Why We Love Daniel Snyder

By Alejandro de los Rios
Love of Sports Correspondent

Let’s say for a second you’re the life-long fan of an NFL franchise, which, despite a rich and successful history, has fallen into dysfunction and discord.

Every Sunday, you watch aghast as uninspired players and a bumbling head coach make a mockery of your team, driving you into a pit of despair.

You seek refuge in all places: other local sports teams, old NFL Films DVDs, nefarious drugs and homicidal tendencies. Somewhere in there, probably in between rehab and jail, you think, “if only I owned the team, things would be different.”

That’d be living the dream, wouldn’t it? You’d get to make all the decisions, get any and every player you wanted, and you’d get to sit on the sidelines during practice smoking stogies and relishing in how awesome you are.

And everyone would hate you for it.

See, there’s already one obsessive fan boy-turned-owner in the NFL: Daniel Snyder. From the day he signed Jeff George to that inexplicable four-year, $18.25 million contract, through the weeks he was seriously considering hiring Jim Fassel (yikes) to replace Joe Gibbs, Snyder’s driven Washington fans to the brink of insanity.

But to everyone that’s called for Snyder’s head since he bought the team in 1999, I have this to say: it could be worse. And guess what? You probably wouldn’t be any better, either.

I know because I grew up in the D.C. Area and I love the Redskins as much as the next Washingtonian, and that’s precisely the problem. You see, like any rabid fans, we’re too emotionally connected with our team. And so is he.

This is a man who grew up in Silver Spring, just a town over from me. He was in his late teens and early 20s as Joe Gibbs led the burgundy and gold to three Super Bowl victories in four tries. He bought his first jet the year after the Skins won their last Super Bowl and probably watched with anger and confusion as his favorite team fell from grace.

Then, when that team went up for sale, he did what any fan with his kind of money would’ve done: he bought them. When his team made an improbable playoff run the following season, Snyder was frequently seen jumping and screaming like the maniacal fan he was during every Skins win.

Then came all the miscalculations. The disastrous free agent signings, the constant coach turnover and hiking parking prices. Every offseason there was a new drama, a new list of players who fans would get all too excited for and then be sadly disappointed in.

The popular phrase among NFL analysts was that the Redskins won the Super Bowl every offseason. For four seasons Joe Gibbs was back, and Snyder seemed to turn a corner. But now Gibbs is gone, and Snyder is again drawing criticism for his management style.

I recently realized something much more important, though: Snyder is a fan just like any other. Also, as this Washingtonian article from 2003 suggests (http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/sports/1679.html), he’s also a pretty decent human being.

Look at the facts. Since Snyder bought the team, the Redskins have become one of the most profitable franchises in all of sports. And while many free agent acquisitions have been flops (see: Adam Archuleta), I believe he genuinely thought they could help the Skins win. I’d rather have an owner who makes mistakes trying to win than a passive owner of a perennial loser.

This isn’t a complete defense of Snyder, as I fully expect myself to be riled up in a wave of frustration should the team stumble next season or should he continue signing and releasing players and coaches like this were a video game.

I want him to use prudence in free agency and with our draft picks, give the reigns to people with proven football knowledge and see if he can stick with a coach not named Gibbs for more than two seasons at a time. I want him to stop making football decisions like a fan and start making them like an owner.

But perhaps his recent actions are a sign he’s changed. The fan and players’ choice to succeed Gibbs was defensive mastermind Gregg Williams. Snyder met with him four times in 12-hour intervals one week and everyone thought he would get the job. But, clearly, Snyder saw something he didn’t like. Give him credit, despite pressures from the fans and probably his own internal struggles, he made the more difficult decision to look elsewhere for a coach.

This might all prove disastrous, and Snyder could be wooing Bill Cowher this time next year, but hiring Jim Zorn was definitely not expected. Everyone thought he would go for a big name — Fassel, Steve Mariucci, Steve Spagnuolo — but he ended up going with his gut. Back in the early 80s, when Snyder was still a teen and I wasn’t even born, then-owner Jack Kent Cooke caught a lot of flak for hiring a no-name coach with little experience. Gibbs led the Skins to the Super Bowl in just his second season at the helm.

More than anything, I want Snyder’s recent actions to prove he is a changed man, and not that he’s falling into his old habits (like with this Chad Johnson business, but I’ll get to that some other time).

I also want fans to realize there are plenty of teams that wish they could’ve been to the playoffs twice in the past three seasons.

I’d also like it if fans stopped treating Snyder like a pariah and remember that if it weren’t for all his money, he’d be just like any one of us, bitching about how if only he were in charge, he’d do things differently, win the team a Super Bowl and be adored by the fans and media.

Hell, we can all dream.