The Danny Gets His Manny in Shanny

By Todd L. Frank | Thursday, January 07, 2010 | ( 4 )

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The perennial Off-Season Champions have struck early. Also known as the Spring Champs, this year the Washington football franchise locked up their title in the dead of winter, before the start of the NFL Playoffs.

Yes, the worst-kept secret became official this week when Mike Shanahan was introduced as Washington’s new Head Coach and VP of Football Operations.

Of course this “Hey Dan Snyder finally gets it and will step back!” talk is a bit premature. Let’s wait and see. Remember, other such legendary/veteran head coaches as Marty Schottenheimer and Joe Gibbs have been hired and (allegedly) given full power by Snyder and the results were just marginally less crappy as they were under the likes of Steve Spurrier and Jim Zorn answering to Snyder’s caddy/yes-man Vinny Cerrato.

But, at the very least, the PR department is starting to get it. The window dressing, or lack thereof, was certainly encouraging: Snyder was not up at the podium, he sat in the audience and let new GM Bruce Allen introduce Shanahan. Only Allen and (mostly) Shanahan took questions. And the 3 Super Bowl trophies were NOT all shined up and on display. They were left downstairs in the trophy case where they belong. So, that’s a good start.

How sad is it that we even notice and applaud such choreography? Well, the Washington NFL team has a long way to go to respectability and even these little things matter.

It was interesting to hear Allen first imply that he interviewed/hired Shanahan and exclaim “We got our man!” I think it’s obvious that Shanahan really picked Bruce Allen, and not the other way around. He even admitted that he’d told Snyder to pursue Allen and admitted, “I was so excited to get Bruce.” Hmmm…..

So, as much as The Danny and Co. are hoping to show that times have changed and things will be run differently, this regime change actually resembles the old way of doing things: back channeling and secret meetings and Snyder doing whatever necessary to get what he wants (in this case another big name superstar in Shanahan).

While Snyder didn’t take to the podium to field questions during the press conference, he did make a few comments to some local TV reporters after the fact. A few interesting comments might be considered bright spots:

"I think [Shanahan] has built great teams and he's gonna build one here. It's gonna take some time, we understand that.” Wow. It’s GONNA TAKE TIME, WE UNDERSTAND THAT. Hopefully.

In response to a question about Washington always being Spring Champs and “winning the offseason,” he said “I think what they're referring to is the aggressiveness in free agency. Obviously the last two years we really have disappointed, and I think it's time to really build. We've got the foundation here now, with Bruce and Coach Shanahan [as] our leaders."

It’s time to REALLY BUILD. Maybe he’s starting to get it? He’s admitting they must really build, not claiming that Shanahan is the final piece of the win-now championship puzzle. Or maybe he’s just got a new PR team giving him good advice.

[By the way, I think it’s so hilarious and odd that EVERY report about Shanahan coming to Washington over the last several weeks has included this standard boilerplate background info:

***It's no secret that Snyder admires Shanahan. The two men have known each other since the late 1990s, when they attended the same Pro Bowl, stayed in the same hotel in Hawaii, and wound up having dinner together one night. Since then, the two men have remained in contact and have had a friendly relationship.***

Gee, how nice. Did they cuddle?]

Whether Shanahan is the right coach or the best coach for the job will eventually play out on the field. Over the last several weeks, a lot of people like to talk about how many Super Bowls Shanahan won without John Elway. Has anyone bothered to look to see how many Super Bowls Elway won without Shanahan? I think you'll find them to be the same.

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	No.1 Big Tex	03:36 AM 01/08/2010

	How many Super Bowls did Denver win without Terrel Davis? As great a QB as Elway was (and he was a great QB), the Broncos needed...


	No.2 Todd L. Frank	03:07 PM 01/08/2010

	agree bigtex. the common denominator was a great offensive line. which was also the key to the superbowl teams in washington and...


	No.3 Big Tex	05:20 PM 01/08/2010

	Washington rolled the dice with their Oline this past year knowing they were paper thin. It bit them in the butt big time. The...