Redskins coach Mike Shanahan, talking to reporters the day after the loss to the Detroit Lions, said he was not about to tell them who he spoke to before he considered benching Donovan McNabb at the end of the game.
“I’m not going to tell you who I talked to, because once I go down that road, I open up a Pandora’s Box,” he said.
That’s an amusing quote now, because I doubt “Pandora’s Box” — a jar, actually — had as many demons fly out of it as the one Shanahan opened when he told McNabb to take a seat while Rex Grossman took over the offense in the final two minutes.
Pandora may be off the hook now. They may refer to it as “Shanahan’s Box” from now on.
If Shanahan never opens that box, and the Redskins simply go on to lose that game, what people are talking about are the struggles of a 4-4 team going into the bye week after a tough schedule. Most of the attention would be neutral or positive.
Instead, by going to Grossman with 1:50 left the game, here are just some the demons “Shanahan’s Box” unleashed:
Erased any of the good will the new coach and regime had built up about a new Redskins era » The two greatest symbols of that change — Shanahan and McNabb — have now become the two biggest targets of the turmoil that has returned to Redskins Park.
Called into question Shanahan’s hiring of his son, Kyle Shanahan, as the team’s offensive coordinator » Now there are questions being asked about Kyle Shanahan’s qualifications — even though he was the coordinator of the best offense in football last season in Houston — and charges of nepotism.
Fueled the doubts about the entire decision to trade for McNabb in the first place » There have been reports that the Shanahans have been unhappy with McNabb’s work ethic, and considered benching him before the first Eagles game. There also have been reports that everyone is concluding that McNabb, who cost the Redskins a second- and possibly a third- or fourth-round draft choice, is not a good fit for this offense. If McNabb’s so-called free-wheeling style wasn’t a good fit for Shanahan’s precision preference, then who really made the deal to acquire McNabb?
Made the head coach look foolish with his two days of explanations why he benched McNabb » Shanahan went from claiming the quarterback wasn’t familiar with the two-minute offense terminology to saying he wasn’t in condition to handle the offense with no timeouts. It also raised some ugly conversation about the racial components of those reasons.
Now the Redskins come back to work this week to prepare for, of course, another showdown with McNabb’s former team, the Eagles, on Monday night. According to the myth, Pandora closed the box, only to trap “hope” inside. Mike Shanahan better hope there is a win over Philadelphia in “Shanahan’s Box.”
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN 980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected]
