On this week’s edition of Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” former Redskins great John Riggins leveled some the harshest criticism ever spoken by a former player at the team’s owner Daniel Snyder. Riggins who hosted a daily radio show for Snyder’s Red Zebra Broadcasting group was not shy in sharing his thoughts about his former boss.
Here is part of the Hall of Famer’s conversation with the show’s host James Brown and analyst Cris Collinsworth.
BROWN: John, you have been pretty doggone outspoken on the Washington Redskins and what is not working. Maybe it is an obvious question, but why so passionate? Why so intense in terms of your critique or criticism of the Redskins?
RIGGINS: First of all it’s what I do JB. I have been in broadcasting for the last 15-20 years, so it is sort of my job. And the other part is, and I’ve been asked this question a lot, when they say do you have an ax to grind, and I think anytime an older player criticizes or says anything about his former team, unless he’s throwing Bon Mots at them, that all of a sudden you get a, ‘What’s he griping at’ type of thing. Maybe that’s the case. But truthfully I do have an ax to grind and I just realized I have been a little bit disingenuous. But this is a bad guy that owns this team. I’ll just tell you that upfront. Bad guy. And if the Commissioner is worried about potential new owners and saying some of these guys shouldn’t apply, he might want to police his own inside guys.
BROWN: Why is he a bad guy?
RIGGINS: Because his business practices, I think. I don’t want to say they are unethical, but I don’t think it’s a place, a climate that is created there where people can be successful. It’s driven all by his ego and everything has to come from him. And I just don’t think you can be successful in those situations and when you are dealing with someone with the mindset of a child — and yet owns a franchise in the NFL — I think you have some problems there.
COLLINSWORTH: We are talking about Daniel Snyder. Are you saying in some way he is unethical? Because I have dealt with him in the past and I have never sensed anything close to that. Or are you saying he has made bad decisions on the football side as an owner? Or what is specifically the issue?
RIGGINS: I am saying that I don’t think that this franchise can be successful where you have people saying, ‘Oh this person Dan Snyder wants to win. He wants to win.’ It’s all about priorities, what’s my priorities? The priority is it’s all about me. I have to have my needs met then I want to make money, and or those are one and two, and then I want to win. You can see by the decisions that are made…I don’t know if you have agreed with anything I am saying so far, but at this point, I would think you would say, yeah I’ll go along with that. This person knows nothing about football, absolutely nothing. I don’t think they have a clue how a football team comes together, how it works. And yet they are the ones that are basically calling all the shots through a puppet, which is Vinny Cerrato. That is my take on it… I speak for the fans because these are the people that paid my salary for all these years. They are the ones that need to know that this is a bad guy.
COLLINSWORTH: There is a fine line between being a bad guy and a bad GM if you will. Are you saying a bad guy as in the NFL needs to take a look at this?
RIGGINS: Let me put it to you this way Cris, this person’s heart is dark.
COLLINSWORTH: Fix the Redskins. They make you the general manager tomorrow, who are you hiring as a coach?
RIGGINS: I can’t answer your question realistically, because I couldn’t be the General Manager with that ownership in place. I said I had an ax to grind. The ax to grind is that people need to know if you are going to go to these games and support this team that money goes in this person’s pocket. And you know what, bad guys shouldn’t be enriched.
The interview in its entirety can be seen on Showtime today at 4 p.m., midnight and on Friday at 7 p.m.
Host James Brown anchors INSIDE THE NFL on SHOWTIME with All-Pro NFL greats Cris Collinsworth, Phil Simms and Warren Sapp serving as expert analysts. INSIDE THE NFL is being produced by CBS Sports and NFL Films with new episodes airing on SHOWTIME every Wednesday during the NFL season through Feb. 10, 2010. Pete Radovich serves as coordinating producer.
