Blog: Snyder Loves Money Over Winning
No secret agenda here, I am not a Dan Snyder fan. The man/boy owner of the Washington Redskins is finally starting to feel some of the heat from the community of devoted, lifetime fans, who are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore. Or so they say.
The Redskins are among the worst teams in the NFL. Their fourth loss of the season yesterday was to the then winless Kansas City Chiefs. The coach is in over his head, the players don't have any passion for what they do, there is no General Manager, and a general state of sourness has enveloped the franchise.
I will not bore you with the facts about just how bad the Redskins are now, or have been for the last 10 years.
I've told friends of mine in other NFL cities that if any other team would have had such awful on the field product for the last decade, they'd be...the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Oakland Raiders! Those teams stink, and the stadiums are not full with fans. Those teams are not winners on or off the field. (Where score is kept by wins and losses, and profit margins.)
Never mind that, would they keep lining up (waiting list for season tickets!), bending over, and saying, "Thank You! May I Have Another?"
The team will continue to fail as long as the two rules of Synder ownership remain in place:
1) Let Dan, and only Dan run the team. ALL football decisions run through him and him alone.
2) Bottom line is more important than on the field results. Who gives a hoot about a winning record or playoffs when the team is THE SECOND MOST VALUABLE in the NFL.
Money, Money, Money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is all Dan Snyder cares about.
Snyder could fix it. IF he'd hire a football person to be the actual General Manager, and then letting that person dictate the franchise's ON FIELD product. Then the actual team's success rate might start to match the level of profit the team has shown over the last 10 years.
It will never be fixed. Snyder will never relent. He does not understand his little toy is also a public trust. If he were truly a smart business man, he'd realize his ineptness at football matters, and focus on the other side. Then the team would have a chance of being among the league's elite.
And, Dan, you'd still make money! Because that's how you keep score. But as long as Redskins fans hold on to memories of the way-it-used-to-be, you'll keep holding them upside down til every bit of change rattles out of their pockets.
Plus, remember, you can always sue people if they can't pay for their their seat contracts!
Cause it's ALL about money for Dan Snyder.
Other markets would not continue to throw money at a team owned by such an awful owner.
Maybe the greater Washington metro will finally grow a set and tell Snyder in no uncertain terms he's doing a bad job:
Stop buying all the crap he peddles.
Because he WILL notice that.
Otherwise, get set for 10 more years just like the past decade. Cause Snyder doesn't care about on the field success. He wants success in his checkbook.
PS: He makes Jerry Jones look fantastic by comparison.
d.
October 19, 2009
