You Fear Me!

Left to right: Chris Mottram, Skin Patrol, Unsilent Majority, me. Not pictured: Dan Steinberg (changing tampon)

With a hat tip to Steve in Tennessee, the motley crew of bloggers above is getting some tongue in cheek blame from the Washington Post's DC Sports Bog for the tanking of Jim Fassel's bid for head coach of the Redskins, Dan Steinberg singles out these four posts here, here, here and here.

Yes it is true there was an outcry against Jim Fassel, so bad that it made it into Jason La Canfora's straight reporting in the print edition of the Washington Post, it is very rare that blogs, message boards and or the journopopulism of Redskinsland makes it into non opinion pieces of a major newspaper. Columns yes. Straight pieces no.

I was not in favor of Jim Fassel in a general way. In that way that after boot camp (Marty Schottenheimer), free love (Steve Spurrier) and home movies (Joe Gibbs) reheated oatmeal is not exciting. But it is still good for you.

You want to see some blowback on Jim Fassel? Check out reader comments on this Redskins Insider post, also a Washington Post property.

My comment on the Jim Fassel situation was largely about how Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato were mismanaging the situation, not qualitatively about Jim Fassel. In fact, I think Jim Fassel would have been a great candidate.

Here is what Curly R published about Jim Fassel through this process:

22 January, the news breaks that Jim was the mystery candidate and had in fact already had a second interview:

I won't hop on the same anti Jim Fassel bandwagon as Jason La Canfora's readers at Redskins Insider (op. cit.), I will just say it is odd. We know Jim wants another shot at a head coaching job and that Jim was a finalist for the Redskins job in 2004 before Dan Snyder miraculously reconstituted Joe Gibbs.

Jim has some bona fides. In 1997 he brought the Giants back to the playoffs in his first year after a three year lapse, with Dave Brown and Danny Kanell splitting quarterback and Charles Way (Wahoowa!), Tyrone Wheatley and Tiki Barber (Wahoowa!) in the backfield, none of those guys got 700 yards rushing.

Three years later he took the Giants to Super Bowl 35, all told the Giants made three playoff trips in seven seasons under Jim Fassel. Check your history sports fans, that would be one more trip than in any seven year stretch for the Redskins going back to 1991.

The thing that gives me pause on Jim Fassel would be that in the first place he did not get another head coaching job immediately after taking a team to the Super Bowl and then openly declaring he wanted another job before he got fired, then three years later in 2004. No jobs were forthcoming.

24 January (op. cit.), Jim was obviously as close as you can get to getting the job and then for some reason the job was pulled. Contrary to Dan Steinberg's implication by inclusion, this piece reports on the inside baseball of does he or does he not get the job and begins to prepare Redskins fans that the next head coach is not going to be a blockbuster. In the lens of Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier and Joe Gibbs Jim Fassel is plain vanilla.


30 January, a piece exclusively on the non hiring of Jim Fassel and how any notion of fan opinion and blogger opinion playing any role in whether Dan Snyder would hire Jim Fassel is a complete fantasy:

The Jim Fassel non hiring. When Jim's name surfaced as the quote mystery candidate unquote, the one that interviewed after Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and before Gregg Williams' first interview, there was serious fan outrage, so much so that it made it into the print edition of the Washington Post.

Jim was offered, then un offered the job, and now says he feels manipulated by the Redskins and the process. That said Jim still remains a strong candidate for the job.

But there is a narrative out there that is untrue, one that pretends at giving Dan Snyder credit for listening to Redskins fans...

...So why then do we believe the not hiring of Jim Fassel has anything to do with fans? Answer: it does not. The not hiring of Jim Fassel is all about Dan Snyder's search for the next big thing, what's over the next hill. Shit if I can get Jim Fassel this easily who else can I get? No need to make a quick decision, it's not like Jim is going anywhere.

Dan had a flash of Jim Fassel coaching the team and he backed down not because you or I thought it was a bad idea, but because he could conceive a better idea. That said, Jim may still be the coach, which would be fine with me at this point. With Vinny running the show now, I just don't know.

I didn't sink Jim Fassel, Dan Snyder sank Jim Fassel. Jim Fassel would have been a fine coach, just not an earth shattering hire so he died on the vine. Dan Synder doesn't consider my opinion or the opinion of any other Redskins fan. That's part of the problem.



Mean Girls screencap from here.