Clouds on the Horizon - Part Three

Decision making

Two players, two problems, one common denominator: money. As the 5-11 2006 season recedes into the past and the Redskins look toward 2007, two key defensive players, Shawn Springs and Sean Taylor elected not to attend voluntary workouts, publicly exposing rifts between player and team. In this three-part series, The Curly R examines league and team factors contributing to this development.

Part One: The Modern Era
Part Two: Terrell Owens, Shawn Springs and Sean Taylor
Part Three: Policy, Practice and Personnel


Success in the NFL is always elusive, but teams also make their own luck. Behind the roster and the playcalls is an organization dedicated to winning, but the rhetoric and the results aren't matching...

Policy
The policy doesn't encourage winning. Under Dan Snyder, the Redskins have adopted a policy of playing players premium salaries. Dan gets what Dan wants, and players long ago took notice. Although it is anecdotal to any reader of NFL media coverage, Howard Bryant quotes Shawn Springs:

"Sometimes I get so depressed talking about the Redskins," Springs said. "You know, during the season, when I talk to guys who are going to be free agents, you know how they talk about the Redskins? They talk about getting paid. I want to win. I want to win football games."

It's not that players that come to the Redskins don't want to win games, it's that winning is increasingly not the reason they come here. Much like any public company that needs a short-term boost in stock price can float a bullshit merger or acquisition rumor, any agent that needs to gain some traction with a team can simply float the Redskins as a potential suitor for his player. They are known at this point for being about money not performance and once the player gets that 10 million dollar signing bonus in his pocket, he's home free. What, are you going to release me after two years? I'll just go somewhere else and get what you were going to give me in weekly salary all at once in a new signing bonus while you try and explain the cap hit to the fans.

And if you are a believer that players need motivation at every level to bring out their best game, then you can get your head around the idea that once a player signs that big deal with Washington, he loses a good deal of motivation. There will be no new monies coming in the next few years, and the player suddenly has a shitload of money in his pocket. Any Redskins fans remember Dana Stubblefield?

Every NFL organization has to cope with the same salary scale, but there are obviously those that manage to keep an advantage, either or both in terms of keeping salaries reasonable by signing players to long term deals early in their careers (Philadelphia, Jacksonville) thus avoiding the annual panic of the Redskins as they realize they are tens of millions over the cap, or putting management and coaching in place that can keep players motivated after they get paid (Philadelphia, Indianapolis, New England) thus avoiding the cliqueishness the Redskins experience every year as the new batch of free agents remind the old batch that they are yesterday's fad.

Washington is where players come to get paid, not to win games.

Practice
The practice is inconsistent. Famously once with the Cowboys, one of Jimmy Johnson's players, a defensive back, asked how 'voluntary' the Cowboys' voluntary workouts really were. As I remember this story (I could not find an online reference), Jimmy smiled and told the player the team could not force players to be there, whereupon he went back to his office, made some phone calls to other teams and when no one would take the player in trade, Jimmy cut him, that day.

Maybe that story is apocryphal, but the lesson is still relevant. The NFL is a year-round job, and the singular purpose of every team, every player, every coach and every owner is to be on the podium in the confetti storm hoisting the trophy after the last game. From this fan's perspective, there is no offseason and I will stand behind players that show me they give a shit.

Joe Gibbs wanted his players to stay in Washington to participate in conditioning locally, where the team and the player could communicate and track progress. Conditioning of a player is not just about the player staying in shape, it's about the player staying in the shape the team needs him to be. There is such a thing as too much muscle and there is such a thing as improving quickness and footwork. The players may know their bodies, but the team should know how the players will be using their bodies.

When Joe decided to let players handle their own conditioning out of town, it was not because he believes his players know what to do, or that he trusts them to the point where he knows they will do right by the team, it was because the players were not going to be there anyway, so he simply lowered the bar to where noncompliance (skipping offseason conditioning and OTAs) is compliance. Letting these players stay away from the team all winter and spring is a little like a parent giving the problem child a Mustang when he turns 16 in the hopes that this will bribe him into doing better in life. Meantime the A student golden child is driving around in a used K car wondering why the fuck she should keep trying.

Joe Gibbs, who once traded away a future Super Bowl quarterback for failing to stay in town in the offseason, has lost his ability to link his old school rhetoric with his current management practices, if he even ever had that to begin with. For more on this policy, see also.

Personnel
The personnel is weak. As indicated in part one of this series, the NFL has given rise to a breed of agent focused solely on short-term gains for their clients and a breed of player more concerned with getting paid than with playing the game. This cart-before-the-horse mentality weakens the team core in the same way the bonus babies of the early 90s turned the NBA into a street game where defense is not respected, passing is down and e'eybody is looking for their shot.

Rapper-footballer Brandon Lloyd, I Don't Take Paycuts Shawn Springs and I Already Hate My Next Contract Sean Taylor seem to be of this type. No one wondered why San Francisco was so eager to get rid of Brandon, then he flipped out at least twice on the sidelines. I wonder what he's like in private. His contract is such that no matter what the team wants to do with him, they can't do it until at least next offseason. Maybe he will get his head out of his ass and be a player this season. If so, I'll apologize to him.

Shawn, well a reason for him not taking paycuts is some future possible half million dollar medical bill. While I sympathize with him and the plight of his ailing father, former Dallas Cowboy Ron Springs, Shawn could use a little perspective. In the first place, he has been in the top percentages of the top one percent of earners so to hear Shawn talk about how he doesn't take paycuts because he may have healthcare needs someday is akin to hearing how Tom Ridge, who was a governor and made 154 thousand dollars a year as the head of Homeland Security, made the decision to leave government because he has college-aged kids and needs to earn some 'real' money to get them through school. It's mildly insulting in that way the privileged talk idly about material things most people in life will never ever have. He clearly does not understand how fortunate he is to have earned so much money at such a young age.

If the Redskins cut him and he gets nothing from them, then he faces starting over, where he may get a signing bonus equal to or greater than the 7 million dollars he would have gotten from the Redskins, or maybe not. Either way, his public rationale is pathetic. He's not refusing to take a paycut on account of his ailing father or some lofty principle, he's just confident the Redskins can't afford to take the field without him and is willing to bet millions he's right. But that doesn't sound as compassionate as 'hey here's my sick dad can't we all just get along,' does it?

Sean, well he's turning into more trouble than he's worth. When George Solomon turns on you, you're done. Maybe the Redskins won't trade him like George has suggested, but you do get the sense that even if the Redskins made Sean the highest paid safety in history right now, he'd be unhappy with the contract by the opening of training camp. George is not so high on Shawn either.

Beyond these examples of players, there is a deeper personnel problem, one of qualifications. As owner, Dan Snyder is the wrong person for the job. He seems able to sign players to big money, but gets bored of his players so fast that they turn over before they realize their potential at their position. Vinny Cerrato, Dan's righthand yesman seems unable to generate the perception that he is anything beyond a toadie.

Ooh, so Gregg Williams is making some serious changes, like noting a difference between the two safety positions and watching even more film. The former brings him into last century and the latter, given what we know about is attitudes toward players and criticism, gives him the perfect opportunity to find even more fault in others. Throw in some infantile behavior by the secondary coaches you wonder sometimes if this is even a pro outfit.

Al Saunders was brought in to run the offense, something Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs never had a problem doing in his first run of four Super Bowl appearances, nominally so that Joe could focus on the management aspects of being the coach. So how surprised am I that Al does not run a terrific offense and Joe can't manage the personalities? The Redskins have the most coaches in the league and seem to be the least able to do anything.

As usual, I'm burgundy and gold to the core, and if all this shit from last season turns around, I'll eat crow and write about it. A lot. I'm just looking at the radar right now and seeing trouble ahead.


The Curly R will continue offseason coverage of the Washington Redskins.



The November 1, 1991 perfect storm of 'The Perfect Storm' fame from NOAA's website here. Dan Snyder from teh internets. Joe Gibbs: John McDonnell / Washington Post from here.