Shelter from the Storm

This has been an angry and frustrating period, the Synder era. It seemed at its lowest point only 7 weeks. But let us not underestimate such undignified moments of the past including the snowballing disaster of Steve Spurrier or the final weeks of '01 with Norv , Robiskie, and even Synder's bud of the times Pepper Rodgers who was going to step on in and lead us to what was the glory of UCLA football in the (initial) era of USC dominance. Sherm Lewis? How about Bill Arnsparger, our 72 year old defensive consultant?


But alas we persevere. A win and two close games is all it takes to lift us at least to our knees, a much cheaper proposition than the first time around when Snyder's only relief was to bring back Joe Gibbs, our savior of yesteryear, to help cleanse him of his sins.


A coach of our own makes us feel like Redskin fans. A people who feel better about themselves because they have been bestowed this gift, not only because we have defeated our competition. I always feel better than a Cowboys fan. Win or lose. I have always presumed they feel bad about themselves.


But are we comfortable with this proposition, particularly after team officials made their good run at this by letting Jim Zorn fall flat on all of our faces? And knowing that with this direction does not intrinsically come the ousting of a very sadly incapable general manager.


There is Cowher. A great coach who plays Steeler football, a brand we admire. And Mike Shanahan, a mastermind of an evil empire that could probably snuggle up coldly with the emperor himself. And maybe too readily dismissed as a willing candidate after his protectionist comments is Mike Holmgren who may have been setting himself up for the GM job all along if only Zorn could play his way back to at least be considered for another season as coach. But his success in the front office never amounted to more than one decent season in a weak NFC.


So where to begin? Maybe an in depth analysis, or maybe just in faith in our past. That time that made us special and made us Redskins. Gibbs was building players and he also built leaders. Maybe we didn't need our savior back and would have been better served by reinstituting his legacy. We've already missed opportunities in our own Mark Murphy and Martin Mayhew among what I'm sure are many others. How can I not mention the name Russ Grimm?