The Dan Snyder Era went almost unrepresented during the Redskins’ 70th Anniversary Celebration weekend. Darrell Green was the only guy still on the Skins roster who made the team’s all-time squad, which was introduced during Sunday night’s glittery halftime show at FedEx Field. To make up for that slight, and in keeping with the team’s anniversary theme, here follows a list of Snyder’s 70 most notable moments since taking over the Redskins in April 1999. In the interest of time, please hold your boos until the list is finished.
Snyder:
* made a big splash at his first training camp with a helicopter arrival.
* fired general manager Charley Casserly in 1999.
* hired Vinny Cerrato as personnel man in 1999.
* fired Vinny Cerrato as personnel man in 2001.
* hired Vinny Cerrato as personnel man in 2002.
* hired Pepper Rodgers, his game-watching buddy from FedEx Field, as a personnel expert in 2000.
* may have heard Jay Leno joke, “Native Americans once again are calling for the Washington Redskins to change their name. It has nothing to do with racial insensitivity. They say the team just sucks.”
* told ESPN.com during 2000 training camp that head coach Norv Turner “is going to be here a long time.”
* fired head coach Norv Turner with three weeks to go in the 2000 season.
* hired head coach Terry Robiskie during the 2000 season. (When asked if it was true that, as team spokesman Karl Swanson said after Robiskie’s hiring, the head coach makes all the decisions on the Redskins, Robiskie said, “If I wanted to change my desk, I’m going to call [Snyder] and say I want to change my desk. If I want to change quarterbacks, I’m going to call him and say, ‘What do you think of me changing quarterbacks?’ It’s his football team.”)
* fired head coach Terry Robiskie after the 2000 season.
* hired head coach Marty Schottenheimer before the 2001 season. (“I’m not as hands-on as it may seem,” Snyder said during Schottenheimer’s introduction as coach. “This is Marty Schottenheimer’s organization from the standpoint of the final word.”)
* hired Marty’s brother Kurt as defensive coordinator.
* hired Marty’s son Brian as quarterbacks coach.
* saw his team lose the Schottenheimers’ Redskins debut, 30-3, to the San Diego Chargers, Norv Turner’s new team.
* may have heard Jay Leno joke: “You know you have phony mail when you receive a Publisher’s Clearing House Envelope and it says on it, ‘Redskins—You may be a winner.’”
* went to college games to scout quarterbacks and talked about head coaches he’d like to hire.
* with Marty Schottenheimer still on the payroll, sparked ESPN reports that his team “is close” to agreement with Steve Spurrier.
* fired head coach
Marty Schottenheimer.
* fired Marty’s brother.
* fired Marty’s son.
* cut punter Matt Turk.
* cut punter Matt Turk’s brother.
* .cut fullback Larry Centers, now a Pro Bowler with Buffalo.
* .signed quarterback Jeff George. (During a Fox broadcast in September 2000, Terry Bradshaw said Snyder was foolish to listen to Sonny Jurgensen’s advice to bring in George. “Both Jurgensen and George have one thing in common—they have never won anything,” said Bradshaw.)
* .cut Jeff George.
* .signed Deion Sanders. (Actual jeer heard during 2000 season from pregnant woman in the FedEx club level just before one of Deion’s many no-gain punt returns: “Do something, you piece of shit!”)
* .cut Deion Sanders after recovering almost none of his massive signing bonus. A Washington Times reporter observed that Snyder had paid Deion $8.5 million “to go to a Wizards game with him.”
* .signed 36-year-old receiver Andre Reed.
* .signed 37-year-old receiver
Irving Fryar.
* .signed 36-year-old defensive end Bruce Smith.
* cut Brian Mitchell.
* may have heard Jay Leno joke: “What do the Washington Redskins and the Taliban have in common? Neither will be around for the playoffs.”
* cut kicker Brett Conway in the middle of the 2000 season.
* cut kicker Brett Conway in the middle of the 2002 season.
* didn’t cut Michael Westbrook before the 1999 season.
* didn’t cut Michael Westbrook before the 2000 season.
* didn’t cut Michael Westbrook before the 2001 season.
* .signed Danny Wuerffel, who, before coming to the Redskins, backed up Heath Shuler.
* .may have heard Jay Leno joke, after guest Denzel Washington boasted that his son’s high-school football team had won its last game 60-0: “Who were they playing, the Redskins?”
* .banned all pedestrian traffic into FedEx
Field, except those
fans who paid $25 to park at the Capital Centre lot and walk from there.
* .hired male cheerleaders.
* .broke the team’s contract with Frostburg, Md., to move training camp to Redskin Park for the 2000 season.
* .may have heard Jay Leno joke: “Eleven members of the Washington Redskins Monday were exposed to a mysterious white powder they had never seen before— the end zone.”
* .charged fans $10 to watch training camp at Redskin Park, something no NFL team had ever done.
* charged fans $10 to park at Redskin Park during training camp, something no NFL team had ever done.
* charged media for the right to report on practice from Redskin Park during training camp, something no NFL team had ever done.
* saw the Loudoun County bomb squad called to training camp to blow up a package that was found to contain a music box and a “pro-Redskins” fan letter to the team’s owner.
* was sued for defamation in September 2000 by John Jenkins Sr. and John “Chip” Jenkins Jr., whose family business had tended the grounds at Redskin Park for nearly four decades, after telling Sports Illustrated he fired the pair because they were “trying to kill the players with their crappy fields.” The suit was dismissed the following February.
* bought out the independently published fan publication Redskins Journal.
* banished some Washington Times reporters from the pressbox to the basement of FedEx Field after nonglowing coverage.
* was awarded “Sports Jerk of the Year” for 2000 by cartoon pundit Tank McNamara.
* may have heard Jay Leno joke, “The San Diego Chargers fired their coach, Kevin Gilbride, after the team managed only two wins in the first six games. Today, the Redskins said, ‘Two games? We’ll take him!’”
* booted Domino’s out as Official Pizza of the Washington Redskins after asking for an exponential increase in the endorsement fee.
* opened 10 Washington
Redskins retail outlets, but none
in Washington.
* added two rows of seats at field level, which offer, by most accounts, the worst view in the stadium. He named them “Dream Seats.”
* saw his team threatened by NFL officials with the loss of a draft pick for blasting music whenever the Baltimore Ravens were on offense during an October 2000 game at FedEx Field.
* began selling “replica” jerseys for 2002 season at about $300 a pop. The garments don’t replicate any previous Redskins jersey.
* may have heard Jay Leno joke, “The Emmy Awards have now been canceled for the second time and might not be scheduled now until next year. When the Redskins heard about this, they said, ‘You can do that?’”
* hired Marvin Lewis to be his team’s fourth defensive coordinator in four years.
* saw his team get routed on Monday Night Football by the Philadelphia Eagles at FedEx Field, as a brawl in the stands resulted in fans and visiting players getting pepper-sprayed by the cops.
* said he was 5-foot-9 in a Washington Post Magazine article.
* saw his QB Shane Matthews benched a week after he won Player of the Week honors.
* saw his team lose to Dallas, 41-35, on Sept. 12, 1999, in his first game as an owner. It was the Redskins’ fourth loss in a row to their top rival.
* saw his team lose to Dallas, 38-20, on Oct. 24, 1999, the Skins’ fifth loss in a row to the Cowboys.
* saw his team lose to Dallas, 27-21, on Sept. 18, 2000, the Skins’ sixth loss in a row to the Cowboys.
* saw his team lose to Dallas, 32-13, on Dec. 10, 2000, Skins’ seventh loss in a row to the Cowboys.
* saw his team lose to Dallas, 9-7, on Oct. 15, 2001, the Skins’ eighth loss in a row to the Cowboys.
* saw his team lose to Dallas, 20-14, on Dec. 2, 2001, the Skins’ ninth loss in a row to the Cowboys. (Under Snyder, the Redskins have never beaten the Cowboys.)
* announced that he’d like to own Washington’s baseball team, too. —Dave McKenna