A New Start! (the Reboot) The Front Office, Ownership, & Coaching Staff Thread

[88Comrade2000]

52 minutes ago, Lovi said:

Brian Porter new Director of football operations.  Course he was in Carolina.  Does this regime know that there are in fact people that work outside of the Carolina organization?

That's because our new name will be Carolinas.

[Est.1974]

1 minute ago, dyst said:

I get the trust factor of hiring guys you worked with before but it better work.

Was just about to post the same. That’s a long list of previous associates. Fine by me, not a great look if it falls on its arse though.

 

Only thing missing now is Cam Newton...

[88Comrade2000]

You know, Beth arecommended Dan sell the team; after Dan obstructed and tried to cover up thing.

If Dan didn't obstruct and try to cover up; would Beth still have recommended Dan sell?

 

If the acts Dan either participated in or allow to happen didn't prompt removal; then the NFL may have tried to cover up. The leaker feared the NFL would cover up this and leaked it.

[tshile]

1 hour ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

The narrative that Snyder is better positioned than an outsider because of his two decades in the league is majorly flawed. That implies that the only way someone can successfully run a NFL franchise is by gaining experience in the NFL. I'd argue that organizational development, regardless of industry, is much more critical. I'd much rather have an owner who has succeeded doing something else than an owner who's repeatedly failed doing this. 

it also ignores the glaring piece of missing information:

snyder has failed at every business he’s touched except for the one telemarketing company he founded and sold

 

so outside of starting a company that’s sole purpose is to be a figurative asshole in our every day lives, he’s been a multi-decades-running failure of a businessman. 

[BurgundyBooger]

1 hour ago, tshile said:

This seems to be an overly optimistic picture of Snyder’s “growth” as an owner and it isn’t backed by anything. 
 

by all reports snyder had his hands in drafting our latest QB which was by all accounts drafted too high, needed work we didn’t see but everyone else saw, and was cut before finishing his second season. 
 

what the hell exactly about that says Dan learned a god damn thing from when he first took over the team?

 

1 hour ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

Right, because the guy tripped over his own feet for 20 years, we’re supposed to consider that ‘valuable experience’ that anyone else with billions of dollars won’t possess?

 

1 hour ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

The narrative that Snyder is better positioned than an outsider because of his two decades in the league is majorly flawed. That implies that the only way someone can successfully run a NFL franchise is by gaining experience in the NFL. I'd argue that organizational development, regardless of industry, is much more critical. I'd much rather have an owner who has succeeded doing something else than an owner who's repeatedly failed doing this. 

 

Well, maybe I should have made that opening paragraph clearer: I'd rather we keep a seasoned screw up like our Dan that have a younger clone of himself acquire the team (hence, "old Dan vs. new Dan") and fans suffer a reboot of old mistakes that marred the organization at the onset of his ownership. Frankly, I don't want another young, brash billionaire to even look at this franchise, and if I had to choose then give me the older, closer-to-poor-health-and-death version whose years of service would exempt him from repeating some follies (not all) that a younger owner of his ilk would likely commit.

 

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by BurgundyBooger

[tshile]

22 minutes ago, Rdskns2000 said:

If Dan didn't obstruct and try to cover up; would Beth still have recommended Dan sell?

I think it’s fair to assume there was a cover up because there was something worth covering up. 
 

usually the coverup is worse than the crime. But. We don’t need to worry about that. Because there was a coverup. 

7 minutes ago, BurgundyBooger said:

 

 

 

Well, maybe I should have made that opening paragraph clearer: I'd rather we keep a seasoned screw up like our Dan that have a younger clone of himself acquire the team (hence, "old Dan vs. new Dan") and fans suffer a reboot of old mistakes that marred the organization at the onset of his ownership. Frankly, I don't want another young, brash billionaire to even look at this franchise, and if I had to choose then give me the older, closer-to-poor-health-and-death version veteran owner whose years of service would exempt him from repeating some follies (not all) that a younger owner of his ilk would likely commit.

 

 

this is insanity. 
 

You’d rather keep a proven loser that creates a toxic culture and reduced a once top-5 team/fan base to a laughing stock and utter irrelevancy, because ....

 

you’re afraid the person that replaces him won’t be better? Or worse?

 

this isn’t a perennial 9-11 win team that just hasn’t made it over the hump. 
 

this is a ****ing dumpster fire. 
 

Opting to keep the dumpster fire because you don’t know who will replace him is INSANE

Edited March 10, 2021 by tshile

[brettstr]

6 minutes ago, tshile said:

I think it’s fair to assume there was a cover up because there was something worth covering up. 
 

usually the coverup is worse than the crime. But. We don’t need to worry about that. Because there was a coverup. 

this is insanity. 
 

You’d rather keep a proven loser that creates a toxic culture and reduced a once top-5 team/fan base to a laughing stock and utter irrelevancy, because ....

 

you’re afraid the person that replaces him won’t be better?

 

this isn’t a perennial 9-11 win team that just hasn’t made it over the hump. 
 

this is a ****ing dumpster fire. 
 

Opting to keep the dumpster fire because you don’t know who will replace him is INSANE

Dan is changing like any normal business operator would do.

[Commander -JB-]

Dan Snyder is literally liked by nobody.  He’s obviously a snake who is a major **** up & can do nothing right.  He absolutely should be forced to sell the team.  

[BurgundyBooger]

3 minutes ago, tshile said:

I think it’s fair to assume there was a cover up because there was something worth covering up. 
 

usually the coverup is worse than the crime. But. We don’t need to worry about that. Because there was a coverup. 

this is insanity. 
 

You’d rather keep a proven loser that creates a toxic culture and reduced a once top-5 team/fan base to a laughing stock and utter irrelevancy, because ....

 

you’re afraid the person that replaces him won’t be better?

 

this isn’t a perennial 9-11 win team that just hasn’t made it over the hump. 
 

this is a ****ing dumpster fire. 
 

Opting to keep the dumpster fire because you don’t know who will replace him is INSANE

 

Now you're electing to go for selective reading, so I won't respond further beyond this final clarification. I never once stated that I'm against new ownership. In my original post, I even made the point that I would PREFER a seasoned and successful businessperson with the right credentials to BUY this team from current ownership. What I don't want is another Jordan Belfort type to be the one to do it. If you choose to have sporadic bouts of intense emotion to ignore that point and instead pursue some rudimentary and flawed framework of it instead then that's on you.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

I highly doubt the NFL will allow a sale to buyers that are like Dan Snyder.  There are legitimate billionaires out there, that would love to buy an NFL franchise.

6 minutes ago, brettstr said:

Dan is changing like any normal business operator would do.

He's been 'changing' for two decades.  Said 'change' is always as a result of massive failure, only to fail again.  

Edited March 10, 2021 by BatteredFanSyndrome

[tshile]

1 hour ago, BurgundyBooger said:

 

Now you're electing to go for selective reading, so I won't respond further beyond this final clarification. I never once stated that I'm against new ownership. In my original post, I even made the point that I would PREFER a seasoned and successful businessperson with the right credentials to BUY this team from current ownership. What I don't want is another Jordan Belfort type to be the one to do it. If you choose to have sporadic bouts of intense emotion to ignore that point and instead pursue some rudimentary and flawed framework of it instead then that's on you.

“Dan Snyder would be preferable to an unknown”

you also said you’d prefer him to another young owner. 
 

The issue here is your ability to use the words that correctly express what you mean, or it’s with what you mean. I don’t care either way. 
 

this isn’t a reading comprehension or sporadic bout of emotion issue. 
 

You either suck at writing or suck at forming opinions

 

now if you want to say you don’t want to replace snyder with another ****ty owner like snyder, then sure. Congrats. Awesome opinion you got there  

[Conn]

1 hour ago, brettstr said:

Dan is changing like any normal business operator would do.

 

[CommanderInTheRye]

I will say this until I am blue in the face. [Repeat]

 

I will say this until I am blue in the face.

 

Dan is salvation.

 

Dan is our benevolent friend.

 

In tough times Dan sustains us and allows us to be one with the better angels of our nature.

 

We are all fortunate to be embraced by the love and grace of The Dan.

 

I am not a bot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dissident2]

This thread has me shoveling names into my ignore list like a 19th century stoker shoveling coal into a steam engine. Keep 'em comin'!

[86 Snyder]

7 hours ago, brettstr said:

Dan is changing like any normal business operator would do.

 

[Skinsinparadise]

Good article today on Mayhew

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/11/martin-mayhew-gm-washington-football-team/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wp_redskins

 

...The story Martin Mayhew’s friends tell about him most often is the one about how, in 1991, he attended law school at night in secret while playing for the Washington Football Team. They believe it’s a good way to understand him. Mayhew was neither big (5-foot-8) nor particularly fast, but he played nine years in the NFL with the intelligence and discipline put on display by his dedication to Georgetown Law. The same traits have propelled him into the upper echelons of NFL front offices for the last two decades.

 

But that story misses the bigger picture. In ’93, Mayhew left for Tampa Bay in free agency and paused his studies. Three years later, he retired, returned to Washington and, at 31, restarted law school from the very beginning. He was perhaps the only one there who juggled class with a wife and two children. Mayhew graduated in 2000, his commitment to finishing as revealing as what got him there in the first place.

 

...In the first month or so after he was fired, Mayhew spent a lot of time at Starbucks. He was processing the first high-profile failure of his life by sitting in a busy coffee shop and writing more than 100 pages, analyzing what went wrong in Detroit and how to correct it. He soon landed with the New York Giants, focusing on contracts and cap management.

 

In San Francisco, Mayhew was a sounding board for Lynch and concentrated on scouting and football operations. But more than player evaluation, Lynch said, Mayhew learned from the 49ers’ organizational structure. The coaching staff and front office collaborated in a way they hadn’t in Detroit, and Mayhew was struck by Lynch’s ability to convey a vision to ownership, coaches, players, media and fans.

“The biggest thing I picked up from John is how important clear communication is across all areas that a GM touches,” Mayhew said through a team spokesman. “Some other areas were the 49ers grading system, meeting schedules and the way the [draft] board was organized. All of that … was really impressive stuff that I will take with me for the rest of my career.”

 

In January, after Washington’s season ended, Rivera requested to interview Mayhew. They knew one another from playing in the 1980s, serving together on the league’s diversity committee and previous interviews; Rivera for Lions coach in 2009 and Mayhew for Panthers GM in ‘17. Mayhew wanted the GM job, even though it didn’t have final say over roster decisions, for reasons personal (most of his family lives on the East Coast, and he recently went through a divorce) and professional (the chance to win what he couldn’t in Detroit).

In the new front office’s first news conference, Mayhew, Hurney and Rivera all expressed optimism that the team’s structure could work. Mayhew answered every question first, and Hurney followed in lockstep. Mayhew mentioned one versatile college player, whom he declined to name, and said he and Hurney were aligned on where he should play if the team were able to draft him.

 

“There’s no ego here between either one of us,” Mayhew said. “Our goal is to win a championship. We’re working toward that together. We’re both going to be evaluating, both going to be working on the road some, and just … setting the table for Ron to make the decision.”

This is how Mayhew can maximize his rare second chance. It’s how he can push forward the first franchise that gave him a chance to stick in the league, and help build a roster talented enough to win a Super Bowl. This year mirrors 1997, when he moved back to Washington to complete his law degree. Mayhew didn’t like how his first shot at GM ended, so he has, once again, returned to this city to finish something he started long ago.

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

[NickyJ]

Love to hear a Washington dude doing well, but fluff pieces don't cut it for me. Mayhew was an architect of mediocrity and assisted in making an 0-16 season. I'm still waiting to see if Mayhew + 2019 Panthers Staff = Success.

Edited March 11, 2021 by NickyJ

[Dissident2]

ES gets a mention in this article, along with the old "Andyman" saga. The overuse of "[insert racist team name here]" gets really old in my opinion, but interesting article despite all that:

 

https://defector.com/dan-snyder-accused-of-wielding-twitter-bot-army-has-a-pathetic-history-of-astroturfing/#:~:text=Dan Snyder stands accused of,planet%2C denies all astroturfing allegations.

Quote

 

Dan Snyder stands accused of using Twitter bots and planted news stories to prop up his cruddy public image and weakening grip on NFL franchise ownership. Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team and also the most consistent man on the planet, denies all astroturfing allegations. His past, alas, is full of similarly phony public relations campaigns and incidents of Snyder fabricating good press when he can’t earn it. The legend of Andyman looms large…

 

A fascinating March 5 story by Michael Phillips in the Richmond Times-Dispatch pointed out that an odd binge of social media posts favorable to Snyder appeared just as his hold on the Washington Football Team had reportedly become tenuous. Phillips’s piece came out the same week that hosts of a D.C.-market sports talk show, The Sports Junkies, announced they’d been leaked portions of a preliminary report of the NFL’s investigation into years of allegations that Snyder has fomented a misogynistic and abusive workplace. The sportalkers said the excerpts they’d received included recommendations that Snyder either be forced to sell the team or be suspended until the wrongs are righted.

 

Phillips wrote that the suspiciously similar pro-Snyder tweets came from a gaggle of Twitter accounts that “appear to be ‘bots.’” The Twitter accounts were all created in October 2020 and have women’s photos for avatars. The tweets pump up Snyder’s non-heinous moves, such as WFT’s hiring of Jennifer King as the NFL’s first black female full-time assistant coach, and the team’s producing a seminar called an “Empowered Women Panel.”

 

Phillips also reported that recent ads that appeared on Facebook promoted an odd, four-month old story about Snyder’s philanthropy on a website called NYC Talk. That publication’s mission statement says it aspires to be “a news site catering to many different aspects of life in New York City” and “to become an indispensable source of the important information every New Yorker needs to know in order to make the most of their personal and professional endeavors.” A puff piece on an owner who neither lives nor has a team in New York wouldn’t seem to fit the bill. Among the good deeds listed in the NYC Talk piece are Snyder’s foundation making “$1 million in donations to victims of the 9/11 attacks” and helping out “following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.”

 

But since this is PR and not journalism, the NYC Talk piece does not mention that Snyder also profiteered off those exact same catastrophes. In 2006, on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, for example, he ran commercials on sports radio stations and also made a pitch on his NFL team’s online store for fans to “commemorate 9/11” by paying $23.99 plus shipping for a “Flag Hat,” which was a cheesy black ball cap with a team logo alongside a red, white and blue Pentagon patch. These sales were not earmarked for any charity, just Snyder’s already deep pockets. 

 

As for Hurricane Katrina, Snyder was chairman of the board of Six Flags at the time and running the theme park chain into the ground at rollercoaster speed. His company got blasted for exploiting the natural disaster for business purposes; New Orleans’s then-mayor Ray Nagin said Six Flags was trying to use the devastation as an excuse to implement a pre-existing business plan to break a 75-year lease with the city and shutter the park. “If any company is trying to figure out an exit strategy, they are,” Nagin told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Snyder not only went ahead with the abandonment scheme but on the way out of town actually got federal contracts to lease the parking lots at the Six Flags outpost to FEMA for use storing trailers for folks left homeless by the devastating flooding. So, sorry NYC Talk, Gandhi he ain’t.

 

Snyder’s attorney, Jordan Siev, is quoted in Phillips’s story saying Snyder had nothing to do with the positive PR blitz. “Dan Snyder unequivocally denies ever using bots or fake accounts to put out favorable news stories,” Siev said.

 

Siev’s denial would carry more weight if only Snyder hadn’t already been caught employing sham media campaigns so often in the past. As bad as Snyder is as a team owner or boss, he’s worse at handling his own PR. 

 

Take the case of the organization called “[Racist former team name] Facts.” In 2014, that group entered the very contentious debate over the team name while claiming on its website that it was a grassroots effort formed by “a growing online community of passionate fans” and alums of the team who were opposed to any name change. The group bought ads in publications such as Sports Illustrated to drum up support for keeping the name. But Slate’s Josh Levin reported that this keep-the-name undertaking was the opposite of grassroots. Levin learned that the group was actually connected to D.C. PR powerhouse Burson-Marsteller. Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post reported that “all” the early followers of the group’s Twitter account were Burson-Marsteller employees. Another internet sleuth, Jamie Zoch, learned that Burson-Marsteller’s parent company, Young and Rubicam, had registered several similar-sounding domain names, including TheReal[Racist former team name]Facts.com, Disputed[Racist former team name]Facts.com, and Fake[Racist former team name]Facts.com.

 

Snyder’s spokesman at the time, Tony Wyllie, nevertheless asserted that Snyder had nothing to do with the anti-change group other than providing “moral support” and some travel money so supporters could attend keep-the-name rallies. That laissez-faire claim was exposed as fraudulent in 2015 when Steinberg noticed that a game-day tweet obviously meant to be posted on WFT’s official Twitter account was accidentally sent out on the Facts.com account, meaning the very same person was almost certainly handling both the team’s and the allegedly independent group’s Twitter accounts. 

 

Then there’s the Andyman saga, the most hideous and hilarious astroturfing debacle of the Snyder regime. In 2005, a poster going by “Andyman” became something of a superhero on message boards dedicated to WFT; in the pre-Twitter days, message boards were the top clearinghouses for superfan banter. By far the most popular message board for WFT fans was called Extremeskins. The board had been started by fans but was acquired by Snyder in 2005, thereby becoming the first team-owned message board in pro football. The acquisition was part of Snyder’s aggressive anti-media campaign, which he dubbed Unfiltered. Snyder’s scheme to control the message and bash all other messengers also entailed starting up a “news” channel on the team-owned website and buying time on television stations in the D.C. market to air Snyder-produced infomercials. 

 

Andyman’s original popularity on Extremeskins came from his ability to forecast the team’s personnel moves with a level of accuracy only somebody deep inside Snyder’s circle could attain. But Andyman began using his clout to rally message board devotees to join him in attacking any journalist who reported anything not nice about the team or its owner. 

 

Andyman’s prime target was Nunyo Demasio, then the lead writer on the WFT beat for the Washington Post. At the same time, WFT management also took to using all the Unfiltered resources to publicly bash Demasio and his employer. 

 

Karl Swanson, the team’s senior vice president for communications who described himself to the Post as Snyder’s “henchman” in charge of handling the media, took the odd step of going on Extremeskins in May 2005, as the team was finalizing its board takeover, to specifically direct posters to “The Nunyo Files” a thread created on that board exclusively for Demasio attacks. Swanson bragged in the same chat that he was one of only three employees that reported directly to the owner. 

 

The dumbass hordes answered Swanson’s call to show Demasio their hate: One particularly disturbed Extremeskins member who posted as “BD” tagged his posts with the sign-off, “I would not pee on Nunyo Demasio if he was on FIRE.”  

 

The personal attacks caught Demasio’s attention, and his bosses’. “It was crazy,” Demasio told me recently.  “They were trying to make an example of me because [Snyder] had lost control of how the beat was covered. But the higher-ups at the Post, they really, really stepped up. This is one of the most important beats on the paper, and they made sure I knew they had my back, and it really said a lot about their mindset. I’ll never forget that. This is the paper that took down Nixon, and they weren’t going to let a team owner force a beat writer off the beat, which was what Snyder was out to do. They gave me a raise. Dan Snyder got me a raise.”

 

Andyman’s future wasn’t so rosy. His demise began when Demasio left the Post for Sports Illustrated in late 2005. News of his hiring popped up on a message board for sports media, sportsjournalists.com. Andyman crashed that going-away party to get in some final insults. But then it was leaked by sportsjournalists.com insiders that Swanson himself had registered at the site using a traceable email that belonged to him. The Henchman cometh. 

 

When I called Swanson in October 2005 about the sportsjournalists.com fiasco, he denied he was the pseudonymous burgundy and gold cult hero. “I know of Andyman, but I do not know who that is,” Swanson told me. “I am not Andyman.” 

 

Swanson admitted registering at sportsjournalists.com, but said it was just to read the posts. Registration was not necessary for read-only access, however. Swanson then conjectured that Andyman was “somebody who works at a copy desk” of a newspaper, but couldn’t explain why he thought a copy editor would harbor such obvious hate for the media in general and specifically Demasio. Nobody bought Swanson’s denial, and Andyman lost all his message board gravitas after the outing. The episode painted Snyder’s organization as petty and stupid. Swanson left WFT in 2010. Demasio went on to co-write a bestselling book with Bill Parcells and host a podcast that in 2019 lured the NBA’s David Stern on for a blockbuster interview. Demasio told me he never encountered another operation like Snyder’s before or since his days at the Post. 

 

“I’d covered other teams before [WFT]. I came to the beat from Seattle covering the Sonics. And out there the owner, Howard Schultz, definitely wouldn’t like everything you wrote,” he said. “And when that happened, they would make a complaint to the paper, and try to make things better. They didn’t try to go to war with you and smear you and use their fake accounts online. Andyman, that really took it to the next level.” 

 

When he read reports of WFT’s latest fake media forays, Demasio said, recollections of Snyder’s unique sleaziness flooded back. “It’s still the same craziness. He’s had practice at this stuff for years!” 

 

Andyman’s bizarre Extremeskins acolyte, BD, was also eventually unmasked. Demasio learned the meanie poster’s actual identity in 2006, when the Washington Post created a political blog called Red America in an effort to pander to right-wing readers, and hired a writer named Ben Domenech to run it. The project was a disaster. Domenech was fired after just three days, when it came out he had a long history of plagiarizing work that had previously appeared in, among other places, the Washington Post. 

 

After Domenech’s firing, Demasio got a call that the poor sap who flamed out in shame at his former employer and the dumbass who attacked him obsessively on the Snyder-owned message board were one and the same. There’s no evidence that Domenech was ever on Snyder’s payroll; he followed Andyman’s orders to attack on his own and pro bono. BD/Domenech’s member page at Extremeskins is still up, though it says he hasn’t visited the site since January 2011. 

 

Red America and BD went away, but Domenech didn’t. He now serves as the publisher of the Federalist and is a regular contributor to FOX News, but is best known as the husband of Meghan McCain. Domenech did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Demasio has watched Domenech’s rise in conservative media with equal parts disbelief and amusement.  “I’m going, ‘That’s the guy from Extremeskins?'” he said. “This rock star in the conservative movement who goes on to marry Meghan McCain is a serial plagiarist who posted on message boards that he wouldn’t pee on Nunyo Demasio if he was on fire? That’s the guy?”

 

Yup. What a guy. 

 

Disclosure: Dan Snyder once sued the author for writing mean things about him.

 

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by Dissident2

[LightningBuggs]

@Dissident2 Wow, that's a fascinating article.  Thanks for posting.

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

[skinzplay]

If Louis was as good in a front office as he apparently is at racquetball, maybe he'd be working in the league. Just sayin'.....

[TD_washingtonredskins]

1 hour ago, skinzplay said:

If Louis was as good in a front office as he apparently is at racquetball, maybe he'd be working in the league. Just sayin'.....

 

I have no idea if he's any good...but I do find it funny when people assume everyone would rather grind and work for a team rather than be on TV. I thought the same thing for years with Jon Gruden. I'd want the TV gig!

[BurgundyBooger]

On 3/19/2021 at 1:10 PM, Skinsinparadise said:

 

 

 

I'm at a loss for words.

[lovemaskins]

I bet he was hitting the hell outta that racquetball.