The Collective Sins of Bruce Allen and Why He Should Be Fired

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November 12, 2019

by Steve Thomas

This column is directed at the Washington Redskins front office, because I can’t imagine anyone else will substantively disagree.  I hope the team reads this, at a minimum someone in the PR department, because Dan Snyder needs to understand that I’m not just speaking for myself here – my voice here represents all of our readers who are disgusted with their team right now, who feel betrayed and embarrassed to have to root for the absolute disaster this franchise has become under the leadership of team president Bruce Allen.  He needs to go.  Now.  Without delay.

Allen has had a couple of different titles since he arrived in DC, but he essentially replaced Vinny Cerrato as the team’s senior executive in 2009.  Cerrato was the Redskins’ senior executive from 1999 – 2001, when he was wisely fired by Marty Schottenheimer.  Dan Snyder then stupidly fired Schottenheimer and re-hired Cerrato in 2002.  Cerrato resigned in December, 2009, having presided over the Redskins for a total of 10 seasons.  During that time, Washington’s record was 72 – 88, for a .450 winning percentage.  The team had 3 playoff appearances during that time, winning two games.  During Allen’s tenure from the 2010 season to the present (this season will be his 10th), the Redskins’ record is 60 – 92 – 1, which is a .390 winning percentage, with just two playoff appearances and no wins.

Vinny Cerrato was a terrible executive who embarrassed the franchise and turned the team into a league-wide laughingstock.  Objectively, Vinny Cerrato was a more successful team executive than Bruce Allen.

Think about that for a minute, Redskins.  Cerrato did awful things to this team, had a horrible reputation around the league, and did generally nothing to benefit the franchise whatsoever.  Granted, Cerrato had the benefit of Joe Gibbs being the head coach for some of those years to prop up his winning percentage, but the bottom line is that the team was better off overall under his leadership.  Allen has made the Redskins worse on the field than Cerrato did.  Let that sink in.

For that reason alone, Allen should’ve been fired long ago.  No other NFL senior executive who’s not related to the owner could withstand a .390 winning percentage over nine and a half seasons except Bruce Allen.  But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of things that Allen has done to hurt this franchise.  Here’s a partial list:

  • He’s the NFL’s least trusted executive. The USA Today reported on April 19, 2018, that it had conducted an anonymous survey of NFL player agents, and Allen was named the “least trusted” decision maker in the NFL[1].  That should surprise no one.
  • The end of the season ticket waiting list and destruction of the fanbase: For decades, the Redskins used to be at or near the top of the attendance charts every year, had the longest streak of sellouts in American sports, and could boast of a season ticket waiting list that lasted years[2].  Under Allen’s leadership, waiting list is gone, nobody goes to the games anymore, and most of the people who do attend are fans of the opposing team.  Alot goes into gameday attendance, but Allen is the team president and needs to own this.
  • Cheerleader brothel: He presided over a scandal in which the team cheerleaders were allegedly required by team officials to escort wealthy male suiteholders to nightclubs in Costa Rica. Those same suiteholders were also improperly allowed to watch a swimsuit calendar photoshoot that included topless photos.  A couple of minor functionaries were fired, with Allen taking no responsibility whatsoever.
  • Almost never speaks to the media: Allen is afraid to speak to the media. He almost never takes questions, having done so only a handful of times over the last several seasons.  Allen has a habit of throwing guys like Doug Williams and the head coach to the wolves by making them facing the media and take questions about things like the cheerleader scandal, the controversial signing of Reuben Foster, and the Trent Williams situation, when those topics are clearly above their pay grade.  He only appears when something good happens, such as the praise the team got for the 2019 draft.  Allen is a coward and it’s pathetic.
  • Multiple speaking gaffs: Part of the reason Allen doesn’t speak is that when he does so, he usually says something stupid. Allen once infamously claimed that the team was “winning off the field” in the midst of record-level losing on the field; just a few weeks ago, he claimed that the team’s culture was “pretty damn good” despite obvious evidence to the contrary.  Both statements brought widespread scorn and laughter from the NFL world.
  • Dispute with Mike Shanahan: He allowed a dispute with former head coach Mike Shanahan to fester and develop into a scandal that still haunts the team to this day. At a minimum, regardless of who was at fault, Allen failed to fix the problem.
  • Scot McCloughan’s hiring: Allen hired a general manager, Scot McCloughan, who had a known history of alcohol abuse.
  • Scot McCloughan’s firing: He allowed rumors to come out of Redskins Park about McCloughan’s drinking, without evidence[3], as a pretense to firing McCloughan, to the point that McCloughan felt compelled to file a grievance against the team. Allen then told the world that he was assuming control over football operations, because he’s a ***quote*** football guy ***close quote***.
  • Salary Cap scandal: The NFL assessed a $36M salary cap penalty against the Redskins back in 2012 in response to the Redskins’ move during the uncapped 2010 season to accelerate the guaranteed money of Albert Haynesworth in order to reduce his cap hit going forward. I have a hard time blaming Allen and the Redskins for this, because the NFL didn’t have a valid contractual and/or legal argument for doing what they did.  The NFL owners actually illegally colluded with each other and violated the CBA.  In fact, the NFL front office actually approved the Haynesworth contract amendment.  I’ve studied and thought about this at length, and the only conclusion I can come to is that the Redskins were right and the NFL was wrong.  However, Allen put the team in this situation by not coordinating this move ahead of time in order to spare the Redskins from once again becoming a laughingstock.  The bottom line with this incident is that it’s yet another situation in which the team was embarrassed and publicly scolded under Allen’s leadership.
  • Dispute with Kirk Cousins: Allen ran off the team’s most productive quarterback in 25 years, Cousins, by grossly mismanaging contract negotiations. He also repeatedly called Cousins the wrong first name during a televised interview, which surely didn’t help.  Whether Cousins truly wanted to leave the team in the beginning will never be known because Allen flubbed negotiations badly enough that there was no way out except for Cousins to walk.
  • He made the new stadium situation worse, not better: Allen’s supposed to be in charge of the team’s effort to get a new stadium built, but Virginia and Maryland appear to have bowed out and the District of Columbia doesn’t seem to be a viable option. Allen’s political connections were theoretically the lynchpin of the stadium effort; Virginia and Maryland both moved on to other projects.  Any competent, non-Bruce Allen team president could’ve accomplished what Allen has done in this regard (i.e., make the situation worse).
  • Dispute with Brian Lafemina: He won a pointless and harmful power struggle with the team’s new president of business operations, Brian Lafemina, in 2018, after Lafemina appeared to become too powerful and well-liked by the fanbase. This resulted in a mass exodus of front office personnel who reportedly resigned in protest and hurt team operations.  Job well done, Bruce.
  • Replay challenges: Never forget that at least at one point Allen was personally overseeing the team’s challenges to penalties in the booth, and may still be doing that today. The idea that the team president wants, and thinks he’s qualified, to do that is absurd.  Remember, folks, ***quote*** football guy ***close quote***.
  • Failed to find a good head coach: Allen has been through the aforementioned Shanahan, the disgraced Jay Gruden, and now Bill Callahan, and none of them have turned the team into a consistent winner.  This is because Allen’s horrible leadership and arrogant presumption that’s he’s qualified to preside in any way over on the field football decisions kept these coaches from accomplishing much of anything.  Allen clearly didn’t give Gruden much control over the roster, instead holding that privilege for himself, because, remember, ***quote*** football guy ***close quote***.
  • Failed to find a franchise quarterback: In Allen’s tenure, the team has been through Rex Grossman, John Beck, Donovan McNabb (nice trade, Bruce), Robert Griffin III (who was apparently forced on Mike Shanahan at a cost of 3 first round picks and a 2nd round pick; golf clap for Bruce), Colt McCoy, Cousins, Alex Smith, Mark Sanchez, Josh Johnson, and now Dwayne Haskins.  Only Haskins still has a shot.
  • Trent Williams debacle: The latest bit of awful.  For reasons that appear to be limited to boosting his own ego, Allen totally bungled the fallout of the mismanagement of Williams’ tumor diagnosis.  Williams does share some blame for this situation, and there’s almost certainly another side of the story that he isn’t saying, including money, but not only did Allen fail to fix the problem, he made it worse by ruining any chance of reconciliation with the team’s best player in a generation.  Allen callously didn’t even bother to visit Williams in the hospital after Williams had been told his life was in danger.  As the coup de grace, Williams all but directly blamed Allen personally for his desire to leave the team.  At one point the situation was fixable even despite what Williams claims was poor medical treatment by the team’s medical staff.  Allen managed to make it much worse, not better, by being vindictive to the player, refusing to even consider a new contract, and failing to trade him at the trade deadline two weeks ago when the entire world except Allen believed it was the right thing to do.  Just wait for the fallout next offseason when the team tries to sign free agents.
  • Is currently presiding over the mismanagement of Dwayne Haskins: If someone ever wants to host a seminar on how to ruin a highly rated rookie first round quarterback, all he or she would need to do to is look at how the Redskins, under Allen’s leadership, have mismanaged Haskins by forcing him onto a lame duck coach who apparently didn’t want him, screwing up his playing time, and not making the franchise publicly support him.  Now, Haskins will have to learn another new system under another new coach who may or may not actually want him, with said coach undoubtedly being hamstrung by the micromanagement of a front office led by Allen.

Have I missed anything?  Why on earth is this guy still employed by the Washington Redskins?  I can think of no one who has benefited in any way from Allen’s leadership except himself – his own pocketbooks, the income of several hoity-toity bars in the DC area and around the country, and the manufacturer and distributors of Coors Light.  If anyone has a list, or even one thing, send it to me.  The only reason I can think of is that Dan Snyder has so few honest voices around him that Allen has managed to effectively cut Snyder off from all impartial outside inputs in order to preserve himself.

Remember the second Lord of the Rings movie, The Two Towers, where the good king was taken over by the dark lord and turned into a horrible person?  The slimy little advisor in the black cloak who allowed the king to be corrupted is Bruce Allen.  Watch this YouTube clip and tell me I’m wrong:

That scene is a perfect analogy for what Bruce Allen has done to the Washington Redskins, only Dan Snyder isn’t exactly the good king and there’s no Gandalf to come swooping in to save the day.  No, Allen is just allowed to continue to fester and infect the team that we’ve all loved for decades, transforming it from a multiple-Super Bowl winning elite franchise into not just a poor team on the field, but a laughingstock with no fan base, no respect, no credibility, and no hope.  This man is the personification of football evil incarnate.  He doesn’t belong in an NFL front office.

There’s no way for Dan Snyder to resurrect this team from the dead other than by firing Allen.  No coach, no player, and no draft pick is going to matter a single bit.  He’s a slimy, conceited, liar who is utterly unworthy of being a part of this franchise.  Don’t let this travesty go on another day.  Do it today.

 

 

[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/04/19/nfl-agent-poll-bruce-allen-redskins-bill-belichick-demaurice-smith/528741002/

[2] I put myself on the team’s waiting list in 1997 and was not offered non-premium tickets until 2006.

[3] The Hog Sty heard unpublished rumors about McCloughan’s drinking from sources well before anything came to light about McCloughan in the media.