Because drafting crappy players, overpaying free agents and monitoring the league's personnel moves doesn't take enough time as it is, Redskins Jefe-for-Life Vinny Cerrato will add HOSTING A LIVE RADIO SHOW to his duties. Yeah, you read that right. Let's take it back to third grade and do our 5 W's (which is about what Cerrato seems to lead the team to most years) about the Vinny Cerrato Radio Hour.
WHO - Vinny Cerrato, the most ineffective de-facto general manager in the NFL.
WHAT - He'll be hosting a two-hour radio show that will discuss -- well, what will it discuss? All Cerrato could possibly do is brag about the two good picks he's made (Chris Horton and Chris Cooley -- even though Cooley was more of a Gibbs guy), overinflate the worth of his other terrible picks "We love Reed Doughty, he's just a late bloomer") and, that's pretty much it. NFL rules violate a general manager or president from discussing players on other teams, so it's not like Vinny could be talking about how he'd like to trade away the entire 2009 Draft for a chance to get DeSean Jackson. Because that'd be against the rules. And say what you will about Vinny, but at least he doesn't cheat, Bill Belichick.
WHEN - Mondays and Fridays from 10:00 a.m. -- 12:00 p.m. But, wait, you'll say! Aren't Mondays the most important personnel days of the football season? Why yes, friendo, they are.
WHERE - They'll be broadcasting from Redskins Park, or the 8th circle of hell, depending on traffic.
WHY - Why?? Whyyy??? WHHHHHYYY? Who the hell knows. At this point, the relationship between Snyder and Cerrato has turned from awkwardly symbiotic to creepily dominated by the one without any money or power. Cerrato seems to have a trance on Snyder, one that he uses to convince Snyder to let him do all these ridiculous things like draft 3 pass-catchers in last year's draft or host a radio show in the middle of the season when he should be working.
Amazingly, Jason La Canfora hates on Cerrato even more than I do (which is weird, because La Canfora covers the team, and I'm just some dude. I mean, would the Post allow it's McCain beat reporter to write blog entries ripping McCain?), which made for a good read on tonight's Redskins Insider. The money excerpt:
This just confirms what we've all thought for a long time: they have no idea what the hell is going on over there at Redskins Park. Before, we just thought we knew. But underlying that doubt was the glimmer of hope that maybe, one day, Cerrato and Snyder's plan for football dominance would come to fruition.And the show will run Mondays, which is the busiest personnel day of the week, with tape to be broken down of your own team, film to be looked at of other players, lists to be compiled of free agents to bring in. It's when you fill voids from injury or ineffectiveness, dissect the roster, check in around the league.
In general, when a lot of other GMs and personnel guys are breaking down film of free agents, and opposing players in the afternoon, trying to find any way to upgrade the roster, Cerrato personally attends every Redskins practice, usually right by Snyder's side. So between those 2 ½ hours per day on the practice field, and then another 4 hours a week on the radio ... let's just say that's a big chunk of time. I'm not sure how many of you guys could function at your primary jobs while cutting out prime hours like this twice a week to moonlight on the radio. Seems like it would be tough.
Sure, Cerrato has a staff around him, but trust me, this is pretty unprecedented. I've covered every pro sports league to some degree and been around this business a long time, and I'd be stunned to find another executive with this type of position who can waste four hours of prime business hours per week - in season no less - yapping on the radio. What if an agent is trying to reach him? What if a GM has a trade offer? What if there is an emergency of some sort?
"I've never heard of anything like that before, and I've been in this business a long time," one NFL executive said after being convinced that this was in fact not a gag. "I can't imagine anyone else in the NFL doing this. How can you justify spending your time like that? What am I doing still in the office breaking down film (it was 9 pm at the time)?
"And you're telling me this is gonna be every Monday? The morning after a game? They wonder why people point the finger at them over there, then they keep doing stuff that opens them up to criticism. I can't believe this one."
Now it becomes evident that football success is somewhere in between maximizing revenues and strengthening the Redskins brand idendity on the "to do" list on the two-man desk that Dinny inevitably shares. If Snyder is willing to sacrifice meaningful hours of his football boss's day, then it's a reasonable assumption that Snyder is less interested in winning football games than we thought.
That was always the thing about Snyder; we all thought he wanted to win. That's what he had going for him. That's why the entire town hasn't yet turned on him. He loves the Redskins and always wants to win. With this move, however, that perception could change. Snyder still loves the Redskins, but giving Cerrato a show in the middle of the season indicates (to me, at least) that he's just as interested in winning a radio battle.
If this was any other of my teams, I'd have jumped shipped long ago. But the bond is too strong. I can't abandon these helpless idiots who are destroying my city's beloved franchise. Maybe one day they'll change. Or maybe one day they'll elope to Hawaii, never to be heard from again. That'd be great.
2 comments:
It's really not that big of a deal, you really need to get a life.
let's take the costanza perspective on this for a second: if every time vinny scouts players and makes decisions he's wrong, then perhaps when he DOESN'T scout players he'll be right...
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