I am done with the Redskins -- and not just because the Redskins suck.

Oh, trust me -- the Redskins have been bad before.  But as a fan growing up here in the 80s, you knew it was only a matter of time before Jack Kent Cooke, Bobby Beathard and Joe Gibbs would lift the team back into the NFL's elite.  I've been watching the Redskins for as long as I have memories.  One of my favorite toys as a kid was a white plastic Redskins football.  When the team won its last Super Bowl in 1992, I kept a commemorative coke can for years afterward. 

Then Gibbs retired, JKC died, Snyder bought the team at auction...and that was the end of the Redskins' relevance in the NFL. 

Since Snyder bought the team and hired Vinny Cerrato to be his yes-man 10 years ago, the Redskins have ranged from yawningly mediocre to downright bad.   And that's just their performance on the field.  [Actually, calling Cerrato Snyder's yes-man is a compliment to Cerrato.  It absolves him of some responsibility for the completely moronic personnel and coaching decisions made by Redskins management over the past 10 years.]

Not even the return of Joe Gibbs could stop Snyder running the team into the ground.  Gibbs managed to make the playoffs 2 out of the 3 years he came back.  Apparently he did it with bailing wire and Scotch Tape, because the team imploded half a season after he retired again.  From 6-2 during the first half of Zorn's tenure to 2-5 now, the team is total garbage almost from top to bottom thanks to horrible management and personnel decisions. 

Don't get me wrong: from a business perspective, the team is doing just fine.  Snyder has applied his marketing savvy and made the Redskins the most profitable team in the NFL.  He has done a fantastic job exploiting a loyal, die-hard fanbase to line his own pockets.  He has also alienated many of those same fans by ruining the game-day stadium experience with overzealous security, firing longtime staffers for no apparent reason, overcharging for concessions, and the like. 

The team can't hire a GM or a coach with any reputation or credibility, because top candidates don't want to work for Snyder.  After Gibbs re-retired, the team hired an offensive coordinator before hiring a head coach.  They then ended up promoting the guy they hired to run the offense, making him the head coach instead.

But this season takes the cake.  Not only is the team cover-your-eyes awful -- they aren't even fun to watch.  They have lost to some of the worst teams in recent NFL history this season, and at 2-5 have little hope of winning any of their remaining games.  Many players appear to be doing their own thing, and seem to have shown up just to collect one of Snyder's too-high paychecks.  This season, the first hired an 'offensive consultant' who has been retired from football for 5 years and was a bingo-caller and volunteer.  They pushed this onto a coaching staff that didn't want it.  Then the team team forced their head coach (Jim Zorn, a nice guy who's in waaaaaaay over his head) to give up play-calling duties to the consultant they hired the week before.  It was obvious these changes were forced on Zorn and his staff.  Only a few days ago, Cerrato announced that Zorn would be the coach through the end of the season thought speculation was flying that Snyder had courted replacements already.  

To make matters worse, team management has decided to stifle all outward signs of fan discontent.  A brand new policy bans ALL (instead of only some) homemade signs from being brought into the stadium by fans.  The team claims this is to protect fans from obscured views and injury... but the team handed out large, Geico-sponsored Redskins signs and towels at the last home game, so obviously this is a lie.  Fans have reported that the team now bans the media from interviewing tailgaters, and security has forced people to turn t-shirts with negative messages inside-out.  Some fans even reported security calling the police on them, and threats that their season tickets would be revoked for daring to speak their minds about the team's malaise in print at the stadium they bought tickets to sit in.

The Redskins have even sued fans for breach of contract -- for breaking commitments to buy luxury club seats...then the team re-sells their tickets anyway.  On some occasions, they've sued a senior citizen and grandmother in her 80s, and a schizophrenic.  But don't take my word for it: read this.   And this.   As you'll see from the links in the first article, there's more where that came from.  Instead of taking the opportunity to do some introspection and make changes, the Redskins have instead decided to attack the media and fans who have the audacity to call them out on their incompetence and bullying.

I hold out hope that one day, Dan Snyder will have an epiphany and sell the team.  Or that he will hire real football people to run the organization and allow them to do so without interference.  I also hold out hope he will hire some folks on the marketing and operations side who treat fans like human beings instead of sentient wallets to be nickel-and-dimed at every turn.  Until then, I'm following this team from afar, through the outlets it has no control over, and the Redskins won't see even an indirect penny from me.  Dan and Vinny, I'd like to sarcastically thank you for making a mockery of my favorite sports team and tainting all my wonderful memories.      

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