Bashing Mike Shanahan
I really am totally unqualified to make judgements about sports,
including professional football.
However I believe I can make at least some half-way intelligent comments
about how the media covers sports.
Here is an example.
By Kent Babb and Mark Maske
Washington Post, 2013-12-29
Four years ago next week, Mike Shanahan sat in an office at Redskins owner Daniel Snyder’s estate in Potomac and signed a five-year contract to become the team’s new head coach — a contract that implied more than a $7 million annual salary. Shanahan would be granted full control over the Redskins’ football operations.
Desperate for a change — Washington had finished a 4-12 season two days earlier — Snyder decided to hand the keys to his baby to a man he for years had wanted to lead his team. “Nothing but optimism,” recalled one of the four people who joined Snyder and Shanahan at a celebratory dinner that evening at The Palm, an upscale restaurant in Tysons Corner.
As the Redskins prepare to conclude their 2013 season, the optimism of that Jan. 5, 2010, night is gone. Snyder and Shanahan are deeply divided, and people in and around the organization are increasingly convinced that the two will part ways shortly after Sunday’s game. The team remains in ruin, and perhaps at Shanahan’s feet is greater destruction than what came before him. The roster needs an overhaul. There are suspicions inside the organization that Shanahan’s son, Kyle, the offensive coordinator, is empowered because of his father and has used it to his advantage. The team’s franchise quarterback, Robert Griffin III, was injured last year and deactivated this year. Fans and outsiders again see a franchise in turmoil.
There is no single reason that can explain the team’s collapse under Shanahan,
who on Sunday enters his 64th regular season game as Redskins coach with a combined record of 24-39.
This story is based on interviews with nearly 20 people inside the Redskins organization or close to it, who insisted on anonymity so they could speak more freely about the problems bedeviling the franchise.
They suggest a root cause for the downfall lies with
the very power Shanahan insisted on and Snyder granted him four years ago.
...
[Perhaps I am misreading the story,
but words like "collapse" and "downfall" will be interpreted by many
as comparing the Shanahan record to that of his predecessors.
You can find the Redskins records in past seasons here.
The Shanahan record of 24W,40L ~ 3W, 5L = .375 doesn't seem that out of line with the earlier record under Daniel Snyder's ownership.
In particular, the record the year before Shanahan took over, 2009, was 4W 12L.
Relative to that earlier record,
Shanahan's record is quite comparable, not a "collapse" or a "downfall."
Even so, it is not improvement.
But then Shanahan has been held back by a salary cap limit,
caused by a front office issue that predates Shanahan's tenure.
We read an on-going barrage of stories about discord between the Redskins quarterback, Robert Griffin III,
and the coaching staff.
Again, I have no claim to expertise on football whatsoever,
but does it make sense to assert that a 23-year-old quarterback,
in his second year in the NFL,
knows more about how he should be used than a man with Shanahan's experience?
It sure doesn't seem so to me.]
...
Two years after Snyder got his coach,
the Redskins ... orchestrated a trade with the St. Louis Rams to move up four spots in the draft,
where they would select Griffin at No. 2 overall.
Shanahan had concerns that
Griffin had no experience in a pro-style offense
and with the number of draft picks it would take
to move up from the draft’s sixth slot to get him,
a team official said.
But Snyder was sold.
Griffin had won the Heisman Trophy at Baylor in 2011,
and he was young and black, charismatic and bright, exciting and polished —
the perfect fit for Washington and the new Redskins.
For Snyder, a lifelong Redskins fan
who had grown up to buy the team as a marketing man,
Griffin was a dream —
and he made no secret of his wishes, according to a team official.
[It sure seems to me that Snyder's likes about Griffin
had more to do with his marketability in the Washington market
than with his ability to help the team.
That seems to me to be the on-going problem with Snyder:
He is more interested in how he can sell tickets
than in what will help the team win games.
Again, that opinion is not based on any expertise I have,
but just something I have picked up from some media stories.]
Shanahan, knowing he needed a quarterback, relented.
Washington sent three first-round picks and one second-rounder to St. Louis, sealing a deal to move past other clubs searching for a team-altering quarterback. The Redskins again would have their man, this time at the game’s most important position.
...
[I remember the media stories in the period before that draft.
There may have been exceptions,
but the bulk of them seemed to me to be hyping Griffin's athletic skills,
touting him as some sort of Superman as quarterback.
I wish Griffin well,
and am really sorry he was kept in that playoff game where he suffered that dramatic knee injury.
But I think it is quite possible that Shanahan was right,
that the draft picks were too high a price to pay.
If that is so,
should Shanahan be bashed for the results of a decision essentially made by the owner?]
including professional football.
However I believe I can make at least some half-way intelligent comments
about how the media covers sports.
Here is an example.
2013-12-29-WP-mike-shanahan-hasnt-solved-washington-redskins-problems-during-uneven-tenure
Mike Shanahan hasn’t solved Washington Redskins’ problems during uneven tenureBy Kent Babb and Mark Maske
Washington Post, 2013-12-29
Four years ago next week, Mike Shanahan sat in an office at Redskins owner Daniel Snyder’s estate in Potomac and signed a five-year contract to become the team’s new head coach — a contract that implied more than a $7 million annual salary. Shanahan would be granted full control over the Redskins’ football operations.
Desperate for a change — Washington had finished a 4-12 season two days earlier — Snyder decided to hand the keys to his baby to a man he for years had wanted to lead his team. “Nothing but optimism,” recalled one of the four people who joined Snyder and Shanahan at a celebratory dinner that evening at The Palm, an upscale restaurant in Tysons Corner.
As the Redskins prepare to conclude their 2013 season, the optimism of that Jan. 5, 2010, night is gone. Snyder and Shanahan are deeply divided, and people in and around the organization are increasingly convinced that the two will part ways shortly after Sunday’s game. The team remains in ruin, and perhaps at Shanahan’s feet is greater destruction than what came before him. The roster needs an overhaul. There are suspicions inside the organization that Shanahan’s son, Kyle, the offensive coordinator, is empowered because of his father and has used it to his advantage. The team’s franchise quarterback, Robert Griffin III, was injured last year and deactivated this year. Fans and outsiders again see a franchise in turmoil.
There is no single reason that can explain the team’s collapse under Shanahan,
who on Sunday enters his 64th regular season game as Redskins coach with a combined record of 24-39.
This story is based on interviews with nearly 20 people inside the Redskins organization or close to it, who insisted on anonymity so they could speak more freely about the problems bedeviling the franchise.
They suggest a root cause for the downfall lies with
the very power Shanahan insisted on and Snyder granted him four years ago.
...
[Perhaps I am misreading the story,
but words like "collapse" and "downfall" will be interpreted by many
as comparing the Shanahan record to that of his predecessors.
You can find the Redskins records in past seasons here.
The Shanahan record of 24W,40L ~ 3W, 5L = .375 doesn't seem that out of line with the earlier record under Daniel Snyder's ownership.
In particular, the record the year before Shanahan took over, 2009, was 4W 12L.
Relative to that earlier record,
Shanahan's record is quite comparable, not a "collapse" or a "downfall."
Even so, it is not improvement.
But then Shanahan has been held back by a salary cap limit,
caused by a front office issue that predates Shanahan's tenure.
We read an on-going barrage of stories about discord between the Redskins quarterback, Robert Griffin III,
and the coaching staff.
Again, I have no claim to expertise on football whatsoever,
but does it make sense to assert that a 23-year-old quarterback,
in his second year in the NFL,
knows more about how he should be used than a man with Shanahan's experience?
It sure doesn't seem so to me.]
...
Two years after Snyder got his coach,
the Redskins ... orchestrated a trade with the St. Louis Rams to move up four spots in the draft,
where they would select Griffin at No. 2 overall.
Shanahan had concerns that
Griffin had no experience in a pro-style offense
and with the number of draft picks it would take
to move up from the draft’s sixth slot to get him,
a team official said.
But Snyder was sold.
Griffin had won the Heisman Trophy at Baylor in 2011,
and he was young and black, charismatic and bright, exciting and polished —
the perfect fit for Washington and the new Redskins.
For Snyder, a lifelong Redskins fan
who had grown up to buy the team as a marketing man,
Griffin was a dream —
and he made no secret of his wishes, according to a team official.
[It sure seems to me that Snyder's likes about Griffin
had more to do with his marketability in the Washington market
than with his ability to help the team.
That seems to me to be the on-going problem with Snyder:
He is more interested in how he can sell tickets
than in what will help the team win games.
Again, that opinion is not based on any expertise I have,
but just something I have picked up from some media stories.]
Shanahan, knowing he needed a quarterback, relented.
Washington sent three first-round picks and one second-rounder to St. Louis, sealing a deal to move past other clubs searching for a team-altering quarterback. The Redskins again would have their man, this time at the game’s most important position.
...
[I remember the media stories in the period before that draft.
There may have been exceptions,
but the bulk of them seemed to me to be hyping Griffin's athletic skills,
touting him as some sort of Superman as quarterback.
I wish Griffin well,
and am really sorry he was kept in that playoff game where he suffered that dramatic knee injury.
But I think it is quite possible that Shanahan was right,
that the draft picks were too high a price to pay.
If that is so,
should Shanahan be bashed for the results of a decision essentially made by the owner?]
Labels: sports
posted by KHarbaugh at 13:00
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