The Most Poorly Managed Franchise in the NFL: Washington Redskins

Charlie Klein

The Washington Redskins are without equivocation the most poorly managed franchise in professional sports. According to Forbes the franchise is worth about $1 billion and has one of the largest fan bases of any team in the NFL. Fedex Field's capacity is second only to the new Cowboys Stadium holding 91,704 persons at capacity. The Redskins are the team in the District of Columbia and for much of the surrounding area.

All of these basic fundamentals would lead one to believe that the Redskins are a recession-proof outfit. That statement could not be any more fallacious even if it was uttered by Rush Limbaugh. Ever since Daniel Snyder purchased the Redskins in 1999 for $800 million from the Cooke family, the team has continued to spend money in the free agent market and has seen the team fail to achieve much postseason success under the reign of Snyder. The Redskins have had six coaches at the helm since Snyder purchased the team. Norv Turner, Terry Robiskie, Marty Shottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, Joe Gibbs, and Jim Zorn have all coached the team, and only Shottenheimer left the team with a .500 or better win percentage.

This video parodies Dan Snyder's inability to find a coach for the future.

Many Redskins fans attribute the team's lack of success this season to head coach Jim Zorn. And yet, he is only a symptom of the much larger sickness that plagues the once proud franchise. The corporate atmosphere that Daniel Snyder has brought to the Redskins was meant to be similar to the style in which the Steinbrenner family runs the New York Yankees. Unlike the Steinbrenners, Snyder has not hired the right people to manage the talent on the field. As Colin Cowherd explained at the end of 2008, the 'Skins pale in comparison to the Baltimore Ravens in terms of putting a good product out onto the field.

Vinny Cerrato, the Executive Vice President of Football Operations, has signed players to ridiculous contracts (Albert Haynesworth, 7 years, 100 million) and has drafted poorly (three pass catchers in the second round) and somehow still has a job. The man he replaced, Charley Casserly, during his years in the NFL has been proven to have a better eye for talent, drafting Champ Bailey and Mario Williams instead of two over-hyped running backs (Ricky Williams and Reggie Bush). Cerrato's inability to find proper talent to put on the playing field in addition to his poor head coaching hires are a main reason for why the Redskins continue to disappoint every season.

The organisation is not doing a good job of maintaining positive relations with fans. The Redskins have banned all signs at Fed Ex Field following the popular anti-Snyder signs that were showing up at games in the arms of dissatisfied fans. The club released a statement that explained the sign ban as being a measure to ensure that a fan's view of the field is not blocked by some obnoxious sign. What such a rule fails to recognize is that: A) most fans do not have their signs up for an entire game B) signs have never been so numerous that such a ban was necessary in the past and C) fans probably do not even want to watch what is happening on the field anyway, such is the form the team has found itself mired in.

This YouTube clip was forwarded to me by an employee at Fed Ex Field which just exemplifies everything that has been the Washington Redskins for the past nine years.

The Redskins are the makers of their own misery. With such a profitable franchise, in a good media market and a solid fan base, the 'Skins ought to be one of the best organisations in the NFL. And yet every season they continue to push the team into further states of mediocrity. Their fans every preseason drink the sports radio 980AM Kool-Aid that tells them things like "This defense could be the best we've had in YEARS." And by week eight every Redskins fan finds themselves saying "Oh no!" instead of "Oh yeah."