Walking the Green Mile (Part 2)

Marcus from College Park

*FAN SUBMISSION by our good friend, Marcus from College Park. Follow him on Twitter @MarcusSports1.*

The Second Installment in a Series of Columns regarding the Drafting, Handling and Consequence’s of bringing Robert Griffin III to Washington. Today we take a look at Head Coach and Lord of All Football Operations, Mike Shanahan.

Mike Shanahan began “Walking The Green Mile” to failure and irrelevance in Wasington four years ago. Brought out of retirement to Washington in 2009, by Main Man and Marketingmeister Dan Snyder to rescue DC’s Floundering Flagship Franchise, Shanahan declared that due to the damage done to the club by former coaches, Spurrier, Gibbs and Zorn, it would take a full five years to salvage the wreck. Armed with a whopping 35 Million Dollar Contract and a job for his supposed idiot savant son Kyle, Shanahan went about the business of cleaning house and putting his stamp on the roster by declaring he would win and stake his reputation on Quarterbacks John Beck and Rex Grossman. Disaster! When that plan sunk straight to the bottom of the NFC East, Eagles Coach Andy Reid hoodwinked Shanahan into trading for Donavan McNabb which resulted in a comical, yet pathetic treatment of an aging Star, which is what Washington consistently does to its player’s through cowardly use of the media. As a result of the McNabb trade, Shanahan and his cronies were reduced to the laughing stocks of the NFC East and derided league wide as a bad joke. Hey! Scamahan did say it would take five years, 35 million bucks and job security for his favorite son for the privilege of enduring his enormous, condescending ego, right?

Courtesy: Featured Film “The Green Mile”

By the way, if you haven’t noticed, Andy Reid only needed 5 Months, not years to turn a perennial losing Kansas City Franchise, which was 2-14 just last season, into the NFL’s only undefeated team at 7-0! 5 months that’s all it took for Reid to right the ship. Lets give Shanahan credit for what he has done, which is ripping off free spending owner Dan Snyder for 35 million bucks, keeping his son employed and selling his nonsensical 5 Year Plan.

Enter Heisman Trophy Winning and Media Darling Robert Griffin III to the mix. Desperate to make their annual off season splash, Shanahan gave the green light to make an unprecedented trade including swapping a 1st round draft pick, surrendering 1st rounders in 2013, 2014 and a 2012 2nd rounder to bring the latest franchise savior into the flock. The celebration was quickly dampened however, when the club was fined 36 Million in Salary Cap penalties after Snyder, Shanahan, and GM Allen were caught red handed attempting to prove they were smarter than the other clubs by manipulating the contracts of fat cat Albert Haynesworth and DeAngelo Hall. Nothing mattered though, RGII was in DC and the Franchise Quarterback Wasington wanted to covet was finally in the fold. Improvements to the overall roster however would have to wait, due to the cost of the trade and the salary cap penalties. Without help around him, RG3 dazzled but quickly sunk to a miserable 3-6 record before the players used Shanahan’s infamous capitulation press conference, after the game 9, to capture lighting in a bottle, win the NFC East and host a home playoff game. Hallelujah! Washington had been delivered from the Darkness. They had their Franchise QB for a decade or more and all of Shanahan’s foibles were forgiven or forgotten.

Then the wheels literally came off.

After having his surgically repaired knee injured in the Baltimore game while being tackled by behemoth Halito Nagata a month earlier, RG3 entered the playoffs running on only one leg. Left in the game, after having a 14 point lead, already limping and obviously hurt, RG3 and Washington’s season collapsed in a heap on a shameful field of green painted dirt severely re injuring his knee.

A ferocious “Blame Game” erupted and Shanahan found himself squarely in the middle of what was widely considered a scandal involving not only Shanahan but the conflicted interest of team doctor and Jack Kent Cooke look alike, Dr Andrews. Shanahan has always understood that a good offense makes for good defense too, so Coach and Doctor conspired to deflect and launch all the blame for the injury on RG3. A strategy so outrageous, RG3 was finally forced to fight back, dig in and make his own play at control of not only the injury message but complete control of the entire franchise. During RG3’s rehabilitation, a brutal battle in the press blew up with RG’s Dad even joining the fray. When the dust settled, RG3 won the public relations battle, decisively.

With an “All In Week 1” campaign, launched in partnership with his sponsor Adidas, the careful use of releases of information regarding his conversations with both the Coach and Doctor, RG3 has confounded Shanahan into a corner of his own making.

Shanahan may continue to put his best, bright red, face on pretending he runs the club but he knows it and so does everybody else, Shanahan no longer runs this team, RG3 does.

So now it must sink in, in those private moments that Mike Shanahan takes to reflect, that he lost his football soul to a Quarterback who has a measly career record of 11-11.

With a losing record of 23-31 in Washington, a bitter relationship with Star Player RGme and contempt for players, reporters and fans, Shanahan is thrashing and violently bawling while being dragged that final “Green Mile” to join the faces of Spurrier, Gibbs and Zorn on the Mount Rushmore of Losers under Dan Snyder’s Regime.

Marcus from College Park
October 26, 2013