Now this is refreshing: A former Redskins player is complaining about his old team, and it has nothing to do with the nickname.
Former defensive lineman Phillip Daniels spent a year as the team’s director of player development, but said he never had the access or the budget he needed to do the job properly.
Daniels spelled out his gripes on the Two Guys and a Goat podcast, via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, with the gist of it that he was “on an island” while with the team.
“There’s a lot of things that other people in my position on other teams, they got,” he said. “I just say it like this: I never had a budget or anything like that. I never had that. I couldn’t do things for the guys’ families that I wanted to do. I wanted to help the guys out in every way possible. There were a lot of ideas I had that could have made things a lot better for the players and their families, and I just couldn’t do that.”
Daniels said he never met with coach Mike Shanahan or General Manager Bruce Allen the entire time he worked there, and bemoaned the lack of involvement of former players with the current team.
“It could be a whole lot better if they just worked with the guy in the developmental system, worked with him and make sure he’s got everything he needs for the families,” Daniels said. “I’m gonna tell you this, a lot of times, when families come to that team — if those wives are unhappy, if those girlfriends are unhappy, it makes a big difference on whether they stay or not when free agency comes around. Because they’re gonna be the first ones to say, if the money’s close, let’s leave. They aren’t saying if the money’s close let’s stay; they’re saying if the money’s close, let’s leave.”
It’s almost as if the Redskins set up a phony baloney job for the sake of having it filled, while they directed their energies at other more important goals.