Mike Shanahan sick of Dan Snyder fawning over RG3
Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan stands on the sidelines against the New York Giants in the second quarter at FedEx Field. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan is right on the hot seat, and it sounds like he will most likely be out the door in Washington. And, interestingly enough, it sounds like Shanahan is the one who doesn’t want to stay, despite working with Kyle Shanahan as his offensive coordinator and having turned the Redskins into a playoff team last year.
According to a very interested piece by ESPN’s Dan Graziano (this is an excellent piece that is well-worth a read), Mike Shanahan “cleaned out his office” before last year’s playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks, since he was so upset with Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, who might be the league’s wort owner. Snyder has been criticized time-and-time again, and I don’t think the Redskins will have lasting success until he is gone; he’s stubborn and incompetent.
Anyway, Shanahan was prepared to leave despite the Redskins having made the playoffs, but he was forced to stay due to Robert Griffin III’s torn ACL. Per Graziano, Shanahan didn’t want to leave the Redskins in light of Griffin’s severe knee injury, since the public would have thought that Shanahan only left the team out of greed (or something like that) due to Griffin’s injury.
This latest report from Graziano sheds some important light on how rocky the relationship between Shanahan and Snyder is, as Shanahan is specifically upset with Snyder’s treatment of RG3. It has been reported before that Snyder essentially exalts RG3 due to his status as a star player and league (cough, cough money) magnet for attention.
I would be surprised if Shanahan sticks around in D.C. for another season, since the relationship between him and Snyder could very well be irreparable. It might be hard for the Redskins to sell themselves to great coaches because of the way Snyder treats RG3 and probably absolves RG3 of responsibility and blame. Graziano reports that Shanahan isn’t upset at RG3 but is simply upset at the way Snyder “empowered” Griffin.
To make things even worse, Graziano reports that Snyder has treated other Redskins players poorly (like intriguing backup QB Kirk Cousins, who is also a second-year player), and that this has also upset Shanahan. Again, it sounds more like Snyder needs to go for this team to truly be successful long-term, but it also sounds like Shanahan is out there. I hope he is able to find a better working relationship than this one, assuming that Graziano’s report is indeed true.