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Feel The Heat: Dan Snyder, Bruce Allen, And The Washington Redskins’ Dumpster Fire Culture

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I travel sometimes for work, which means I spend a lot of time in airplane seats next to people I don’t know. I go out of my way to be a good seatmate—I’m polite, I share the armrest, and I go out of my way not to do spit takes at ridiculous sports stories I read.

I failed at that last one Tuesday night.

I was on a flight back home when I came across this headline from the Washington Post:

Bruce Allen defends Redskins tenure, says ‘the culture is actually damn good’

Three seconds later I was apologizing to the woman sitting beside me. She took it in stride.

Saying the Washington Redskins culture is “damn good” is like the captain of the Titanic saying the boat had a “small leak.” They’re 0-5 on this season, and just fired their head coach, Jay Gruden, after a lifeless performance against the New England Patriots, a 33-7 loss.

They don’t have a quarterback, their best player is refusing to show for work, the interim head coach isn’t exactly a scintillating alternative, and the patience of Redskins fans has not only evaporated, it’s been replaced by something far worse: apathy.

So, no—that isn’t a “damn good” culture.

Candidly, the Redskins are a 20-year dumpster fire and the lighter fluid spews from the top. Since owner Daniel Snyder took over in 1999, the team has five winning seasons and two wins in the playoffs. And while those numbers are sad, there’s a better number to explain how dysfunctional the Redskins culture is:

NINE.

That’s the number of head coaches Snyder has gone through in his tenure. Nine in 20 years. That’s insane.

Compare that to the number of head coaches the Patriots have had in the same window: 1.

Or the number the Steelers have had: 2.

And while most NFL head coaches have ephemeral job security at best, it’s not like Snyder hasn’t tried to hire qualified candidates: three of his ex-head coaches are potential or verified Hall of Famers—Joe Gibbs, Mike Shanahan, and Marty Schottenheimer. So it’s not as if Snyder has hired a bunch of unproven goobers to run the ship.

It’s just that the ship appears to in constant mutiny.

Which brings me back to Allen. He’s been with Snyder since 2010, joining the team right at the halfway mark of Snyder’s ownership. The son of Pro Football Hall of Fame coach George Allen, Bruce started his NFL career with the Oakland Raiders in 1996 as a senior executive before serving as the general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2004-2008.

Now, the cynic in me would point out that Allen doesn’t exactly come from organizations with model cultures—both the Raiders and the Bucs have tumultuous histories and have been criticized for their own internal issues—but let’s put that aside for now. The truth is that Allen has brought a bit of consistency to the Redskins since he took over, but he hasn’t been able to bring change.

The Redskins record under Dan Snyder is 139-185-1 in the regular season. In the playoffs, the team is 2-5. Snyder’s record before Allen was 80-96 (2-3 playoffs); under Allen, it’s 59-89-1 (0-2 playoffs).

Forget the wins and losses, what is apparent to all with open eyes is theirs is not a “damn good” culture. That’s a culture in desperate need of change. The problem is, the person who sets the tone—Snyder—isn’t someone you can simply fire. Unlike the recently fired Jay Gruden, or even Allen himself, there’s no one who can walk into Dan Snyder’s office and say, “You’re setting a poor example with your constant meddling. You’re done. Pack it up and hit the road.”

And perhaps that reality is what leads someone like Allen to stand, stone-faced, in front of reporters and declare that everything’s fine. It’s what he has to say because there’s no other alternative. And while I appreciate that there are certain things an executive like Allen has to say in public, my biggest concern is whether he really believes his own lie.

I hope not. I hope that internally Allen is doing everything he can to improve the culture of that organization. I hope he goes on a listening tour, asking hard and thoughtful questions of everyone from the stadium janitor to his left tackle. Then I hope he has the intestinal fortitude to sit down with his owner, even at the risk of his own job.

I hope he sits down with his team and rebuilds what it means to be part of the Washington football organization and invests a lot of time making sure that everyone can buy into the new vision.

That’s what the Great Teams do. They create a culture that everyone can believe in, from the top to the bottom and back again.

I’m not sure what the rest of the season holds for Washington. It seems a little far-fetched to believe that firing Gruden will somehow spark a turnaround, but weirder things have happened.

Personally, I hope that doesn’t happen, because it will force Snyder and Allen to take a much harder—and much needed—look in the mirror and ask themselves, “What exactly should a ‘damn good’ culture look like?” Success leaves clues. Go study others.

Then I hope they chart a true course to build one.

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