A Perennial Soap Opera Bowl Contender

One of the nice things about being a football fan who's a transplant to DC rather than a native is that it allows me sufficient detachment that I can enjoy "The Burgundy and Gold" for what they are without any hang-ups about what they once were. What they are - and have been since the mid-90s - is a generally poor football team that despite the occasional good season is more entertaining for what happens off the field than on it. This week's firing of head coach Mike Shanahan following several weeks of drama is simply par for the course and only surprising for the way this end result seems absolutely obvious in retrospect.

Four years ago, the tandem of Shanahan and GM Bruce Allen was meant to signify that the lunatics were no longer running the asylum. Four seasons and a playoff loss later, it would seem that Shanahan was the coaching equivalent of the splashy free agents that made the Redskins less - rather than more - competitive. Perhaps the only saving grace relative to other free agent signings is that the $7M owner Dan Snyder will have to pay Shanahan not to coach the final year of his contract doesn't count against the team's frquently shaky salary cap situation.

Allen, for his part, has come out of this season without doing anything remarkably embarrassing, but you can't help but feel that's more a function of how little he seems to have done. Amusingly, for all the flak that Kyle Shanahan has gotten about being the head coach's son, it seems clear that Allen is the true standard bearer for nepotism in the organization. If he didn't have the same last name as one of the few great coaches in team history, Allen would surely have been part of Monday's walk of shame.

If he had a genuine say in the team's roster, then he's part of the problem. If he didn't have any say, it raises the dual questions of why he didn't leave and why fans should have any faith he can improve things. In either scenario, it's hard to accept his continued employment as anything more than the owner wishing to maintain a link with a happier chapter of the team's story. The more things change...