When Bruce Allen became the new General Manager of the Washington Redskins, owner Daniel Snyder proclaimed that Allen “has the authority.”
“When we, when he, when the club makes a decision, it’s a Redskins decision,” Snyder said.
Folks who had been tracking the Shanahan rumors knew better.
Less than three weeks later, there’s a new sheriff in town, and coach Mike Shanahan has the authority that Allen possessed on a short-term basis, like a library book.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that, in addition to coaching the team, Shanahan will serve as executive Vice President of football operations. That’s the same title Vinny Cerrato most recently held.
Schefter also reports that Shanahan, not Allen, now has the “ultimate authority” over football decisions.
And so the clumsily-kept secret is now out in the open. By all appearances, Shanahan and Allen were a package deal, with Allen coming through the door first and pretending to be in charge until Shanahan was hired.
Meanwhile, the Redskins interviewed no one else after the firing of Jim Zorn, turning the Rooney Rule upside down and creating a horrible precedent for its application in the future.
But, hey, the Redskins got the guy they coveted. The guy whose Broncos went 8-8 in 2008, just like the Redskins did. The guy whose Broncos went 7-9 in 2007, two games worse than the Redskins.
The guy who has won only one playoff game in the eleven years since winning a second straight Super Bowl with a team built largely by someone else, and held together in part by proven salary-cap violations for which the Broncos were fined nearly $2 million and stripped of two third-round draft picks.
So now that the Redskins got the guy they coveted, can someone explain to us why in the hell they coveted him?