MNZ: Washingtonian September 2010

A bonus pick-up from the free magazine library bin, this is the Washington area's introductory piece on Donovan McNabb, him smiling happily on the cover, holding a football, asking "Can this man save the Redskins?" Well, that didn't turn out so well. Funny thing about finding this was I got it around the same time Dan Snyder was suing the Washington City Paper (one of those weekly alternative rags) for a piece from last November detailing a long list of infractions Snyder has committed on humanity. Basically, the gist of the story is Dan Snyder is a scummy fucker, albeit a billionaire who can do whatever he wants, and owns the Redskins, and most likely will run them completely into the ground. None of this seems unlikely to me, and what shocked me about the Washington City Paper piece was, before I read it, I didn't think I could hate Dan Snyder more. Somehow by the end, I did. Of course, no one (including me) didn't really know about the article until Dan Snyder made a big point during the Super Bowl week of suing them over the article, claiming some really nonsensical things (like anti-semitism) and basically threatening to just tie them up financially with lawsuits to bankrupt them... not exactly endearing threats from a guy struggling to maintain a positive image as owner of one of the most valuable sports franchises on earth.
But the Washingtonian article really gets at more of what Snyder is about - media manipulation. The article on McNabb is really nothing more than a fluff piece, positioning McNabb as the first real QB the Redskins have ever had in maybe decades, and how things were going to finally be better. This is a common theme I've seen as a Redskins fan. Last year it was Donovan McNabb and Mike Shanahan. The year before that it was Albert Haynesworth. The year before that it was a changing of the guard with Jim Zorn and Vinny Cerratto being officially called what he already had been - the player personnel guy. Every year there is some shifting of the same raggedy coconut shells around in fast handed orders to make it appear like, "Yeah, we're gonna win." And the local media backs this up.
I mean, sometimes it's obvious, as Snyder owns most of the sports talk in the D.C. area. But it really seems to me he has plants inside the local papers as well. The Post pretends to be against Snyder, but they really haven't lit his ass up like you would expect, outside of the occasional columnist. Snyder creates these new auras, over and over, and pretends things are better, and people keep on spending money. It's very disheartening to me, because the only sports team I am emotionally attached to beyond logic is the Redskins. So even with no actual input on what happens, my Sundays in the fall can be ruined and depressed, and usually are, eventually. But he manipulates things back into something every spring or summer.
This year will be no different. The Skins have the 10th pick in the NFL draft, and though they need a lot of stuff, including QB, they will ignore all their basic needs or a flashy young QB prospect in a year of over-valued QB prospects, who will then be thrown into the mix too early because Donovan McNabb will be run off and Rex Grossman is Rex Grossman (meaning inherently shitty), so the rookie - even if he could be good - will be quickly turned to damaged goods by too many sacks and blitz-happy NFC East defenses having field days with him. While it would make sense to draft a NT or another OL to go with last year's pick of Trent Williams, and try to actually build a football team, they'll get a QB. The media hype will pick up around the draft in April as well, about how this QB or that QB is the next big thing, a definite Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco type with the potential to be Joe Theismann, or even an in-the-raw Joe Montana. We'll get another smiling September magazine cover face who will be the new face of the Redskins, and things will be promised all over again, how it's finally gonna be different, and a new era has finally dawned.
And then by next February, that smiling face will be tossed onto the scrap heap of our memories as well, it'll be the same ol' shit, and Dan Snyder will still be making a ton of money off of merchandising, licensing, parking fees, everything. Fuck you Dan Snyder. Fuck you.