Diner morning news: Lessons for Snyder

Good sh!t, Mr. Lombardi.

Perfectly summarized the Redskins situation

Hey Mike, great article but you might want to credit the author you borrowed the kindergarten bit from. That's Robert Fulghum from his book entitled "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten"

Contrast the difference(if any) between his other business ventures and the Redskins. What can apply to this transformation?

Can a Gibbs interview about the JKC days help Snyder evaluate his role with the organization along the same lines. Where is the next Bobby Beathard?

From a business perspective the Allen/Gruden team looks like they would make a great, best selling addition, to the firm. Gruden coached with the Eagles during the Ray Rhodes years, he's no stranger to the East. He has success and credibility among players and coaches.

Gruden loves hiring free agents as well, he can help guide Snyder and still have 'the Dan' acting 'the don' for the Redskins football family.

THAT, Mr Lombardi is the best summation of what Daniel Snyder represents that I have read.

Honestly, I saw him for what he was within the first few weeks of his strong-arm purchase of the team.

At least with Al Davis, he's like 100 years old and senile so he's not really responsible for his actions. But Snyder has no excuse so he has to be held accountable for the team's awful state. I know if I owned a team I'd want to tinker with it and play GM, but eventually if I didn't have success I'd hire an accomplished guy to run things. Snyder is unwilling to step out of his own way and, until he does, the Skins will continue to be a disaster.

Am I the only one saying the emperor has no clothes when it comes to Gruden? He and Allen left Tampa in shambles. He rode what Tony Dungy built to a SB win then destroyed the franchise. he was unable to develop or find a QB. He was supposed to be an offensive genius but his team won thanks to Monte Kiffen. I really don't see why people keep putting Guden's name out there like he is a great coach.

As a Redskins fan I can totally relate to all of this. I have already stopped caring about the team and I NEVER thought that would happen. People say "You aren't a true fan if you don't stick with them through thick and thin." But to me it isn't the fact that they are losing, it is the fact that they have been doing things the same way for 10 years with no results, and have not changed. Then when you hear stories about the team suing season ticket holders and it makes me even more indifferent.

Rick,

For all we know up here in DC, you may be right about Gruden. But I'll bet the farm he's far superior to Zorn. He may even have the balls to stand up to Snyder, which is what's really needed here.

Regardless, I think Gruden could have beaten Detroit and Kansas City with the talent we have here (which isn't much, but it's more than those two clubs). We win those two games and that group of men in burgundy and gold is fighting for the top spot in the east last night instead of rolling over and giving up the season.

"For the right amount of money, anyone will say yes"
I
disagree with this statement. There are a lot of people out there who are not money motivated. It's just not a very good story when they're not interested.

Money doesn't buy "everyone."

Loved this column, loved the list of kindergarten rules. It's funny because it's true.

Great article -

I love the "Dynamic Duo". lol

Do not try to compare this guy to Al Davis, Al Davis was a coach in College and USC and recruited players there. Al Davis was an assistant coach with the Chargers and NFL coach of the year his first year coaching the Raiders.

Al Davis was head of the AFL and helped turn the NFL into what it is today and than became an owner of a team. The Hall of Fame also had to build a wing at the Hall of Fame for players that Al Davis found and brought to the Raiders.

So even though these past 7 years have been hell and the Raiders have been playing like the other half of the NFL teams have been playing since their inception Al Davis has every right to do what ever he wants with his team.

Many have ups and downs, I mean look at you. After being run off by 5 teams and shitting where you worked with the Raiders you have been black balled in the NFL and nobody will hire you. It is easy to sit back and play Monday morning QB and quite another to be in the action and on the front lines.

I am glad to see someone finally call out one of these little rich boys that come in and buy a team and want to try and play Al Davis. And to all those on Al Davis like he never did anything, history will not only call you dumb but will prove you wrong. Davis could never have another winning team again and very few owners in the NFL could stand beside him as an equal.

As for Grudem?, Gruden has been and always will be a Raider deep down. Rumor has it that Gruden will be heading back to Oakland at the end of the season and will coach the Raiders next year. He will also receive a part of the team and completed control to run the organization and once tired of coaching will serve as the Raiders new Al Davis and take the Raiders forward. Bruce Allen will also return to the Raiders with him.

One can dream right?, if Al still had it that is what he would do. Keep his office but hell the man is 80 and the energy to run these teams today is for the young and Gruden and Allen has it. And to all those that say Gruden cannot stand Al Davis or the Raiders, it just goes to show really how little you know about what you talk.

Gruden is the perfect guy for a young team and the Raiders need someone who will care as much as Al Davis to run the organization once Al Davis cannot. If Al Davis did that the greatness of the Raiders really would be in there future. Stability with the right people onboard is what is needed at the Raiders with a modern football mind with the energy of a youngster, do it Al bring the Raider back home, Once a Raider always a Raider will mean something again.

Great article Mr. Lombardi.

I feel fortunate that neither the Redskins nor the Raiders are "my team." Being a Packer fan all my life I can relate to the emotions that these fans must be feeling towards their team. As the Packers were in a rough stretch through much of my youth, until a certain number 4 took over for the "magic man" and Holmgren was able to tame this new commodity.

My advice to fans of those teams is to wake up cause the John Madden days in Oakland and the Gibbs days in Washington are over.

For Daniel Snyder, read Jerry Jones. As a Cowboy fan, I stopped caring once he brought in the circus act of TO. Why is Wade Phillips the head coach? Because he's a yes man. As much as I dislike the Redskins, it's like looking in a mirror.

Mike --

So you still think Shanahan is going to take the Redskins job? Horrible owner and the talent situation is a mess right now

Well, Lombardi,

I did watch much of the Monday Night Football game live (all except for Will Witherspoon's INT return and DeSean Jackson's touchdown run) but I Tivo MNF every week to evaluate it Tuesday morning. Well, I guess the Tivo was repulsed by the Redskins' shortcomings as my Dish Network system is randomly shutting down everytime I attempt to watch it. Mr. Snyder, don't be so hard on my system with your inane ineptitude. That's all I've got. War the Broncos going 7-0 by vanquishing the Ravens. We've not heard you for too long on Jim Rome's radio show.

Great article, good have removed Snyder's name and inserted Jerry Jones. Here in Dallas, many of us are growing weary of the owner who is more concerned with surrounding himself with sycophants than giving "football people" the power to effect change.

Diana- Not trying to be argumentative, but Lombardi expressly stated he wasn't comparing Snyder to Davis. Also, how do you know the psyche of Jon Gruden? What evidence is there that he would EVER want to work for Al Davis after he was desperate to leave and so thoroughly enjoyed destroying the Raiders in the Super Bowl? He is outspoken about that.

Tell Bowen - he still thinks Snyder is a good guy.

Diana - Get out from under Al Davis' table and open your eyes. Nobody cares what Al Davis has done in the past, that doesn't win football games for his team now. The guy is ruining a once proud francise which he helped build. Anyways, you Raider fans always have to make everything about you. This article wasn't about the crazy old loon. Maybe you should start your own blog about the love you have for Al Davis so you don't take up space in the comment section.

Why is it that there are so many raider fans that are so impassioned about dismissing Lombardi's opinions and credentials yet cannot even bother to show up to a Raiders home game? I guess Raiders fans must really enjoy blacked-out games and a team that is committed to being under .500.

I am going to kinda stand up for Daniel Snyder . I don't think he is as selfish as you have let on Mike. He definitely isn't as cold or as ruthless as to bring back Joe Gibbs as some sort of ruse . My guess is he was a big fan before he purchased the team . He was well aware of Joe Gibbs past success. I thought the way he handled the Sean Taylor tragedy was beyond professional . I think he showed alot of heart . Is Daniel Snyder a type A personality ? Oh yes . But look at the success he had in the business world . He is worth over a billion dollars & as far as I know has been formally trained in nothing . I don't think he has it in him to give up control . I don't think he is selfish . I think it is his personality . I don't think Daniel Snyder is capable of not having total control . Thus I don't see the Allen/Gruden thing ever taking place .

And Diana , I have a soft spot for Al Davis as well but I think there is a better chance of Raider Elvis being head coach than I do Chucky next season in Oakland .

And wash your hands not only before you eat but every hour or two . Catching pig flu would bite .

Snyder may be bad, but what's more pathetic than an owner who won't even live in the same town as his team and treats it like it's any other toy his rich daddy ever gave him? I speak of Randy Lerner. He is even less football knowledgeable than Snyder I would wager. I'm not even certain he cares about winning. At least with Snyder you see he will spend the bucks even though it's stupid the way he does.

The Skins haven't bottomed out yet....but they're getting close. Snyder I'm sure is a very smart guy, but to find his answers all he has to do is look to the franchises that have had staying power and figure out what makes them successful.

And like Lombardi says, being able to successfully evaluate your own talent is as important as evaluating college and other pro talent. He needs to build an organization from the top down....but before that can happen -- like the alcoholic -- he has to look himself in the mirror and conclude that his way of doing Skins business the past 10 years doesn't work.

Right now he's looking at a minimum 3 to 4 year rebuilding job because he's got to gut the entire organization and start from scratch. Get someone in capable of doing that job and step back and learn. Or continue to underachieve now and well into the future....

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Snyder has basically cashed out all the goodwill that previous owners (particularly Edward Bennett Williams and Jack Kent Cooke) spent decades building, along with some world-class coaches and dozens and dozens of great players. Snyder can make money on seat cushions, parking, hats, and training camp tickets (all of which were often free, as fan appreciation items, under previous ownership) because of all their good work. That goodwill has direct value (merchandise) but also indirect value; FedEx bought the rights to the stadium because it wanted to be affiliated with the Redskins. As the Redskins become more and more of a laughing stock, particularly in a tough economy, fewer corporations are going to want that affiliation.
At this point, I don't think there's any real hope that The Daniel will change his stripes. He has his personality, which allows him to treat people like crap as long as his own egotistical needs are being satisfied. And he has his business plan, which is about creating buzz in the offseason to sell season ticket and corporate box tickets and new jerseys. The business plan has made his own personal style tenable, even successful. So I really think the only thing that would have any impact is if his business model starts sputtering out. Allen/Gruden are going to be no different than anyone else who gets between him and his toys; ask Marty Schottenheimer, who got canned in his first year despite finishing with 8 straight wins and clearly building toward something, even though Jeff George had been foisted on him as a QB (yes, another toy of The Daniel).
What's hopeful is that the business model does indeed seem to be having problems, and there are a lot of new competitors for the Redskins. Just up the road, the Ravens are the most exciting team Baltimore has had in years -- even since their Super BOwl year, because their offense is dynamic, and John Harbaugh looks and sounds every bit like the coach that Jim Zorn isn't. Ravens jerseys now sell well in DC area sporting goods stores. DC now has baseball (ok, it sucks, but it's something else for September), an improving basketball team, and an improving hockey team (whose owner, Ted Leonsis, is everything Snyder is not -- goal-oriented, candid, and committed to winning). There are lots of new ways for sports fans to spend their time, and lots of new ways for corporate sponsors to spend their money here (the Tiger Woods- affiliated golf tournament, for example).

But other than a notoriously independent and bulletproof football guru -- and here I'm thinking Parcells's level, and only if given a can't-fire-for-any-reason, can't-intrude-upon-for-any-reason contract -- there's no one-two person solution here. There is zero evidence to suggest he is capable of the kind of change that's needed. What I think will have to happen is that they finish the rest of the year on the disastrous course they're on, then Snyder does what he does in the off-season-- makes a lot of noise, little of which is productive. Then, somehow, he has to get the message that nobody is fooled this time, which will probably take all next year. And then hopefully the pressure will get to him, and he'll do what he should have been doing all this time to make this a top-tier franchise.

Sorry, one last thing on Snyder's business acumen. He's clearly a genius at finding new revenue streams, which is a nice way of saying finding new ways to milk loyal fans. But he has no real history in actually building an organization. He started a direct marketing business at exactly the right time, sold it at just the right time, and made some very good deals en route to landing the Redskins. But he's never built or maintained a really good organization, which is what the great NFL owners do. Compare that with people like Steve Bisciotti, who started a staffing firm that's now the largest in the U.S.; Robert Kraft, whose company does business all over the world, and Arthur Rank (who was able to change his ways), who founded Home Depot. Snyder's smart, but there's nothing to suggest he's smart about building and managing large organizations, like NFL teams.

Chuck: the people who say that are idiots.

The relationship between fan and franchise is that of customer-business. If the grocery store I shop at had lousy vegetables, long lines, and high prices, I would shop elsewhere. If a restaurant I like started serving bad food, I'd eat elsewhere. If cheering for a franchise ceases to be rewarding, it isn't ignoble to stop doing so, it is stupid not to.

I liked the Raiders in the 1980's. Leaving aside the fact that I was 10 at the time, the players are gone, the coaches are gone, and the team has moved. The only constants are the Crypt Keeper and the color black. What right does either have to my loyalty?

@The Gritz Blitz I would say that this article sums it up accurately, I mean look here

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/10/signs_banned_at_fedex_field.html#more

there's also suing the season ticket holders debacle and that's just this season.

I think you're wrong about Snyder's relationship with Gibbs. It seems that Snyder did everything that Gibbs asked, particularly in terms of personnel. I think the failure of the teams under Gibbs 2nd term as coach are on Gibbs, not Snyder. It's important to remember that Gibbs never coached in the free agency era before his return. He won three superbowls in a era that allowed him to stock tons of talent coaching for one of the bigger market teams and one of the wealthier owners in the NFL. You could never keep the Hogs together for as long as he did in the 1980s if there was free agency (not too mention the likely impact of drugs -- Riggins becoming a better RB in his early 30s is exhibit A). In his second term, Gibbs seemed to make few if any adjustments to the demands of the free agency/salary cap era -- he chased a lot of expensive free agents and traded away a lot of draft picks. The current Skins team has so little homegrown talent very much in part because Gibbs didn't focus on building through the draft. Lastly, making Gibbs coach and GM would not have helped -- experience around the league clearly shows that this is a recipe for failure.

On the Jones comparison, there are some similarities but Jones does have some football experience having played in college. He also bought a horrible team and won 3 superbowls as an owner. Even if he never wins another SB, that still makes him one of the most successful owners in NFL. If I recall, the Skins also sucked for much of the 1990s before Snyder bought the team.

"Sorry, one last thing on Snyder's business acumen. He's clearly a genius at finding new revenue streams, which is a nice way of saying finding new ways to milk loyal fans. But he has no real history in actually building an organization. He started a direct marketing business at exactly the right time, sold it at just the right time, and made some very good deals en route to landing the Redskins. But he's never built or maintained a really good organization, which is what the great NFL owners do."

Right on, GC in DC.

People seem to confuse being in the right place at the right time with the ability to actually build an organization. Snyder gets way too much credit simply for having a lot of money.

@ Capitalsfan

Good Read . Yeah that's brutal !

In December 1978, a Giants fan rented a plane and had a banner flown over the Meadowlands which read: " 15 years of lousy football: we've had enough." Some 30 years later, the Redskins faithful need to follow Dee Snyder's anthem and tell D. Snyder: "WE"RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

The problem with Gibbs was that he was never the cure for the problem. He was the painkiller. And like all painkillers, it eventually wore off.

Mike, good article. Why do refer to Al Davis as "the owner in Oakland"? I know you worked for the Raiders and all but curious as to why you don't refer to him as Al Davis? Thanks.

In December of 1978, a NY Giants fan rented a plane to fly a banner over the Meadowlands which read: " 15 years of lousy football--we've had enough". Some 30 years later, it seems about time that the Redskins Faithful rally around the anthem of Dee Snyder and tell D. Snyder the same thing: "We're Not Gonna Take It Anymore!"

This is a great commentary, except for a couple points:

1. Zorn is a great leader. Maybe not a great coach overall, but he's been an excellent leader that the players have flocked around, supported, and defended. That says a lot.

2. Zorn didn't "convince" Snyderrato that he should be head coach. He wanted to be offensive coordinator, was brought in for that, and only promoted into the head coaching position when no other candidate would take the lousy job.

oh please if tedd ginn could catch were not even talking about the saints today

People say "You aren't a true fan if you don't stick with them through thick and thin." People are wrong. That is called "rooting for the uniforms." I root for the REDSKINS!

...and I accidentally posted before I added this to my last comment:

THOSE ARE NOT THE REDSKINS I SEE ON THE FIELD AT FEDUP RIGHT NOW, AND THEY DON'T GET A PENNY FROM ME UNTIL THE REDSKINS COME BACK!

There. Better already.

"Can you imagine Snyder in kindergarten?"- This is the line of the year in the NFL.

"Snyder has no respect for coaches or executives — but how could he? He thinks he can run the team without any formal training, so he doesn’t value the qualities a trained football person would bring to his organization."- I've seen this far too often with corporate-types. They actually seem to resent the fact that someone actually has a pedigree that they don't have so they over-compensate with nitpicking, condescending actions, and overall childish behavior. Just like Snyder.

Why not TWX the article to Danny Boy?

None of this means crap...lombardi...every place you were in the league was worse off when you left....which is why you are now a scribe