Leadership Wanted – Apply Within

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July 31, 2019

by Jay Evans (@jayevans84)

The 2019 season script has yet to be written, while it is unclear whether this play is an epic or melodrama, the stage is set to be a plot full of intrigue and could quickly turn to a tragic comedy if the director isn’t in his chair when the season begins.

Curtain opens. Act I. Scene I. Setting: Richmond, Virginia. One week ago, Tony Wyllie, the team Public Relations Director, enters stage left. “Hear ye, hear ye, No Drama. No Drama.” May I ask a que-? “No means NO!”

Stage Right. The team gathers with an underlying optimism that is as palpable as the Richmond humidity and more fragile than Jordan Reed’s toes. The coach answers questions cheekily as his mind wanders into the unknown abyss. Three men take snaps, rotating frequently, and compete for the quarterback position.

Missing amongst the crowd is their best player. The captain. O’ Captain, MY Captain.

Unfortunately for Tony and the Redskins, the team has opened training camp with more fervor than a premiere production on Broadway. They’ve had opportunities to heal a lot of exposed wounds and conduct a valiant revival, but if the actors continue to improvise their roles, then this production is going to be full vaudevillian in a matter of weeks.

The Redskins front office hasn’t broken the fourth wall, but they aren’t deaf and can hear the jeering groans getting audibly louder. There will come a point when they are going to have to address the audience.

Some wounds are decades old and the sutures won’t be healed with a mere few days, but the recovery process could begin with precocious amounts of transparency and a #71 Trent Williams-sized pallet of leadership.

All-Pro mouths are prevalent throughout the D.C. region and for thirty years the Redskins have sported some of the best. Deion Sanders was going to retire, but came to collect a check. The clown Jeff George said, “Leadership – that’s all overrated.” Albert Hayneworth proclaimed, “I’m still playing as hard as I possibly can.” Robert Griffin, III was “all in for week one” and forgot about the other fifteen.

A personal favorite of the “me first” Redskin era was Bruce Smith in 2003. After breaking Reggie White’s record, the all-time career sack leader in the league then said the self-indulgent statement, “now the season can begin.” The Redskins were 5-8 after the game.

The release of Mason Foster was another purge of these weak figurehead governor types from the Ashburn complex. It is why D.J. Swearinger had to go. It is why Josh Norman was on the bubble in the offseason. The franchise has invested in the wrong personalities for years and struggled due to the lack of self-awareness.

Culture doesn’t change when you make small steps of progress while handing Brutus the knife. The Redskins inept hierarchy is lighter fluid for the individuals who have lacked character.

The circumstances of Foster’s release can’t be viewed in an on-field vacuum because Mason Foster was a team captain and played in “99% of the snaps”, according to his agent Blake Baratz’s rant. He is also a repeat offender who publicly insulted his employer and its constituents. He verbally assaulted the people who pay his salary and the direct source of the revenue. TWICE.

In October 2017, on a personal social media account Foster wrote, “I have played 3 weeks with a completely torn labrum…Lay everything on the line for someone just to have that same person slap you in the face. Business is business tho right. They don’t care about us.” He recanted his statement and was re-signed prior to the 2018 season.

Then last December, as turmoil mounted and the team was floundering with its fourth quarterback Foster aired his grievances again to the Twitter world:

He also told the fan, “Yeah and I’m not f—in wit it or being a scape goat to make fans feel better about all these big money ppl who ain’t playin or getting dogged out.” Finally, he said in the exchange, “Yeah ‘ll try my chances and go to a winning team next year…love the redskins but this ain’t it for the African #LOVE.”

Thanks for the hashtag love. Good Riddance.

Foster went unpunished by the team and blamed his cousin for the remarks. If those were public expressions from Mason Foster, what else was said in the shadows? When your team “captain” is the source of discontent, the situation is caustic.

As a Redskin fan, you should have been as appalled and as vigilant in the castigation of Mason Foster’s behavior as you have been in Dan Snyder’s direction. When the executives fail to admonish dissent then the upheaval of Bruce Allen and his cabinet is justified.

We have all worked for “bosses” who have run us home in a tiff and vented to whomever may listen. It is acceptable and cathartic. I would also expect an escort by security with my possessions in a brown box had my comments been aired publicly.

The notable absence from the start of training camp is not Foster. It is another captain and the best player on the team. Trent Williams, a seven-time pro bowler, is holding out of training camp either due to a contract dispute or a misdiagnosis, depending on the report.

What has Trent said on social media? … Crickets.

His true words are pure speculation because he hasn’t announced anything to the public and that is the most admirable position anyone has taken on this team in years.

Not all people are created equal. Williams has a fuel-tanker long leash because of his prior accomplishments. He could have gotten away with the comments made by the comedy troupe of talkers in years past, but he has shied from all publicity. Proven by his nine-year tenure, Trent is the bedrock of the Redskins and conducts business in a professional manner.

Trent Williams is a forerunner for a union’s cause and he isn’t taking a knee during the anthem, but he is choosing civil dissonance. It is his right to protest the team’s medical treatments and/or his contract status. Opting to conduct the matter completely out of the public eye is a modern-day miracle.

In the midst of every interview, Trent’s teammates have been forced to comment on his absence and Morgan Moses alluded to the situation as a bold necessity, not just for Trent or the Redskins, but for the everyone.  “It’s about time someone like that stands up,” Moses said, per John Keim of ESPN. “It’s not just a situation here; it happens throughout the league.

When Trent committed a wrong, he stood in front of the audience and apologized to the team for his misconduct. He hasn’t outwardly campaigned for his cause and he hasn’t used Twitter as a soapbox to garner support. Will the Redskins’ pride allow them to react similarly?

Leadership is a top-down concept. Williams hasn’t been portrayed as greasy in a contract dispute. The market was reset with a few contracts this offseason and with two years remaining on Trent’s contract there is opportunity to make amends.

Jay Gruden and President Bruce Allen telling the public that Trent would be in attendance, when all indication was that he would be missing, is Exxon-Valdez oily.

Trent doesn’t need a snap in the preseason, but the team needs his talent and leadership to optimize the season. On Episode 497 “Camp, Day 5” of the Redskins Talk Podcast, J.P. Finley mentioned that the defense had been instructed to “back off” because the left side couldn’t handle the pressure allowing the offense to get work.

While Trent’s absence continues, speculation rages as to whether he will ever play for the Redskins again. Wild trade scenarios are proposed every day, the players in attendance are forced to tread lightly and the coach is asked the same questions only his superiors can answer. One can only ask, is the emotional damage going to be too much to overcome?

The Redskins signed Donald Penn Tuesday, a longtime veteran left tackle, with the assumption that a resolution with Trent isn’t going to occur anytime soon, but the addition of Penn is the equivalent of a laying a hand towel down onto a flooded basement.

We are still weeks away from Act V in the “Redskins Dramady,” but it is time the Redskins front office begins to clean up the Williams leakage and assuage his concerns. I realize the likelihood the Redskins admitting their wrongs of the past are just as likely as I hitching a ride to training camp on Dan’s yacht.

One can think that the “directors” recognize a massive ratings flop is coming if there isn’t a resolution to the situation, because the arena will be half empty again for another year, further damaging the production of the current company.

The “greatest generation” of Redskins were guided by honest managers and leadership was a prerequisite on their applications. Don’t let another trailblazer leave, because who knows how many more resumes will cross the desk of human resources before another candidate arrives with the prerequisite leadership skill.