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After every NFL football game, there’s a 10-minute “cooling off” period during which none of the media or public is allowed in the locker room (unless your name was Ed or Steve Sabol). That’s when all of the great post-game speeches have been taped, game balls are handed out or, in the case of a bad loss, chairs are tossed across the room by coaches or even players. There’s a good reason to have this time and there might be an argument that 10 minutes is actually not enough.
When Washington Redskins’ head coach Mike Shanahan came to the podium after the 21-13 loss at home against the Carolina Panthers, it was clear he could have used more time as he entered the room and went on to make his now-infamous “evaluation” speech in response to the second question asked.
“Obviously [it’s] very disappointing,” Shanahan said, as has been publicized. “A must-win game is a game that gives you a chance to play for a playoff spot. At the midway point when you’re 3-5, it’s going to be must-win to get in the hunt. When you lose a game like that, now you’re playing to see who obviously is going to be on your football team for years to come. Now, we have a chance to evaluate players and see where we’re at. Obviously, we’re not out of it statistically. Now we find out what kind of character we have and how guys keep on fighting throughout the rest of the season.”
I would not be surprised if these words ended up in some history text book somewhere in the not-too-distant future. My son is taking a “History of Sports” class at James Madison University this semester. What the head coach said — and the ramifications of it — would make great course material for Sports Management majors. They would need to write papers on what Shanahan can do to fix this team after saying what he said and in light of the team’s overall regression.
RedskinsNation, the sports world and Stephen A. Smith need to calm down. Mike Shanahan is the head coach of the Washington Redskins and he’s likely going to remain that for awhile… if not just for the remainder of the season, probably the remainder of his contract. The worst possible thing that Redskins owner Dan Snyder could do right now is fire him. More than anything, when a team is reeling, it needs stability and consistency. Booting Shanahan out the door right now would provide anything but that. Isn’t the revolving door mentality of the owner one of the things that Redskins’ fans have abhorred? Think of how it would affect rookie quarterback Robert Griffin, III. Can you say Jason Campbell?
Here’s the thing: Mike Shanahan has never been one for always speaking concisely. Coaches in general don’t. As a matter of fact, they are a transcriber’s nightmare. Sentences come in fractions, proper nouns are not used, words come in groups unrelated to questions asked and syntax is ignored. Combine all of that with the emotions of losing a “must-win” game and you are going to end up with the type of misspeak or lack of clarity that caused the furor after Shanahan’s “evaluation speech” Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, the head coach tried to explain what he meant on Sunday to the press. It was what he needed to do and even then, you could see the pressure he is under what with all of the losing. He maintains that this team is going in the right direction. I believe he is right, even if the team is still searching for an identity.
While there have certainly been improvements in this team since he took over in 2010, there are still enough problems that there are valid concerns regarding the remaining seven weeks of this season. That, of course, doesn’t mean the team can’t win. This is the NFL.
But more important than making fans and the media understand what he meant on Sunday is that Shanahan makes sure his team knows what he meant. He needs to keep his team believing in what they are doing.
Told what their head coach had said, a few of the guys were pragmatic.
“I never thought that [the evaluation] process ever stopped,” nose tackle Barry Cofield said after the game. “I have been in the league long enough to know you should never feel comfortable, especially going into a bye. A lot of changes have a tendency to be made during that time.”
Others maintained faith in themselves and the team.
“I think throughout professional football you are going to have a majority of the guys playing hard regardless of the situation,” Pro Bowl linebacker London Fletcher said. “Every year you are being evaluated, regardless of your record. Obviously when you’re in a losing situation, evaluations are a lot harder, a lot tougher and you are looking at who really wants to play. At this point in the season with seven games left, you are in a tight spot, but you win a couple more ball games over the next few weeks and our outlook is different. We are 5-6 and then 6-6 and you get a second chance. I think with this character of the football team I think guys will continue to play hard so I am not worried about guys playing hard.”
Others? Well, not so much.
“I’m not thinking about next year,” linebacker and team captain Lorenzo Alexander told the Washington Post. “That’s an offseason thing for me. But you know it’s hard when you see yourself in that type of position and your head coach is saying those types of things. It’s disappointing.”
In trying to explain his post-game remarks, Shanahan said on Monday that it was ludicrous to think he had thrown in the towel on the season. Quite honestly, this is no surprise to me knowing Shanahan and the way he speaks. As I listened to him talk on Sunday, I said to myself, “He doesn’t mean this the way it sounds.”
The head coach wasn’t smart to do that interview first thing Monday with Dan Graziano from ESPN.com and then open his typical Monday press conference addressing his comments about evaluations. The session with Graziano came earlier than the presser and so had become fodder for sports radio and the internet most of the day. It didn’t endear the local media to him by not at least calling an earlier press conference to give them his “explanations” regarding the previous day’s comments before the national media got the word. Whether or not Shanahan thinks it’s important, getting things out to the public in a positive way starts with the people who cover him everyday. But that’s off of the main point and an entire other subject for another day.
“To insinuate that I was giving up on the season is completely ridiculous,” Shanahan told Graziano on the phone Monday afternoon. “We’ve got five NFC East games still on the schedule. Any time you have division games, you have a great chance.
“What I meant by that is, any time you have adversity, now you’ve got a chance to see all of these guys play every game the rest of the way like it’s a playoff game,” he continued.”What you want guys to do when there’s adversity is to play harder and play better, and that’s when you see what kind of guys you have in your locker room.”
I was a little surprised but also impressed that Shanahan would have thought some of the local media would try to clarify what he said before writing about his post-game comments. He appeared downright insulted that no one had.
Folks will call me an apologist but, it just didn’t make sense that this coach would give up. Every single team in the NFC East lost this weekend. And it’s within the divisions where the wins count the most in this league.
While there are things Shanahan has done that I absolutely disagree with (letting a play onto the field where the face of this franchise is a receiver against the likes of Steelers’ safety Ryan Clark, going for a third fourth-down conversion against the Panthers and letting his QB sacrifice himself John-Elway-Style by scrambling against a stacked goal-line defense, spending oodles of money on wide outs during free agency), he is what the Redskins have right now, today. I wish I could say he has done more than making the team younger and going out and getting THE quarterback. I wish I could say that he has instilled the discipline into this team that was missing for so many years (the Redskins lead the league in penalties, committing 13 infractions for 97 yards Sunday) and I wish I could say that he has provided all of that depth he is always talking about. But, whatever Shanahan actually said on Sunday, I believe that he didn’t mean to say he was giving up.
In all likelihood, Mike Shanahan perhaps should have waited an additional 10 minutes before joining the media in the press room for his post-game chat. He should have phrased what he said differently… very differently. But, he is not going anywhere any time soon so there really is no choice other than to take his explanation for his unfortunately worded comments at face value and hope that between his coaching staff and the players, this team can turn things around. It’s certainly possible. Stranger things have happened.
Besides, as far as I am concerned, with Robert Griffin, III under center and rookie running back Alfred Morris on the field, this team will always have a chance. The quarterback appeared to have an understandable case of the blues on Sunday after the game and wasn’t his usual optimistic self. Who can blame him?
He said all of the right things however, even to the point of defending his head coach, saying he didn’t believe his boss was throwing in the towel. I like that this youngster believes in himself and the team. Knowing Griffin, he will take the situation to heart and try all the harder. What is this young man going to do during his first NFL bye week?
“I have no idea what I’m going to do,” RGIII answered during the post-game presser. “But I promise you I’ll come back and I’ll be a better quarterback the second half of the season for us, for this team. And hopefully everybody else comes back with the same mindset.”
We all know how winning can color perception. If the players know that Shanahan is going to do “whatever gives this team the best chance to win,” they are probably going to continue to play hard. Any time someone is trying their best, good things can happen.
Hail.
Diane Chesebrough is Editor-In-Chief, writer and photographer for SportsJourney Broadcast Network. Accredited media with the NFL, she has been a feature writer for several national magazine/periodicals. Follow her on Twitter: @DiChesebrough
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