Can an owner be fired? Redskins fans can hope

Shaun Powell

Suppose your team, the one you bleed for, was stuck with a quarterback. Not any quarterback. A really lousy one, who can’t impress today and doesn’t inspire confidence for tomorrow. Let’s call him JaMarcus Leinart. For lack of a better name.

Or say the coach is the problem. His game plan looks like it was scribbled on a dirt field, he couldn’t motivate a hungry Rottweiler to eat, and his team, your team, shows up every fourth Sunday. And still loses.

Well, the pain you’d feel would be temporary. In time, that coach or that quarterback would be gone, zapped, replaced by someone better, and there’d be an instant awakening, a feel-good moment. It would provide a jolt of hope and at least the hunch that better days lie ahead.

But suppose the problem was the owner? What then?

You know what then? Nothing, that’s what. You’d be doomed and sentenced to live your football life according to his whims. With him in charge, your emotional investment in your team would reflect your 401K investment in your company: crummy, horrific, stupid in hindsight. That owner, with your heart tucked under his arm, would treat it like Earnest Byner at the 1, and there’d be nothing you could ... do … about … it.

To paraphrase Mike Singletary: Can’t stomach him. Can’t trust him. Cannot win with him. Can’t do it.

So now you know what it’s like to follow the Washington Redskins.

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You can’t cut Daniel Snyder. Can’t trade him. Cannot buy him out. Can’t do it. He’s not going anywhere, much like his team. The owner, you see, has tenure, a lifetime contract without a club option. He isn’t expendable, like the quarterback, or the coach, or the general manager or the guy who sold you warm beer at the concession. He will outlast them all and take your money in the process.

The Redskins have been under Snyder’s thumb for a decade now, and to celebrate this anniversary in fitting fashion, they snapped the Detroit Lions’ losing streak, just hired an offensive consultant who was spending his days playing bingo, apparently overpaid for another free agent or two and certainly over-reached for a head coach. Once again, Snyder’s grand plans are fluttering about, like a Billy Kilmer pass, taking legions of hopes along for what promises to be another ridiculous ride.

Oh, sure, there are sections of frustrated Raiders fans who’d give their left tentacle to trade Al Davis for Snyder straight up. And if the Redskins demanded a No. 1 pick thrown in, done. True enough, Davis certainly qualifies as a tired old owner these days in his tired old state. But at least Davis has an excuse. He’s old. He needs a nap. Besides, wasn’t Davis in a Super Bowl seven years ago?

And you can hear the snickers all the way from Cincinnati and especially Detroit, a pair of football cemeteries that were ruined by bad ownership long ago. But that’s just it. Those aren’t football towns, not to the hysterical level of Washington, where a Redskins game is the only place you’ll see Democrats and Republicans break bread, where the seats are taken no matter what the weather is or the standings say.

Pro football in Detroit is just something to do until Hockeytown wakes up, and in Cincy, until spring training. There are no more passionate fans than those in Washington, where the mood on Monday is dictated by what the Redskins did on Sunday. That explains why the political vitriol from the left and right seems especially bitter these days. An entire city is being held hostage by an ineffective leader who, for once, isn’t the President. Instead, he’s a wealthy, stubborn and egotistical fan whose intentions are laudable but whose touch is lead.

Every coach hired by Snyder sounded like the right one until he actually started coaching and proved to be wrong. Marty Schottenheimer, retread. Steve Spurrier, college guy. Joe Gibbs, better the first time around. And now, Jim Zorn, already bearing the look of a loser. Just you wait, Snyder will find a way to make Bill Cowher look clueless.

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Snyder ends up firing them all. What he won’t do is yank the guy who recommends those coaches. Snyder places his trust, and the fans’ hopes, with his right-hand man, personnel genius Vinny Cerrato, who builds teams that can’t reach the playoffs or win a game if they get there.

But gotta be fair here. Snyder’s no cheapskate owner. Give him that. Problem is, he constantly becomes star-struck and gets suckered out of his money. Bruce Smith took a bunch, so did Deion Sanders, two guys who got paid for being Pro Bowl players on other teams. We don’t have a verdict yet on Albert Haynesworth and his mammoth seven-year, $100 million contract, but this won’t end well, because we do know Snyder’s track record with big-ticket talent. They wind up like D’Angelo Hall, who was dragged 3 yards by an old quarterback on a one-on-one bootleg Sunday that clinched the win for Carolina.

Loyal Redskins fans take these stabs to the heart and keep coming back for more punishment, filling Snyder’s stadium to the deck every Sunday and ensuring that Danny Boy will always milk the biggest cash cow East of Jerry Jones. And that’s what makes Snyder dangerous. He knows the passion for the Redskins runs deeper than his pockets. He can charge for training camp scrimmages and sue the pig snouts off Redskins season-ticket holders who lost their jobs in the recession. He can do all this knowing the demand for all things Redskins will keep him empowered.

Owners never sell unless they lose money or interest, and Snyder has plenty of that. He is owner for life, and chew on this, Redskins fans: He’s not even 44.

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