Washington Redskins Head Coach Jay Gruden had a decision to make going into last Sunday’s matchup against the Minnesota Vikings. Start the quarterback with the hot hand? Or the one with the $21 million contract?
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While I think which quarterback had the hot hand and which one is getting paid $21 million is clear, I don’t think that Gruden’s decision was.
Colt McCoy had just strung together back-to-back victories, including a 25 for 30, 299 passing yard performance against the Cowboys, and was sporting a 107.00 quarterback rating in the process. RGIII is well... RGIII, a brilliant talent for some moments, but injured on the sideline for others. But when the Redskins mortgaged their future by trading up to draft him a couple years ago, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because he was good at holding the clipboard.
Frank, my 75-year old best friend and the biggest Redskins fan I know, put it in perspective when we were watching the game last week. “Ya know what, Tripper,” he said. “It’s like if you buy a really nice, expensive, brand new car and find out it’s a lemon. You don’t put it away in the garage and let everyone know it’s a lemon, you drive it around town until it finally breaks down.”
Frank went on to tell me that he thinks RGIII is one hard hit away from being done for good and I’m inclined to believe him on that one.
I’m also on board with Frank’s car analogy. We see these types of situations all the time because the NFL is a business and it’s marketing every aspect of that business. Franchises aren’t just selling tickets, jerseys, and memorabilia, they’re also selling the decisions made by the front office. If an NFL team is a publicly traded company, then its fans are the stockholders. And if the stockholders don’t like the way the board of directors is running that company, then they’re selling their shares — or in our case, tossing their old jersey and buying a new one from one of those knock-off Chinese websites.
So when the fans clamor for Tebow or Manziel, or expect to see the quarterback that the team paid a hefty price to trade up and draft instead of the one that they signed as an unrestricted free agent, it’s something to be considered. That’s not to say that the fans should run the team, but they’re not all loyal losers.
That reality considered, last week was kind of a lose-lose situation for Gruden... You know, unless the ‘Skins had actually won. He was going to catch flack either way, but for a team currently undergoing the most public identity crisis in sports, avoiding a quarterback controversy was probably the right call.
If Griffin can’t manage to start winning games soon, however, angry Native American activists and Tea Party supporters won’t be the only groups marching on Washington. You can add Colt McCoy supporters to the picket lines as well. I’ll be right there behind them, not so much physically as in spirit, calling for the front office to put a cover on their busted-up old Griffin and put it away in the garage to make room for their brand new 2014 McCoy.
