mean it, that is not the kind of thing that should ever come out of the mouth of a player who is imbued with the concept of "TEAM".

And I think that it is Mike Shanahan's fault that the concept of "TEAM" has not taken hold in the 2010 Skins squad. That is a large portion of the job that a head coach has to do.

I also think that Shanahan's handling of the "McNabb benching" in the 48 hours after it occurred was juvenile. That is what I would have expected from a 35-year old rookie head coach not a guy with Super Bowl rings. He blew it - - and the bulls[p]it he tried to sell on that issue hung around in the locker room and stunk out the joint for a while.

The Skins are far better off with the current regime in place than they were - - - assuming that Danny Boy Snyder continues to sit on his thumb and to not try to insert himself into the running of the team or the construction of the roster for 2011. But Mike Shanahan has fallen way short of expectations despite the improvements he has obviously made.