Jim Williams: Redskins' season is stuck in a spin cycle
By: Jim Williams
Examiner Sports Columnist
October 21, 2009
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| Jim Zorn has been asked about his job security by several media outlets. (AP) |
If it wasn't for bad news, the Redskins wouldn't have any news at all.
Reading the local newspapers, checking the multiple online sites, listening to sport talk radio and watching the reports on TV is painful for Redskins fans.
Questions about the offense, the players, the coaches and the ownership are plentiful. The answers are all too few at this point.
The images we see, as players do their best to try to explain the truly unexplainable plight of this 2-4 football team, has Redskins fans angry and upset.
Jim Zorn, talking to Chick Hernandez on his weekly CSN TV show, was at a loss attempting to explain how he went from head coach, offense coordinator and quarterback coach back to head coach -- for now -- and the man who will signal in the plays called by Sherman Lewis, who will be sitting in the press box. Zorn told Hernandez, "It is what it is."
Local media has put the Redskins in the middle of a 24-hour spin cycle of analysis. In some cases they are questioning the ownership's grip on a fan base, ready -- perhaps for the first time in history -- to walk away from the Burgundy and Gold.
Nationally, we have FOX Sports NFL Insider -- the first of many to report Monday night that the Redskins attempted to sign former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan to replace Zorn as coach. He declined, for now, to take over the team.
Former NFL head coach Tony Dungy, on NBC Sunday Night Football, talked about Zorn losing his play-calling duties to Lewis: "I went through this in Tampa. This is not a good thing. I made a mistake and acquiesced to that. If you're Jim Zorn you have to say, 'I'm in charge of this team on the field. If I'm not, then get rid of me.' Anytime management comes in and tinkers with your staff without your knowledge, it's the beginning of the end."
This week, Jon Gruden comes to town. The ESPN Monday Night Football analyst will be here to watch the Redskins as he prepares for the Washington-Philadelphia telecast. As our own Rick Snider reported, Gruden is also on the list of possible coaches to replace Zorn. The face-to-face interviews that Zorn and Gruden will have will not be comfortable for either man.
What a week this has been locally and nationally for the Redskins -- and we still have six days until Monday night.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
