profusion

Actual video from 2019 Redskins leadership retreat:

Dan not having/using an email account makes me think of that scene in one of the mafia movies where the hoods meet in a parking lot or some such to avoid the wiretaps. So classy.

For the WFT, this is the issue that's going to keep the team lawyers up at night. Any releases in settlement agreements with cheerleaders might extend to cover this, but then again they might not. Sending topless photos out beyond the organizations is a whole level of legal risk above circulating them within the building. It won't get traced back to Dan the Email-less, for sure, but it could still put the organization at risk.

I wonder if he sends texts over a smartphone. Those are just as discoverable as emails.

I'm not that far off from your situation, and though I'm still watching the games on TV I'm starting to drift. For example, I didn't watch the WFT game on Thursday night a couple weeks ago because I get up really early for work on Fridays and just didn't want to be tired all day. That's not the choice I would have made a decade ago. I completely agree about the league as a whole losing a lot of its charm. The gaudy stadiums and TV presentations, expensive tickets and merch, ticky-tack penalties and constantly shifting definitions of what constitutes a "catch" or "pass interference", spoiled-brat multi-millionaire players, etc. etc. etc. It's become a difficult league to love. Still a tough sport played by tough guys, but a lot less relatable than it used to be. And sure, some of it's me. Even with the changes in the game, football games all start to look familiar after you've been watching for enough decades. I never played the sport at an organized level, so I don't know all the nuances that can keep the hardcore guys invested in every detail.

I don't really care about whatever dumb stuff Gruden said (quite possibly on his private email account) a decade ago, since I'm not a wokester. The one Gruden angle that interests me is that he was an ESPN/ABC/Disney employee when at least some of those emails were sent--back when he was on Monday Night Football. If he sent them from his work account (not talking about Bruce's emails, here), then what did ESPN/ABC/Disney know and when did they know it? What interests me most is who leaked this info about Gruden, and why...and of course, what else is in Bruce's toxic email bilge and whether any of that has also been leaked. I haven't read every single account of this, but does the NYT has other emails from this tranche that it's working on for further stories (corroboration, defamation concerns, etc.)? The "Dan leaked it" theory is the most interesting I've heard so far, although I suppose anyone in the league office with an axe to grind against Gruden could have done it. You know every sports reporter in America is feverishly working their NFL sources to try to get in on this gold rush.

Apparently, that damn good culture extended all the way to Oakland. So damn good. I don't believe for a second this is over, though. Every sports reporter in America is going to be on the hunt for more of Bruce's missives and whatever else they can get from the Wilkinson investigation.

Not to the same extent DC is. Los Angeles and Las Vegas are the only NFL cities I can think of that compare.

There's a lot to unpack there. Philly sports fans are very tribal and hardcore...more like Buffalo and Cleveland than the other East Coast cities, I think. For folks like that, the teams form a crucial part of their civic/regional identity. They'll put up with a lot. DC has always been more transient, but somehow the Redskins built a multigenerational institution despite that. For sure, severing that emotional connection is easier in a place like this. It's also important to remember that the population of the DC area has exploded in the last 20 years with tons of outsiders coming in to work in the vastly expanded IT and national security sectors in the wake of 9/11. This isn't even close to being the same place it was in 1991. Not so sure about those Cowboys fans, by the way. I married a Texan, and while the feelings are strong about the Cowboys, I don't see it as being at the level of Rust Belt NFL fans.

I can't remember where I read about that, but it was probably here back when the whole Lafemina thing happened. Can't remember the details, though. While they're still at FedEx, I'd just get rid of the secondary market garbage by eliminating season ticket packages at the 400 level and move those tickets to a cheap first-come-first served model with walk-up sales available. Move the existing season ticket holders in the nosebleeds to the 300 level or even down to the 200s if that's possible. The stadium's a dump, but use the excess capacity to try and gin up interest. The view is so much better in the 200s that I doubt this would erode demand for the remaining season ticket packages. When they move to whatever comes next, there will undoubtedly be 10-20,000 fewer seats, so why not use this opportunity to get more people through the turnstiles? JKC would have understood this, I think, but the problem with someone like Jason Wright is that his background is not in the entertainment business. There's a little bit of the circus or carnival in that business, when all is said and done. Cooke understood that.

I hate to think what's going to happen to the team when they run out of the Good Drugs.

I'm increasingly skeptical of the whole "Dan's a fan" theory...or at least I think it's less of a factor than it was 20 years ago. He and I are the same age. Despite my loathing of him, I don't think he still pulls out that old Redskins belt buckle and reminisces about going to the games with dear old dad. You move on to other concerns and priorities. He's a dad himself, and his kids are pretty much grown. Your thoughts pivot to what you're building and leaving for them. Would you rather your legacy be "the second most-hated man in Washington DC" or "the civic icon who brought the San Diego Seawolves to town?" That's under the assumption that he can't get a stadium deal done here, of course. The one constant in politics is change.

I don't really think they're going to move, but I also don't believe the possibility can be discounted entirely. Dan is just dumb enough that he'll use the threat to try and bluff his way into a new stadium in the DMV...and then get his bluff called by all the local politicians and taxpayers who want nothing to do with him. Getting rid of the Redskins name and logo certainly helps clear the way for this happen, even if there's not some grand plan going on behind the scenes. It wouldn't be good for him or the league, but these things happen. I doubt London would be the destination...more likely that the Jaguars end up there. St. Louis or San Diego seem more likely--they already have experience with bad owners and have stadium plans essentially sitting on ice waiting for a disgruntled owner.

I'm sort of old-school when it comes to stadiums. It's a big concrete bowl with a grass field in the middle. I didn't care for the NFL's push to make it an upscale "experience" about 20-25 years ago. I don't need cigars, microbrews or padded seats. I need a cheap beer, a hotdog, a ticket I can afford without budgeting it like a European vacation, and a non-embarrassing team to loudly root for. Working plumbing fixtures also help, but you can forgive a lot if the football's good! FedEx sucks, but I'd deal with it if the team was worth it. A fancy palace won't mask the scent of decay in Snyderville.

The NFL restricts what teams can do with ticket sales, but if Wright had the freedom, his best option would be to almost give away upper-deck tickets at like $5 a pop and then make it up in concessions revenue. That's essentially what less-popular baseball teams have done for decades to drive up engagement. Heck, as much I despise Dan Snyder a $5 ticket and free (or nominally charged) parking would interest me. I could afford to take my sons and let them be silly and maybe even become interested in the sport without it blowing my budget. Make it fun and friendly and get some people back to the stadium. It couldn't be any worse than it is now. The area from Ohio to Western New York is essentially the birthplace of professional football. There are much deeper cultural roots for this stuff there than there are in our area. Plus, it's less transient and more blue collar there. The Redskins managed to buck that and make DC football-crazy from the day they arrived in 1937, even through the losing years of the 1950s-60s. Dan Snyder had to work pretty long and hard to wreck that, but he managed it.

The Steelers were already a quality organization and winning team when they drafted Ben in the lower 1st round. Yes, they needed a QB and had been making due at the position for a long time, but Ben walked onto what was already a playoff team and turned it into a contender. Same with the Pats and Packers, basically. People forget that Brady didn't singlehandedly turn the Pats into a good team. They'd already been to a SB under Parcells only a few years before and had a top-shelf starting QB in Drew Bledsoe in his prime along with a playoff-caliber roster. Brady took it to the next level, but let's also remember that Belicheck was wise enough to reorient to "power football" and not try to overextend Brady while he was in his early stages. The Packers were already on the upswing when they traded for Favre in 1992, and of course they were able to let Rodgers sit for several years after drafting him (probably a year or two too long, actually). None of this resembles where the WFT is right now. We're more in the perennial bumbler category like the Jets and Lion than in the almost-there stage like those teams above were.

Very true. I think of the heart of the WFT fanbase as being in an area stretching from Fairfax County south to Richmond and west/southwest to Charlottesville. I know that the Redskins used to be the "team of the South", but much beyond 100 miles south of DC is very rural and sparsely populated, and beyond Virginia it gets into places now occupied by or closer to other teams. Fairfax County has become the new Arlington and is much more transient, and it's really in the corridor south of that where I wonder what's happening--indifference seems like the best guess.

It died for good during the Cousins era due to all the bad stuff going on with the team around that time. Just so many bad decisions and overtly unlikeable characters (Snyder, Allen and Jay), that I think a lot of people decided that it was hopeless. There's a generational issue at work, too. The Ravens have made serious inroad among young people in the Maryland suburbs. Younger adults moving to DC now bring their loyalties with them, and I'm not sure what's happening with the team's traditional "heartland" in exurban and rural Virginia. Hell, maybe they're turning into Ravens fans, too...

I can live with the rookies and young guys losing on some boneheaded plays as they learn the game. That's what a rebuilding project entails. I can't live with it out of vets or of experienced coaches making bad calls. If the vets can't do any better than the kids, then get them off the field. Period.

And really, Snyder is just (probably unintentionally) following in the footsteps of owners like the Bidwills and Fords. The Bidwills traded a big market (Chicago) for a smaller market (St. Louis) for a then-still smaller market (Phoenix)--and they've sucked lemons at each stop. The family still owns the team and rakes in millions every year. Maybe the current Bidwill generation has turned it around, but they're still up-and-down and unstable compared to the league elite.

Exactly. We've essentially got a "silent boycott" right now. The half-full stands are composed of opposing fans, the local TV ratings are low, and WFT merch is ranked near or at the bottom in sales. It doesn't matter. Dan gets that big fat 1/32 share of the national TV contract revenue and league-wide merch profits every single year and will continue to do so for as long as he wants. He doesn't actually *need* us to care. We are unwitting victims of the decisions the NFL owners made in the early 1960s to split revenue in order to protect and cultivate smaller market teams. Dan is a squatter, basically. If the league cares, they're either afraid of setting a precedent in forcing him out or are legally unable to do so.

That's essentially the strategy the Rams are pursuing in replacing Goff with Stafford. The difference is that the Rams are a contender right now and needed a QB capable of taking them the final distance this year and next. The WFT is years away from being a contender. Trading for the last couple viable years of a Matt Ryan or Aaron Rodgers is simply repeating the Mark Brunell/Alex Smith strategy that has failed repeatedly in Washington. There's also essentially zero chance that a QB in his prime like Russell Wilson would choose the WFT as his destination. He'll go to a contender and have his choice of good landing spots if he absolutely can't stand to stay in Seattle. Ron seems to understand that. Fitzpatrick was signed to a reasonable one-year deal as a stopgap when Ron couldn't get anyone better. I'm sure he wants to draft the next guy up (assuming he wants to stick around at all--I'm not 100% sure of that based strictly on his sideline demeanor), and I doubt he'll trade for a longer-term option. He might trade up for a draft pick, though.

The problem isn't how many QBs the Redskins drafted, but in who they've drafted and then how they've supported/developed those guys once on the team. There's no magic formula for this. Different franchises have had differing successful strategies, but it all boils down to having an excellent FO that can identify the college QBs who are the best fit for the team's culture and strategy and that can also put together an offense and coaching staff to complement that QB. There are no "plug-and-play" strategies in football. It all has to work together. What I'm sure we can all agree on is that the WFT's strategy/method sucks: Draft a first-round QB that the head coach doesn't want but that the owner (or his kid) likes. Said QB then gets to be golden boy for a couple years and doesn't necessarily have to follow coach's orders. When Golden Boy QB washes out, play the JAGs sitting behind him for a while and then scramble around to trade for a nearly washed-up vet. When the vet breaks down or washes out, go back to Step 1 and repeat. That recipe describes the Redskins/WFT basically since Patrick Ramsey was drafted. Maybe not 100% accurate, but close to it. It obviously doesn't work, but the alternative is for the owner to butt out after hiring a professional FO that gets multiple years to put things right. That's what we were promised with Ron's hiring...we'll see.

I'm sure you're right. However, if the league can't force Dan to sell and won't allow him to move, are they (and by "they" I mean the powerbrokers like Jerry and Mara) willing to allow the status quo for decades to come? We are absolutely talking about the bottom line, here. The DMV is one of the top 5 wealthiest metro areas in the country, and the league can ill afford for the TV ratings and other metrics of engagement from this region remain in the toilet for decades. I can, however, see Dan thinking he needs to stay here to maximize his own revenue. I wonder, though, if his mindset changes once he gets shot down by every jurisdiction here.

Mahomes was only drafted in 2017. I was wrong, though, in that he was the 10th pick that year. Still not in the very top. Despite all that overdrafting, the guys getting the rings keep not being the guys being overhyped into the Top 5 picks. i'm being somewhat of a devil's advocate here. The WFT clearly needs to draft a franchise QB in order to succeed. The history just shows that drafting a QB doesn't magically turn things around. If the team isn't well-stocked and well-run, those Top 5 picks get destroyed on the field before they ever get a chance to shine.