Vinny's Influence....

[Going Commando]

He had 1 year left on his contract and the Skins were a playoff team. He said he wanted to spend more time with the family but he went right back into the NASCAR thing like a week later.

So what would you rather say, Joe was forced out/fired or would you rather say Joe was a quitter?

He runs his Nascar Company with his family, so he is back with them even though he is working. Also, I highly doubt that he has to put in as many hours in that company as he does being an NFL head coach. Joe Gibbs wasn't forced out, he was just tired. He was the oldest coach in the league and coaching is a younger man's game. When you are 66 years old would you still want to be putting in 80-90 hour workweeks and showing up at the office at 3 or 4 in the morning?

[Jahbird]

Joe was forced out?....I don't buy that for one minute...I'm not sure why you think that...who do you think forced him out?..Dan?..Vinny?

The government, man! Joe Gibbs blood kills terrorist and his spittle converts them Christo-Capitalism.

[wildbill1952]

On Gibbs departure, Occham's razor: "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." By Gibbs desire to be with family, he didn't mean he was going home and sit in a rocking chair next to Mama. The NASCAR team he and his boys run is being around family for Gibbs. Trying to keep 4 or 5 drivers and a pit crew in line and racing on the weekend doesn't require 18 hour days. So he is spending time with family. Money is no longer a factor for him to stay working. I don't know if it was ST's death, the bad fans (you know the type, those that disregard a career and harp on a second timeout call), Snyder or Vinny or the phase of the moon. It doesn't matter. He either had enough or wanted something else for the remainder of his life. If there's anyone who deserves it, I think Gibbs does. Good enough for me.

On 9 years of picking FA rejects from other teams, trading away the future, and generally picking poorly in the draft? tougher call. When you have a multitude of cooks it's hard to pick who spoiled the broth. An owner of the business ALWAYS has final say. After all, he is the owner. But a smart owner gives responsibility to employees like Cerrato, Gibbs, Spurrier, Schottenheimer. Even if done by committee, when it comes down to the decision, only one can make it. I wasn't there. I don't know the idiot that decided on Lloyd, or Archuleta or Deion or the draft picks like Rod Gardner or Taylor Jacobs. I don't know the genius behind getting London Fletcher or Laron Landry or Sean Taylor or Chris Cooley. So, like most, I tend to blame the bad on the guys I don't know and the good on the guys I like. But unless someone writes a tell-all book or someone was taking minutes in the draft meetings, we'll never know who made the decisions.

So, was some of it Gibbs? Possibly, for the last 4 years he shares some responsibility. Was his the ultimate decision? Again, I don't know. I know he didn't bring Deion or Bruce Smith here. But he was here when Archuleta and Fletcher both came. I can't praise him for one and blame him for the other. Was Snyder responsible for one or the other? Again, I can't see applying different rules for the good and the bad. Was it Vinny? Or GW or Spurrier or anyone else who ever sat down and tried to figure out who the future Redskins would be? All I know is that the previous 7 years were abysmal.

So do I blame Vinny? Not as I much as I blame the owner, because ultimately he has the final responsibility. But drafting by committee was garbage. Only one person can be responsible for any decision. It's Management 101.

So now it's all on Vinny. I'm willing to let him count this as his first year. I'm sure I'll judge his effectiveness as everyone else does: with perfect 20-20 hindsight. Hopefiully it all goes in his favor and the draft picks he chooses will make him someone thought of like Beathard. But in the final analysis, I don't care who gets the credit if we go back and win a Super Bowl. But if we draft a team that goes nowhere, then the blame is all Vinny's too. There is no more committee to share the credit or the blame.

[Thoth]

1. Snyder has wised up.

2. So has Cerrato.

3. Many past moves probably weren't Cerrato's preference, so the blame isn't entirely his, but he is far from blameless.

4. Cerrato still had some horrible years in SF, and was part of the problem here. Snyder, a new owner, maybe shouldn't have known better about signing old FAs, trading whole drafts away, etc., but Cerrato sure as hell should have. To hear a professional personnel man say he is just recently realizing old players signed in their 30s may not play out long contracts, etc., is hardly inspiring. These are things ANY competent personell individual would have and should have known. It is like listening to Isiah Thomas. . .

5. I am neither crucifying or deifying Cerratophant yet. He is in charge, let's see what he does with the next few drafts. . .

[Thoth]

One other thing:

Snyder has not gotten a bad rap unfairly.

He has owned the team for a decade, and not even come close to contending for it all.

He has one of the few markets with infinite, inelastic demand--the result in proportion to the money spent and effort expended is unacceptable.

He has behaved, in numerous well documented cases, like a bunghole. . .