Time for a change in Washington

By Louis Llovio Sports Central Columnist

Money doesn't make you taller; it doesn't make you smarter; it doesn't give you more hair or make you funnier. Money doesn't give you class and it doesn't make you a better person. Money doesn't make a jerk nice or an ugly guy handsome. Money doesn't make people like you nor does it make you happy. And, as many men driving Hummer H2's can attest to, it doesn't make you any, well ... let say just say, your car size doesn't necessarily reflect the size of anything else.

And money definitely doesn't make you a football General Manager.

Case in point: Dan Snyder.

Now, much has been written and said about Dan Snyder, the marketing whiz kid who made a billion and spent $800 million of that money on the football team he couldn't even get in to see as a child. A lot of what's been written about Snyder, the overwhelming majority of it, is negative. Much like Jerry Jones, his arrogance has been a lightning rod of controversy.

Some deserved. Some not.

But there is something that is often overlooked by the national media that D.C. residents know and that is the simple fact that no one wants the Washington Redskins to win more than Dan Snyder. Not purely from a financial standpoint, but because Snyder is, by far, the biggest Redskin fan there is.

And herein lies the problem.

He's a fan.

Dan Snyder would not of made a penny if he ran his marketing company like a guy who liked commercials, yet he runs his team like the poor schmuck who spends his day listening to sports radio and getting loaded at a sports bar while his hometown team flushes yet another season down the toilet.

Give Redskin Mike from Fairfax calling for the 19th time this week $800 million and you've got Snyder.

"Get rid of Brad Johnson, he's a loser. Jeff George's the man, Coach!" shouts Redskin Mike from Fairfax on a Monday morning after a bad loss.

"Fire Schottenheimer! Spurrier's available and he just scored 83 on Middle Tennessee Lower Valley Junior College!" Mike shouts at the end of the season.

And that's fine; Redskin Mike is entitled to his opinion. But Redskin Mike, like most radio talk show callers, knows nothing about running a professional football organization.

Neither does Dan Snyder.

His reactionary moves and fantasy football mentality has run this team into the ground.

Brad Johnson -- the only quarterback to lead Washington to the playoffs since 1997 -- won a Super Bowl ring with Tampa Bay. Jeff George, the man Snyder demanded be played instead of Johnson, is out of the league.

Marvin Lewis blew through town and was let go because the superstars Snyder brought in considered his system too confining. Ray Lewis has a Super Bowl ring because of that system, LaVar Arrington has penchant for hitting people out of bounds. The Marvin Lewis-led Cincinnati Bengals, with much the same squad from last year, have the exact same record as the Redskins with their free agent signees. Steve Spurrier's much-vaunted offense has scored 10 less points than the Bengals (the Bengals, people!).

Sunday, Stephen Davis will join the ranks of Redskins unceremoniously released by the team who face their former teammates and owner. His 7-2 Carolina Panthers will host Washington. Davis is second in the NFL with 993 yards rushing. Washington has a combined 930. Each has 5 touchdowns.

And the list of bad acquisitions and decisions goes on and on with no end in sight.

Not all this can be laid solely at the feet of Snyder, of course. He bought in hoping to replicate what Jerry Jones had done in Dallas. The problem was, for all of Jerry's bluster, Jimmy Johnson ran the club. Jones allowed them to go 1-15, develop, and grow. Based on Snyder's history, it's a pretty safe bet that he would have fired Johnson, shipped Emmitt Smith out, benched Troy Aikman, and sent Michael Irving packing to Atlanta for a second-round draft pick next year.

Patience won Jerry Jones three Super Bowl trophies. Impatience has ruined Snyder's once-proud organization.

It was only when Jones began to meddle in earnest that Johnson walked away. The bloody aftermath of that dispute is legendary, though Johnson's influence and their years of working together allowed Barry Switzer to win a Super Bowl.

The point is, even though Jones meddled and loved the limelight more than anyone, he was smart enough to bring in the right football people and let them do what they are good at.

Snyder is remiss to do that.

He has said Steve Spurrier is his man. But on Sundays, Washington is unprepared and, perhaps worse in this league of inches, undisciplined. Spurrier wants to be on his hands and knees drawing up plays in the dirt, but is not involved in the intricacies and the day-to-day functions of his team, which is precisely what Snyder wants.

Because of Snyder and his infamous "buy a championship mentality," it's nearly impossible to fire Spurrier, however. He is in the second year of a five-year, $25 million-dollar contract. To let him go would cost Snyder $15 million plus whatever he would have to pay a new coach, and everyone knows, Snyder only buys name brand.

And that brings the problem full circle. New coach equals new needs, new players, and more Snyder as GM.

Firing Spurrier would be a step in the right direction, but only if all the other wholesale changes are made around it -- if not, it's just another ring in hell.

Washington currently sits at 4-5, but it is the most misleading 4-5 in football. They have yet to win a division game. Last Sunday's win came because Ray Rhodes decided, inexplicably, not to blitz the haphazard offensive line and the wounded quarterback calling the signals -- a sure-fire strategy versus this team -- and a fourth-down play that was ridiculous at best, even if it worked -- this time.

Their only other victories came against a 3-6 Jets team missing Chad Pennington and a Michael Vick-less 2-7 Atlanta Falcons. They beat those two bottom-dwellers by a combined 5 points. Their best performance of the year came over the New England Patriots who they beat by 3 after the Patriots uncharacteristically gave up four turnovers.

Though they beat a decent team on Sunday, it was just an anomaly. Seattle did more to lose the game than Washington did to win it. Even then it took a fluke play, a miracle, and backyard flea-flicker from deep in the playbook to pull the victory off. The future is bleak and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Until Snyder learns to manage like Jones does and step in front of the lights when they are on and hide when they're off, Washington is in for more of the same. Though the problems aren't all his creation, they can be laid at his feet. He has created this atmosphere. It is his egotism and his inability to step aside and let the process take its course that has put this one honored franchise in the precarious position it's in today as the laughing stock of the league.

So, as a true Redskins fan, Snyder needs to think like a fan this one last time. He needs to fire himself. After all, no matter how much money you have, a thousand-dollar pink suit is still a pink suit.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.