Fair warning--if you are not interested in hearing or reading anything negative these days, read no further. I told you two months ago I had no intention of letting this organization off the hook until I see real change. Firing Suisham is a start (since I spent all offseason wondering how in God's name he was allowed to come back) but we demand more.
I read a commenter on our site in the last few days ponder aloud (after venting about the most recent loss) what we would do on this site--or others like ours--if this team became a winner. Redskins fans have been reduced to lamenting bizarre plays and a pile of losses the last few years. I have seen Hogs Haven turn into more of a support group on some days than a home for analysis and coverage. And to be honest, I love that about us. After all, if we aren't in this thing together, then what the hell is the point? There's nothing happening here that isn't happening around water coolers, beer cans and bar stools all over this great city. We didn't invent angst here at Hogs Haven, and it isn't our goal to poke and prod at people's anger or disgust for no good reason.
Lucky for us we have a GREAT reason. We love our Washington Redskins. And we will not sit idly by and act like everything is okay just because we are losing close games in a more exciting fashion. Everything is NOT okay. For the same reasons we began beating the drum two months ago, we have to keep the pressure on this organization.
I was at the Saints game. It was easy to forget that this organization remains as dysfunctional as ever.
As Rick Snider pointed out over on The Examiner today: "...those attending chanted "defense" and sang "Hail To the Redskins" even during breaks. It has been a long time since that happened."
It was a festive experience. In fact, right up until the football gods dug their teeth into my scrotum, I would say it was very much one of the most enjoyable Sundays we have had at FedEx in a long time. I did not hear any "Fire Danny" or "Fire Vinny" chants and I did not see many of those signs either. The masses were very much pacified by the performance of the team.
And this scares the crap out of me...
We have probably already played well enough on the field in recent weeks for Snyder to spin his retention of Vinny Cerrato. We probably played poorly enough in the beginning of the season for Vinny to blame everything on Zorn. And if that is true, then we are staring at drafting a first round quarterback next season which is the most retarded idea imaginable, save for the one to retain Vinny Cerrato.
The following issues are just a few that remain unresolved as far as I am concerned:
*The supposed existence of any real "Waiting List". I don't know about any of you, but the business practices of this team simply don't lend themselves to a business that has 160,000 people waiting by their phones for the call to purchase season tickets. Are they (the Redskins) selling their own tickets on StubHub and the internet each week at a loss to maintain a completely false sense of demand for their product? If so, aren't we all paying that price?
*Just because less people are coming to the games and thereby causing less of a jam in the parking lots does not excuse David Donovan's staff from inconsistently administering their new set of tailgating rules for the majority of the season. Tailgating has been a debacle this season--I can count no less than 5 games where we showed up this season (including preseason) and were given ENTIRELY different interpretations of the rules by ENTIRELY different guys who EACH claimed to be "the guy in charge". For those who don't go to games, I understand this matters little to you, but I can't put into words how frustrating it has been to get there early, set things up and be told that we have to change our tailgate AGAIN according to some new reading of the same rules that were released in the offseason. For what it's worth, they got it right once: the very first preseason game they did EXACTLY what they said they were going to do, and a guy in a golf cart even took the time to come over to our tailgate and tell us what they were doing and how it was expected to work. To give just one example: in the home opener, they had closed off entrances to parking lots that were supposed to be open and they were DIRECTING CARS RIGHT UP TO THEM! If anyone cares to kick up this topic in the comments below, I would be happy to list more examples of incompetence from the parking lot crew.
*The commercials in the stadium are a JOKE! They blast full-length commercials at the highest volumes imaginable. We polled other sites in our network and asked if anyone else does this. We did not hear from every single team's site, but at this point we have heard of NO OTHER STADIUM that subjects their fans to 30, 45, or 60 second commercials at super high volume. It is worse than at home when the commercials come on at a volume higher than the actual show you are watching. On Sunday against the Saints, they stopped an AC/DC song they had just started to play a Coke commercial and then an Empire flooring commercial. People had literally started standing and dancing/singing along to AC/DC and then....BAM! advertising. It has to stop. It is simply another way Dan Snyder has invented to milk dollars and cents out of our love for this team. We show up, are a captive audience, and he sells our attention to crappy commercials instead of actually entertaining us. It is bad enough he can't put a football team on the field that can win. He adds insult to injury by making us watch commercials from our seats.
*Are we going to ever really talk about how there was no rule on signs, then there was a rule on signs, but only because there was ALWAYS a rule on signs, but now the rule on signs is changed and really it was all of US who misunderstood the rule on signs? Holy crap! How dumb do they think we are? (The answer to this question is as obvious as the increased security around Dan Snyder's owner's box.)
*How in God's name are we going to recover from the insanity of having the most ridiculous offensive coaching system ever? Here is my bet: You know how a TV show sometimes starts the next season with a different actor/actress playing the part of one of the main characters? That will be us. No mention of any wrongdoing, no accountability for making us look like idiots. Just, "Now playing the part of offensive coordinator: ________."
I don't know about you guys, but it feels good to get fired up after the last few weeks of enjoying the hell out of close losses. The improved play of our backups has been like an opiate to the masses, causing us to temporarily forget the reality that what we are currently watching may in fact be THE BEST GAMES WE WILL EVER SEE FOR QUITE SOME TIME.
There are some very real problems with this franchise that should not be ignored simply because we are playing better football. If we did ignore these issues, we would be no better than Dan Snyder--happy to enjoy a little short-term success at the expense of the long-term health of this team.
Long Live The Revolution!