Every franchise has gone through it. The dreaded, dismal, unfortunate period of rebuilding a team into a perennial powerhouse, or at least a playoff contender. But of course any team’s path to hoisting the shiny and glossy championship trophy isn’t smooth. The unexpected tribulations that occur won’t only just cause a shift in a season, but also the entire franchise.
Now there are several reasons for this to happen: fan’s disgust, lack of quality players, frugal owners, and small markets. What if all these problems don’t exist, slashes in the loss column pile up, and the animosity comes from the head coach.
Welcome to the life of the Washington Redskins. Stacked to the brim with talent and big-spending owners, the Redskins hired the only man they thought could take them where they haven’t been since 1991, Mike Shanahan.
A beefy resume that included two championships, coaching a smorgasbord of Hall of Famers, and an attitude that demands respect, is enough to intrigue any team owner.
Almost as soon as the titles of “general manager/ head coach” were given to Shanahan, so did the abomination of the Redskin’s season.
In the eyes of dictator Shanahan (and nearly every redskin fan), Jason Campbell wasn’t a franchise quarterback and was shot putted to Oakland. To fill the void at quarterback Shanahan went to division rival Philadelphia and stole 34-year old Donovan McNabb.
The defense was immediately altered beginning a chain of events that eventually sent the season into a belly flop to “Buffalo Bills/Cleveland Browns/Detroit Lions” land.
$100 million man, Albert Haynesworth wasn’t pleased with the defensive changes and began a verbal battle with Shanahan through the media and in the locker room. Lackluster efforts from both sides to come to a consensus inadvertently destroyed the potential dominance the defense was poised to have.
The over-bearing attitude of Shanahan was soon directed towards McNabb. Labeled as underachieving and a shell of himself, and “can’t run a two-minute drill”, McNabb was shelved for former Bear’s quarterback (if you can call him that) Rex Grossman.
The Redskin’s promising 2010 bombed almost as hard as the career of Jamarcus Russell. If there is any silver lining of their season, at least they had the same amount of wins as historical rival, the Dallas Cowboys.
With the offense and defense humbly ranked, 18th and 31st respectively, a final record of 6-10, and the uncertain futures of two of the most important players, the Redskins are faced with an endless amount of questions, which need to be tended to ASAPTUALLY.
The success of the 2011 season is in the hands of the all-powerful Shanahan. A promising draft is looming and blessed with several trade pieces, the move to prominence is on him, to make this $750 million dollar franchise relevant in January again.
