Washington Redskins Don’t Care About Winning Football Games

The more things change, the more they stay the same when it comes to the Washington Redskins. Why is that, exactly? Maybe it’s because they have a scouting department that’s inept at, well, scouting. Or maybe it’s because they have a paper mover and budget planner heading football operations. It could also be attributed to the fact they have an owner that is  clearly delusional and cares more about defending the team name than fielding a football team. Or it could be the Public Relations that does everything but put this team in a positive public light. They self-inflict themselves just as much off-the-field as the do on-the-field. The Washington Redskins will never have sustained success until they stop thinking highly of themselves and realize their problems are deeper than players or head football coaches.

Somehow the Redskins found 25 positive stats and info to put in the game notes their PR staff compiles for media after every game. The last bullet tells me all I need to know about this organization — “the Redskins extended their NFL-best sellout streak to 390 games, including postseason play.” Seriously? You’re going to pump your chest about that after losing to the one win Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-7? Do you want to know how sold out FedEx Field was? Well, above is a picture of it. Stop kidding yourselves, Washington.

The Redskins had 14 days to prepare for a one win football team and they were simply out-coached and outplayed on their own football field. Yet, players like Alfred Morris wonder why fans boo the team.

“Who knows what they were booing for, honestly,” said Morris. “Garbage in, garbage out. We don’t pay attention to it. We come out here to play whether there’s no one in the stands or thousands in the stands.”

I’m sure Alfred Morris was just super frustrated, but that quote goes to show you the type of culture this team has. The Redskins have historically leaned on their fan-base to create a hostile atmosphere. In fact, without fans rocking the stands at RFK Stadium, Washington probably wouldn’t have fielded championship teams.

Unlike Morris, Head Coach Jay Gruden considered it to be an embarrassing outing in front of the home crowd. “Anytime you lose a game at home like this and you play like this in front of your crowd, you’re embarrassed,” said Gruden. “These guys came out, we had every intent [to win], had a good week at practice to play well and we didn’t play well. It’s very unfortunate, because it’s in front of our home crowd and we take a lot of pride in our home crowd and we gave them nothing to cheer about today – nothing early in the game to cheer about. We had a late touchdown at the end of the second quarter, which was great to get us back in the game, a little bit of momentum, but we did nothing to build on that in the start of the third quarter. Nothing whatsoever, just disappointed all around.”

Here’s the issue, when the Washington Redskins as an organization examines themselves they see nothing but blue skies, white clouds and roses. This again was evident early in the week when Jay Gruden claimed the team could have “easily been 7-2″ at this point. The day they face reality as an organization will be the start of their resurgence as that will be the key to sustained success.

They can say it, like QB Robert Griffin III did after Sunday’s loss he contributed to heavily. But they have to believe it and act upon the issues. “We are not a very good football team right now and [we] have a long way to go. Every guy has to look himself in the mirror and say that. You can’t sit in your locker or on the field and say, ‘It is not my fault because I’m a baller, I’m a Pro Bowl player.’ Right now, we have no Pro Bowl players. We aren’t playing that way. I am not playing that way, our receivers aren’t playing that way, our backs aren’t playing that way, our defense isn’t playing that way, our special teams aren’t playing that way and we all know that. Coach [Jay Gruden] has reiterated that to us many times and guys have to accept that. We have a long way to go and accept that we have to get better in practice, walkthroughs and [through watching] film. You have to do more and you have to get better.”

Robert Griffin III has to get better. We all know this. I don’t know what was going on with him Sunday, but he was an absolute disaster. Two weeks ago against the Vikings, Griffin looked a lot better than he did Sunday. The Washington Redskins need him to step up and win football games. In fact, Griffin needs to himself to do that because this off-season he’ll see Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck sign hefty contract extensions that he likely won’t even sniff. Giving him a fifth year option isn’t even a slam dunk at this point. But it’s not all his fault.

The Washington Redskins messed Robert Griffin III up from day one. Their PR plan of cradling him like a baby from media and the general public polluted his mind. In doing that, they fed him with a golden spoon and made him appear spoiled which wasn’t a good look through the lenses of his teammates.  The Redskins don’t know how to deal with celebrity at the Quarterback position. Not in this era of social media. The organization has failed Robert Griffin III and in turn he’s failing them.

Years of poor scouting isn’t Griffin’s fault. Handcuffing Head Coaches by holding over coordinators and assistants on one year deals only because the owner is too cheap to wash his hands and move on — which is absolutely ridiculous — is also not Robert Griffin III’s fault. This professional football organization cares nothing  about fielding a winner. All they care about is marketing. They are a marketing company. You might as well acknowledge them as the Washington Marketing Company.

Where the Redskins are weakest on-the-field indicates exactly where they are weak as an organization — the interior. Until they realize that, the team will never have sustained success, because right now they’re nothing more than a marketing company. A family owned marketing company. They employ people solely off of relationship ties because they’re too lazy to do real things like find talented football minds. Instead they let those football minds walk out the building because they’re more concerned about marketing. Job well done, Washington.

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