Many fans of the Washington Redskins are probably scrolling through their newsfeed today and reading about the Jacksonville Jaguars’ firing of Tom Coughlin — the team’s top executive — with envy, and a hint of resentment.
It’s THAT easy to rid of a front office decision-maker? All you have to do is recognize that the team didn’t improve under his watch and has failed to build a solid foundation for the future, and then you can just fire him? Why haven’t we done that?
Why is Bruce Allen still employed by the Redskins?!
The answer is unclear. After 10 years in Washington, with a 62-98-1 regular-season record, Bruce Allen is still the Team President of the Redskins. Why has owner Daniel Snyder not moved on from him yet? The team is in disarray, the fanbase is dwindling, ticket-sales are plummeting, and a new head coach needs to be hired this offseason — one who is unlikely to take the job should Allen remain, unless they are desperate to get back into the coaching game. What’s the rationale there?
This may seem like an abundance of questions right off the top, but when you don’t have any answers, all you can do is keep asking questions until something starts to make sense. So far, we’re still searching for the logic in all of this.
In 2009, Snyder fired front office leader Vinny Cerrato, who had failed to right the ship in Washington and had caused multitudes of unrest in the fan base. Sound familiar? With just a couple of weeks left in the regular season, Allen was dubbed the savior of the Redskins, and the fanbase rejoiced. Many were optimistic at the prospect of a new general manager coming in and repairing the locker room while focussing on the roster talent in a much-needed way.
Deja Vu? If I were to take the last paragraph and make slight edits to the date and the name, it could easily be pasted into an article that might come out in a few weeks, should Snyder decide to give Allen the ax. Look at this quote that The Athletic‘s Ben Standig dug up from SB Nation on the day that Cerrato was fired, and tell me it doesn’t sound familiar.
“Redskins fans across the country are waking up to the greatest news they could’ve possible (sic) heard about their disappointing team: VP Vinny Cerrato, the man in charge of making the horrid personnel decisions for the franchise, has resigned. For many Skins fans… the dismissal of Cerrato was the only good that could’ve come from this season. Now that it’s really happening, it makes the 3-win year feel like a winning season.”
This isn’t a new spot for the Washington Redskins to be in, they’ve had to make this type of decision before. But for some reason, this time around, Snyder seems reluctant to pull the trigger, and both Allen and the fanbase as a whole are waiting with bated breath.
Will it happen before the regular season ends, or the 2020 season begins? Who knows, we don’t have the answers; we’re still searching for the logic in all of this, and coming up short.
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