I am a Redskins fan. Even beyond that I’m a Mike Shanahan fan. Ever since he left Denver the first time and became the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, I’ve watched closely. I’ve admired from afar his high level of preparation, his chess-match mentality, his overall approach to the game of football. Because of him I was inspired to aim at becoming a football coach. I’ve read his book, Thinking Like a Champion. He brought two Vince Lombadi trophies to a Super Bowl-deprived Broncos organization. His computer-like calculation of risk is exciting to watch. However, I think Mike Shanahan’s mind must be using the Windows Vista operating system, because we all just observed this last Sunday an anomalous glitch in the program when he benched Donovan McNabb in favor of Rex Grossman.
Now, I am a fan of coaches and systems. The hybrid West Coast Offense that Mike Shanahan learned from Bill Walsh and tweaked for himself has been a potent means of scoring points and moving the ball. Therefore, my second-favorite team is the Houston Texans, primarily because I’m a Gary Kubiak fan, and I bought into the offense that he ran when he was working closely with Shanahan in Denver.
With that said, a team can have in place the most prolific, time-tested system in place and still fail. A careful marriage of system and talent is required to bring success to an organization. With no offense to Rex, he has been nothing but offensive when he’s been at the helm. He is a fumble- and interception-machine. Yes, he knows the system that Shanahan the Younger ran in Houston as OC. But that does not mean he won’t avoid the sack, the fumble, or the pick-six. Those things are an integral part of his football DNA, and I don’t foresee that ever changing.
My coaching icon, Mike Shanahan, doesn’t seem to be aware of Rex’s history or his tendencies to help opposing teams. Perhaps there is some line of computer code that an evil hacker altered in the coach’s hard drive (Perhaps that hacker was Al Davis?). Why on earth do you put in a proven liability (Grossman) when the game is on the line? Why do you think system can overcome lack of talent on such short notice?
Hindsight is 20/20, and I think the Redskins may agree with me. Why else would JaMarcus Russell go through a workout this morning for the team? It would behoove the entire ‘Skins organization to perform damage control immediately. I just hope that Daniel Snyder gets his team of IT professionals to take a look at Shanahan’s glitch before it’s too late.