As Washington coach Mike Shanahan mimics George Costanza trying to get fired by the Yankees so that he can work for another team and/or Costanza trying to get fired by Play Now so he can get a buyout, Shanahan could be poised to drop a giant ball of oil from the window at the team’s facility.
Shanahan explained on Monday that he’s considering shutting quarterback Robert Griffin III down for the rest of the season.
During Shanahan’s Monday press conference, he repeatedly referred to Griffin taking 24 sacks in five games, including six on Sunday against the Chiefs. Shanahan also said that the goal is to ensure that Griffin will be healthy for the 2014 offseason.
Shanahan’s comments come amid a report from Mark Maske of the Washington Post that the team currently is considering the possibility of firing Shanahan and withholding his pay for 2014. If it can be proven that Shanahan orchestrated Sunday’s report that he nearly quit in January 2013 over the relationship between Griffin and owner Daniel Snyder, the team could be able to show that Shanahan engaged in conduct detrimental to the team or otherwise violated his contract.
With the prevailing opinion in league circles being that Shanahan leaked the information to Adam Schefter of ESPN, who then covered Shanahan’s tracks by handing it to Dan Graziano of ESPN.com, the team’s suspicions may be accurate. Proving the link will be a different issue, since no one from ESPN will ever admit that Shanahan was the source, under oath or otherwise.
The broader goal could be to work out a compromise, with Shanahan for example getting half of his money for 2014.
Shanahan’s leverage apparently includes the threat of benching Snyder’s BFF, opening the door for Kirk Cousins to prove over the final three weeks of the season that maybe he should be the quarterback of the future.