City Paper: Sorry, but I applaud Dan Snyder

[Art]

Interesting take by the City Paper here:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/index.php/2008/01/29/sorry-but-i-applaud-dan-snyder/

Not sure the entire blog is spot on, but there are some interesting debate points we haven't seen here so it might be an interesting conversation to have here. I agree with the Wise comment as Wise had a pretty stretched rationale for Williams.

I also think back to Spurrier when late stories came out that the interview process was pretty easy for him because he was so sought after it was such an easy, obvious move, but had you interviewed more with him, you might have gone a different direction. If those old stories had any truth, the exhaustive searching both four years ago and now might have something to do with being so badly burned by Spurrier and conventional football wisdom.

[nneece]

City Paper always take the different, radical opinion on topics.

[Art]

City Paper always take the different, radical opinion on topics.

Sure. But it's radical MORE on the grounds it's a minority voice. Is the content radical? It does miss on a key critique of this situation that we've got a staff in place before a guy to lead it and that's unfortunate as that area is important to get into.

[TheLongshot]

Personally, there is nothing in that article I can argue with. I pretty much agree with it on almost every point.

I do think he glosses over the assistant hires a bit, but I think he pretty much gets it.

Jason

[budski]

Really don't have an opinion either way as long as they win games I'm happy.

[RumpofSteelSKIN]

The column makes sense to me. There is absolutely no reason to be up in arms right now. If we get the right coach what diference does it make when he's hired. If we hire the wrong guy, the same applies.

People just don't get it. Snyder owed Williams nothing.

[HSW]

Never got past the name calling...did not care to read anything after that.

[Art]

Never got past the name calling...did not care to read anything after that.

Really? You must be having a hard time on the board then, or reading anything lately .

[fansince62]

what an "arsehole" - to paraphrase his language...he misses the key point ...... being thorough (which is up for debate since we don't know what is happening and how much of this is driven by circumstances - right... folks who claim this all the time?; interview 10,000 folks for all I care...that doen't make it thorough...it makes it lengthy) is not the same as having a plan.....and even more directly...a good plan.

what a windbag!

[Califan007 The Constipated]

He didn't state his viewpoints very eloquently lol...but I think his views do hold weight and merit. Snyder's being a LOT more deliberate, logical and responsible in his actions than fans want to believe...I guess it's easier to tell ourselves since we don't know what Snyder is doing, HE must not know what he's doing, either.

[Stophovr6]

I've always disliked Snyder but I have to agree with this article. It's funny to me that so many people that apologized for Snyder in the past are taking this HC search to be the biggest fumble and disgrace this org. has ever seen. Really? Because the main complaint about Snyder before all this was that he was impatient. He is finally showing some patience and impatient people are jumping all over him.

Whereas most people have turned anti-Snyder due to this debacle, I can honestly see myself swaying the other way should the new coaching staff become successful within the next 4 years.

Funny how things work.

[fansince62]

He didn't state his viewpoints very eloquently lol...but I think his views do hold weight and merit. Snyder's being a LOT more deliberate, logical and responsible in his actions than fans want to believe...I guess it's easier to tell ourselves since we don't know what Snyder is doing, HE must not know what he's doing, either.

maybe.....

and maybe many of the parties he is speaking with don't want to come to the Skins under his terms.

Art is spot on when it comes to the assistant coaches issue........the article had some emotionalisms on that subject...but was completely vapid when it came to cogent argument.

I don't blame Snyder for the predicament...JG threw him into that. That said, I am not confident he is handling it well. It seems more like he is being buffeted by circumstances than that there is some really clever master plan in play.

[fansince62]

I've always disliked Snyder but I have to agree with this article. It's funny to me that so many people that apologized for Snyder in the past are taking this HC search to be the biggest fumble and disgrace this org. has ever seen. Really? Because the main complaint about Snyder before all this was that he was impatient. He is finally showing some patience and impatient people are jumping all over him.

Whereas most people have turned anti-Snyder due to this debacle, I can honestly see myself swaying the other way should the new coaching staff become successful within the next 4 years.

Funny how things work.

another 4 year plan!.... :doh:

[Califan007 The Constipated]

I've always disliked Snyder but I have to agree with this article. It's funny to me that so many people that apologized for Snyder in the past are taking this HC search to be the biggest fumble and disgrace this org. has ever seen. Really? Because the main complaint about Snyder before all this was that he was impatient. He is finally showing some patience and impatient people are jumping all over him.

Whereas most people have turned anti-Snyder due to this debacle, I can honestly see myself swaying the other way should the new coaching staff become successful within the next 4 years.

Funny how things work.

Just watch...if we DO end up hiring Steve Mariucci as the next HC, half the people claiming that Snyder has turned the head coach search into a fiasco and claiming Snyder has made the Skins the "laughingstock of the NFL", will be praising the move and saying the coaching staff of Mooch, Zorn and Blache could end up being a good one.

[fansince62]

Just watch...if we DO end up hiring Steve Mariucci as the next HC, half the people claiming that Snyder has turned the head coach search into a fiasco and claiming Snyder has made the Skins the "laughingstock of the NFL", will be praising the move and saying the coaching staff of Mooch, Zorn and Blache could end up being a good one.

no matter who is hired...it doesn't change the contradiction between what DS said at the outset and what subsequetly transpired. it doesn't account for the cost of the process; it doesn't account for the apparent cowardice in how much of this was handled.

the speculation? the inaccuracies? where in the heck do you think much of the source for this lies? it's an inescapable outgrowth of the way the whole process has been handled.

btw....the coaching staff we just jettisoned was also a good one...so I'm not sure where your thought process eventually ends up.

[Larry Brown #43]

First off, very interesting to see someone from the CP praising Snyder for anything, because the CP always, without fail, characterizes Snyder as the most dispicable human being on earth. So this piece is noteworthy for that reason alone, if nothing else.

I part ways with the writer on the G. Williams point. I have no inside information to back this up, but my strong hunch is that GW was never under strong consideration for the job, and that he was only interviewed to placate Gibbs and to try to demonstrate to the fans that GW was given a fair shake. I just don't believe there's anything GW could have said or done in the three or four interviews he had that would have completely undone everything he did for us over the last four years.

The more I think about it, the more I believe GW never had a shot.

As for the issue about hiring the staff before hiring a coach. Generally, I don't think this "backwards" approach we're taking is ideal, but I'm not as troubled by it as I am about not giving GW a chance. If we were to wait until after the HC is hired to fill out the staff, I'd be really concerned that there'd be few qualified candidates still on the market to hire. We could be left with a staff with less experience than the one Spurrier brought to town.

For example, I like everything I read and hear about Jim Zorn. If we had waited until after the Super Bowl, odds are someone like him wouldn't be available anymore. I give credit to Snyder for one thing in all of this: it APPEARS (emphasis on 'appears') as though he's getting a feel for which assistants the coaching candidates are comfortable with, and making decisions based on those discussions. So I don't think it's likely that any of the HC candidates will be disgusted by the staff they inherit.

[RFK Lives]

Hmmm...some interesting points. Especially the part about the assistants hire. I am hoping he is right and Dan and all of us for that matter, reap the rewards of stretching out the process.

[jimster]

I've always disliked Snyder but I have to agree with this article. It's funny to me that so many people that apologized for Snyder in the past are taking this HC search to be the biggest fumble and disgrace this org. has ever seen. Really? Because the main complaint about Snyder before all this was that he was impatient. He is finally showing some patience and impatient people are jumping all over him.

Whereas most people have turned anti-Snyder due to this debacle, I can honestly see myself swaying the other way should the new coaching staff become successful within the next 4 years.

Funny how things work.

bingo.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

maybe.....

and maybe many of the parties he is speaking with don't want to come to the Skins under his terms.

Since we don't know what Snyder's terms are, I personally find it useless to speculate what they might be and then assign blame to those imagined "terms", though.

I don't blame Snyder for the predicament...JG threw him into that. That said, I am not confident he is handling it well. It seems more like he is being buffeted by circumstances than that there is some really clever master plan in play.

What are the things that make you feel Snyder isn't handling this well...especially considering that, as you put it, Gibbs threw him into an unexpected predicament to begin with?

[fansince62]

First off, very interesting to see someone from the CP praising Snyder for anything, because the CP always, without fail, characterizes Snyder as the most dispicable human being on earth. So this piece is noteworthy for that reason alone, if nothing else.

I part ways with the writer on the G. Williams point. I have no inside information to back this up, but my strong hunch is that GW was never under strong consideration for the job, and that he was only interviewed to placate Gibbs and to try to demonstrate to the fans that GW was given a fair shake. I just don't believe there's anything GW could have said or done in the three or four interviews he had that would have completely undone everything he did for us over the last four years.

The more I think about it, the more I believe GW never had a shot.

As for the issue about hiring the staff before hiring a coach. Generally, I don't think this "backwards" approach we're taking is ideal, but I'm not as troubled by it as I am about not giving GW a chance. If we were to wait until after the HC is hired to fill out the staff, I'd be really concerned that there'd be few qualified candidates still on the market to hire. We could be left with a staff with less experience than the one Spurrier brought to town.

For example, I like everything I read and hear about Jim Zorn. If we had waited until after the Super Bowl, odds are someone like him wouldn't be available anymore. I give credit to Snyder for one thing in all of this: it APPEARS (emphasis on 'appears') as though he's getting a feel for which assistants the coaching candidates are comfortable with, and making decisions based on those discussions. So I don't think it's likely that any of the HC candidates will be disgusted by the staff they inherit.

agree with you in the main...but continue to believe that the risk in hiring assistant coaches ahead of the HC is that you may end up with incompatible strategies/visions.........though I will confess that the risk is lower in this instance since we went wiht a person who has zero, nada, zilch expereience as an O coordinator.

[DOOG]

oh...come on....thats MSF with an article in a local paper! :logo:

[jimster]

oh...come on....thats MSF with an article in a local paper! :logo:

that usually tears Snyder apart.

[Califan007 The Constipated]

no matter who is hired...it doesn't change the contradiction between what DS said at the outset and what subsequetly transpired.

What were the contradictions in your mind?

it doesn't account for the cost of the process; it doesn't account for the apparent cowardice in how much of this was handled.

What were the costs, and what was the cowardice?

the speculation? the inaccuracies? where in the heck do you think much of the source for this lies? it's an inescapable outgrowth of the way the whole process has been handled.

Am I right in assuming you feel the press would NEVER have speculated or been innacurate under "normal" circumstances? lol...

btw....the coaching staff we just jettisoned was also a good one...so I'm not sure where your thought process eventually ends up.

The one we just "jettisoned" was brought upon mostly because the head coach jettisoned himself...we didn't do that.

And the coaching staff we just "jettisoned" had four years to prove itself...and ended up with a losing record and four straight years of entering December with abysmal records of 3-6, 5-6, 3-7, and 5-7. As much as I worship Gibbs, these last four years have been medicre at best. There's no denying that anymore.

[DOOG]

that usually tears Snyder apart.

eh..just goes on my theory he says stuff just to be contrary sometimes...not so much the actualy opinion...gheesh. Hence the :logo:

[fansince62]

Since we don't know what Snyder's terms are, I personally find it useless to speculate what they might be and then assign blame to those imagined "terms", though.

or to assign praise/resignation....you made my point..

What are the things that make you feel Snyder isn't handling this well...especially considering that, as you put it, Gibbs threw him into an unexpected predicament to begin with?

every statement he made at the outset about continuity...being happy with the staff...etc...has been turned on its head. Snyder screwde the pooch by speaking before thinking. I have no problem wiht someone coming out and saying "I think we need to set a differnet course for these reasons....". Instead, he fed everyone a bunch of BS because, apparently, it was the soothing to say at the moment.

At this point...I don't even care any longer about the "process" or its outcome. DS is simply not a person one invests faith or trust in. You are free, of course, to size up the measure of a man and make your own decisions on what true leaders are and what character consists of.