SonnySideUp

Washington fans have had so much bad luck over the past 20 years (the worst break being Snyder buying the team and everything else that has stemmed from that) that we are long overdue for some really good breaks in my opinion. If TH can show that he can play every game like he played that playoff game and become THE guy, that would be a HUGE break for this team and fans (especially given how little he cost us).

The Washington Monuments is a no-go for me. I can just hear some commentator out there now saying "The Washington Monuments are so slow on the field, they really do look like statues out there. My first choice is the "RedWolves".

The list is so bad I suspect they meant the "Rubes" but misspelled it.

I like this. Fitz was the best of the fast dwindling options the Skins had at QB. There was no really great superstar QB left in free agency or in a possible trade. Trying for a Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson (if they were even to become available) was going to be way too expensive, especially when they have so many needs at other positions. They still have to find a long term solution at QB but they were going to have to do that anyway. This way, they have a very competent QB squad (one capable of winning the NFC east and maybe even going farther) and they have a year to find out what they really have in Heinicke. This also means that they don't have to spend a bunch of picks to move up in the draft to get one of the better QB choices in the draft. If one of the better QBs in the draft falls to them at 19 great. If not, they can draft another QB in a later round. This team is due for some really great breaks for a change. They got one when Taylor looked as good as he did in the playoffs. They might get another one if Taylor really keeps looking as great as he has so far and can become the long term guy. Now they can gamble and wait to see if he can indeed become the superstar that he has shown flashes of becoming. I really, really like this move.

Of course he is. What could be more typical of him?

Snyder using bots to manipulate? I'm sure he would never do that.

Would you give 3 first round picks for Russell Wilson? I don't think he will end up leaving the Seahawks, but if he does I think he will be like Watson i.e. the WFT would have to give up too much to get two more first round picks to get him (and it may even take more than that). I would bet they are one of the 33% of the NFL who reportedly have called Seattle about trading him however. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/02/22/report-teams-believe-three-first-rounders-the-base-for-any-russell-wilson-trade/

At least it's Ron doing the hiring now and not Snyder. We've gone from "sure" disaster before to only "maybe" disaster now.

What's that old saying about "too many cooks"?

There's been more and more buzz lately about the possibility of Russell Wilson becoming available. Would be VERY expensive though. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/russell-wilson-trade-rumors-ranking-13-logical-suitors-including-cowboys-dolphins-and-patriots/

https://www.the33rdteam.com/post/after-stafford-goff-trade-what-s-next-for-nfl-s-qb-carousel Pretty slim pickings on this list. The only "marquee" QB on the list as far as I'm concerned is Watson. Big Ben is an over the hill marquee QB. The others on the list, no way. If Watson does happen to come on the trading block, he is the kind of big name, flashy, player that Snyder loves to push the FO aside to try and get.(think Haskins, Jeff George, Deon Sanders, etc. etc.) I understand that it was Dan who pushed Ron to offer Amari Cooper huge money last year (and which ultimately failed). Who knows what he might do this year.

Drafting QB's is almost always a crap shoot. Andrew Luck, was drafted 1st in 2012 and RG3 was drafted 2nd in the same draft. Look where they are now? Luck is not even in the league anymore and RG3 just got cut as 3rd string QB by the Ravens (where he was lucky to even get a job as 3rd string QB). On the other hand Kirk Cousins, who was drafted in the 4th round of the same draft RG3 was drafted in is the starting QB of the Vikings, no slouch of a team. Tom Brady wasn't drafted until the sixth round and I don't even have to mention where he is now. Forrest Gump would probably say that drafting QB's is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get.

Oh man, all the enemies Snyder has made over the years are really getting after him. He's got to be wondering where all the love has gone by now! They are determined to get him and are regularly sprinkling these stories along one right after another now. Yet another story drops, this time about financial malfeasance and him apparently sending goons to the house of the co-owners' investment banker. I love it, this is more fun than watching Washington beat Dallas. I'm starting to believe that there really is a good chance that he may have to sell the team. It's just a shame that his behavior reflects so poorly on the team, the fans and the area. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/12/29/daniel-snyder-washington-football-ownership-dispute/ >>Moag’s filing makes clear that the discovery of what he characterizes as financial malfeasance is the “serious s***” he alluded to in a text message to Snyder threatening further disclosures if Snyder did not agree to an orderly sales process. An image of that text was included by Snyder’s lawyers in court filings made public this month. The text reads in part: “If you continue your game, you know what I know and what I have never spoken about. And you know it has nothing to do about the media s*** … it’s the more serious s***. “If you want to get to a clean conclusion, let me know. If you want a s*** show, we are on for that too.” In his affidavit, Moag states: “In the course of this representation, my clients learned of some serious corporate irregularities in the [Washington Football Incorporated] 2019 financial statements which I alluded to in a call I had with Snyder in late September 2020, including long missing financials, breaches of the partnership agreement, and other significant issues, some now being litigated in Judge [Peter J.] Messitte’s court, and others in ongoing arbitration. To say that discovering these improprieties disturbed my clients is an understatement.”.... ....In the filing, Moag also accuses Snyder of sending two “intruders” to his home Aug. 1 in an attempt to intimidate him. As Moag recounts the visit in the filing, the men wore no masks, would not identify themselves, claimed to represent a prospective buyer and, in a “menacing” manner, asked what he had been saying about the team and its owner...<<

Merry Christmas everyone. It's Christmas morning and Santa Snyder has brought us yet another ****show for a present, this time as a headliner on CNN. At least he can't keep saying that his problems with the press are because the Washington Post has it in for him.

I probably wouldn't be able to either if I had to go through life with a name like "Jeremy Sprinkle".

RG3 is still his old self: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/12/02/robert-griffin-iii-sounds-off-on-lack-of-preparation/

He reminded me of Darrell Green chasing down Erik Dickerson to prevent a TD in 1986....a play that will stay in this team's lore for a long, long time.

I wouldn't go giving Dan too much credit for such a great hire as Jason Wright. It's my understanding that the NFL gave his name to Dan with term "given" most likely meaning "strongly suggested", "strongly recommended", etc. The same goes for Beth Wilkinson, whose name was also apparently "given" to Snyder. I can't speak to Ron or Julie Donaldson however. Ron was chosen before any of this started so he was probably legitimately a Dan choice. I just don't know about whether Julie Donaldson was completely Dan's choice or not. They pointed out in Sunday's show that all of this change was going to have to take place with the "owner on the sidelines". I took this to mean that Dan is now on a short leash by the NFL with the NFL saying to Dan essentially that "you can remain the owner for now while we get this all figured out but in the meantime, we are going to take more control of who goes in there to clean this place up". Even the name change was forced on him by outside forces so his actually decision making about key team matters seems to be diminishing, at least for now. I don't know how much autonomy the NFL can actually remove from an owner while leaving him in place as essentially a figurehead for a while. It's not hard to imagine a situation where the operation of a particular franchise has gotten so egregiously bad and the owner has demonstrated so profoundly and over such a long period of time that he is incapable of making positive changes himself, the NFL decides that instead of forcing an owner to sell (at least for the time being), it has to step in and take a more active role in effecting changes itself.

A couple of points. First, if you missed the one hour ESPN special, it is being re-broadcast tonight (Monday 9/7) at 10 pm on ESPNNEWS, again on at 1 AM (Wednesday 9/9) ESPNNEWS. I believe it is also on again (Saturday 9/12) on ESPNNEWS) at 9 AM. It is also on the ESPN.com website in the “on demand” video section, at least it is at the moment. This is all on my current Xfinity lineup. Yours may be different. It will possibly be re-broadcast more times on one of the ESPN networks. The show is "Sport Center Special", "A Franchise In Crisis - The Washington Football Team". I watched the excerpts from the show last week as well and there was one segment in the first excerpts broadcast that was not included in any of the re-broadcasts of the excerpts or in the Sunday 1 hour show, for whatever reason. It was Jeremy Schaap’s interview with Lisa Banks, the attorney representing 20 of the team’s former employees, including the 4 women who spoke on camera. I’m not sure why this would have been cut from subsequent airings. When asked what she was looking for, she said “change and accountability”. When Schaap asked her what that looked like, she said that it means more than making a hire or changing a policy and that the only way you can have it is by changing ownership. She went on to say that she had met with Lisa Friel, who is overseeing the investigation for the NFL (Lisa Friel was the chief sex crimes prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney's office for 28 years before coming to the NFL a few years ago). Lisa Banks said she told Lisa Friel that the investigation should be taken seriously by NFL. She said that she came away from the meeting confident that it would be and that the right decision would be made in the end (she went on to qualify that by saying that it was her hope and expectation that would happen). She also went on to say that while they have gotten the women’s NDAs released for the investigation, they are still working to get them released for anyone else the women would care to speak to. One other point. Gloria Allred has been hired to some of the other women involved and we haven ‘t even heard from her yet!! Regardless of what you may think of her, once she gets going and the lawsuits start (especially if she manages to get a copy of the video) this thing will go to an even higher noise level. She needs to stop calling the team by it's old name though. https://www.radio.com/thefandc/sports/washington-football-team/gloria-allred-representing-former-washington-cheerleaders?utm=newsbreak

A lot of people say that Snyder will only be fined after the investigation and not be forced to sell the team. They say this current team situation is different in the NFL's eyes from the Panthers situation with Jerry Richardson because Snyder has not been shown to be personally involved to this point (whereas Jerry Richardson apparently was). I don't think there necessarily has to be an apples to apples comparison between the two team situations. The Washington team's alleged offenses may not match those of the Panther's exactly but may very well exceed them when taken collectively. I think it's entirely possible that after the investigation and if the claims are true, Snyder may indeed be forced to sell the team and here's why I think that: A - this team represents a different market than the Panthers do. It's the Nation's capitol, one of the most prestigious franchises in the NFL if not THE most prestigious franchise in the NFL. The team already has a poor enough reputation for it's embarrassingly bad on the field product, (not for just years but for decades) and now it's receiving an abundance of negative attention for apparent serious workplace culture problems. B - As far as the Panthers situation goes, that was then and this is now. The NFL has a lot more (and bigger) problems to deal with on it's plate today (such as the pandemic) than when they had to deal with the Panthers. They don't want to have to now keep dealing with the Washington team's problems, which have been accumulating for decades and now appear to be almost entirely caused by workplace culture and personal behavior. Even the team's abominable on the field performance and injuries over the years have been shown to have been almost completely caused by poor management. Unlike the horrendous problem of say, trying to have a season with the pandemic in full force or dealing with racial injustice, the Washington team problem can be fixed relatively simply by jettisoning the owner. C - I don't believe there were minority owners of the Panthers who so visibly and vocally wanted to abandon ship and sell out as there have been in Washington, but I could be wrong. They have also been very clear about their reasons for wanting out (i.e. tired of the way Snyder runs the team). This only makes Snyder look even worse than just the women's complaints taken alone do and I think tends to support their validity. D - I disagree with those who say that the other owners will support Snyder and refuse to remove him, I suspect the situation may be just the opposite. As others have pointed out, the bad publicity has now become world wide with the ESPN show and not mostly just local. The longer this situation drags on and reflects more and more on the entire league, I think the other owners are becoming more and more tired of it and concerned about more scrutiny directed at their OWN operations. They're going to want that to stop at some point. Taken collectively, I think the above points make a strong case for removing Snyder. I think there is just too much public attention now being paid to the cesspool that Washington has become (much more than I think there was on the Panthers). I think it is actually becoming a complete firestorm and too many people are not willing to settle for anything less than Snyder's complete removal. Finally, if anyone is interested in comparing the Washington situation to that of the Panthers, here is a link to a Sports Illustrated article that lays out the Panther details pretty well. https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/12/17/jerry-richardson-carolina-panthers-settlements-workplace-misconduct-sexual-harassment-racial-slur

That raised my eyebrows a little when I heard it too but in the context of all the other claims both in the show and in the Post articles, I decided it was believable. I remember way back years ago when Snyder was still trying to buy the team, there was a story about him being in a restaurant in I think it was Denver. He was supposedly in a conversation with several other people when a waitress interrupted him talking to take their drink orders. He allegedly had her fired because she interrupted him. This was before he had even purchased the team and gotten the reputation he has now. In light of developments surrounding him lately and over the previous years, that story seems quite believable in hindsight. I just watched the 6 pm version of Sport Center and they abbreviated it from the early afternoon show. The last several minutes of the show were cut in the 6 pm version. These were the parts where they interviewed the womens' attorney and discussed talking with Goodell. Maybe they will be in the one hour show on Sunday. Right now, there's a one hour "Sports Center Special" scheduled at 5 pm Sunday, 8/6/20 on ESPN 2. I'm guessing that's it. Tomorrow's (Friday's) Sport Center is supposedly going to have an interview with Jason Wright.

The main new news that I remember seeing was the part about the player following her out to her car and continuing to ask her out, which you already pointed out. There was also remarks from a woman who said she was told she wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom at times because employees weren't allowed to "wander around" when Snyder was in the building. The main thing for the show for me was that it brought the stories in the newspaper to life and gave them a much more vivid and real quality. It also provided an opportunity to go into the claims in more depth. The same show is supposedly going to be re-broadcast today at 6 pm on Sport Center.

I watched the entire program. It was on the 1pm airing of Sport Center on ESPN2 today (Thursday) although it had originally been scheduled for noon. It is apparently going to be re-aired today at Sport Center 6 pm with a second part tomorrow (Friday) on Sport Center. Don't know whether it will be the noon or the 1 pm version so I will DVR both. There is apparently going to be a 1 hour show on it Sunday as well. I don't know the time yet for that. I thought the show was brutal. The cheerleaders said that the only acceptable solution to the problem for them is the complete removal of Dan Snyder as the owner. Their attorney said the same thing as well. Another interesting comment from them was that they said that they had talked with Roger Goodell and came away with the sense that they would be satisfied with the result of the investigation. I found that interesting since they had said the only acceptable result for them was his complete removal. I guess we'll see what happens.

Roger Goodell, Commissioner National Football League 280 Park Avenue New York, NY 10017 roger.goodell@nfl.com A coordinated letter writing campaign might be best. Here is a portion of the letter sent by the Native Americans to Roger Goodell in July to formally request the team name change, along with the link to the entire letter. It could be used as a prototype. Note the CC list at the end. Copying the CEOs of major team sponsors (such as FEDEX, Nike, Walmart, Pepsico, Bank of America, etc.) and other important people tends to get more attention than just sending a letter to the NFL alone. Fred Smith of FEDEX is a good example. He has strong ties to the team and is readily accessible to the public. I sent a letter to him a few years ago about a concern I had with FEDEX involving another matter and the next day, I got a FEDEX overnight letter response from him delivered right to my door. Most executives do pay attention to what people think about their businesses if you go about it the right way. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjlvozisLnrAhXRZTUKHZ7SDk4QFjAPegQICBAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.courthousenews.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2FGoodell-letter.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3D_oJzs87J26-uriqlFyTy >>Dear Mr. Goodell, The undersigned are Native American leaders and organizations that have worked tirelessly and substantively for over half a century to change the racist name of the Washington team. We appreciate the statements made in recent days regarding the league and the team’s intention to revisit the name, but we are deeply concerned that the process or decision to rename is being made in absence of any discussion with the concerned leadership.... <<

Once Beth Wilkinson came on board, I suspect she starting slowing things down considerably and putting lids on wherever she could. Probably one of the first things she did was a phone call to the WaPo attorneys warning them to be very VERY careful about what they publish. This probably caused the Post to sanitize the article and remove any parts of it that they thought they could get sued on. It seemed like no coincidence to me that Thursday morning, right after a certain local TV station and other sports outlets, Twitter etc had started going on and on about how this "sickening, bombshell" report was about to come out which could destroy the francise, NBC sports published an article on how "lawyers were now getting involved in the situation" and that was going to make it harder to "break stories". At about the same time that article had been published, we heard that Beth Wilkinson had just be hired to "review the team's culture". https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/washington-football/report-lawyers-are-involved-pending-washington-football-news >>....When the lawyers get involved means things are quite serious. It likely also means whatever report is expected could be delayed, and the dark cloud that seems to follow the Washington franchise will keep lingering....<< This is why I think there really is more to come. Beth Wilkinson was brought in as the cavalry to save Dan Snyder and she immediately flattened the Post article into something, while still bad was nowhere near as bad as it had been shaping up to be before she arrived. Stay tuned, I still think there will be more shoes to drop.