[BringBackJoeT]

Originally Posted by freddyg12

agreed. In particular, the year that we passed on Sapp I was up in arms.

I looked for that wash post mag. article online but couldn't find it, but what I remember was it broke down every facet of the Skins fall from grace, including the Monk debacle.

Casserly & Gibbs said that during the glory years, players' agents were always asking them how they could work a deal to play for the skins. The FO thought that free agency would be a boon for them & they would land top talent at the price they wanted to pay. What happened was that players were more about the $ than they realized, playing for the skins wasn't as coveted as the 49ers, and suddenly salaries skyrocketed for players that used to be cheap, namely o-linemen.

As I recall, the theory implied in letting white sign w/GB was that had they signed him AND made some other good moves (they also made bad fa signings at this time such as Tim Mcgee, Al Noga), Pettibon might've kept the job and all those other dominoes wouldn't have fallen. i.e. if white had signed maybe Norv & his poor draft picks + letting Monk go would've never happened.

No doubt though, there were a lot of reasons for the collapse. I'm still bitter toward Norvelle more than anyone else, though I know he was only part of it.

Agree 100%. It's completely unfair to isolate blame on Norv, but I too have reserved the vast majority of my 90s bitterness for him.