[SmootSmack]

Players lazy in meetings:http://www.thewarpath.net/redskins-l...tml#post524128

Spurrier didn't give a damn who was playing defense. He couldn't name more than two or three players on defense without a script in front of him.

Under Spurrier, meetings where chaotic and no one was held accountable. Ladell Betts on multiple occassions would doze off and call people on his cell phone. Rod Gardner would do the same. Heck he called me once during a meeting. Players were regularly late to meetings. No one was ever held accountable. Under Gibbs (granted I wasn't actually there for Gibbs, I left right before) there was accountability and an understanding of the consequences of not being responsible. Not in terms of fines but in terms of the respect of your colleagues and the effects on the field.

For all intents and purposes, the true head coach that first year was Marvin Lewis. He was the leader of many meetings, he knew both the offense and defense.

As for player acquisitions and personnel, Snyder just gave Spurrier whatever he wanted, with the occasional minor disagreement. But it was such a joke because Spurrier never attended any personnel evaluation meetings, he would vacation at the start of free agency. You know how most coaches, Gibbs for example, call up a potential free agent, fly out to see him, fly him in to Redskins Park, etc., Spurrier couldn't even be reached by phone during the first days of free agency. The whole Jetskins ordeal of 2003, there was no rhyme or reason to that. That was just Dan and Vinny (mainly Dan) scrambling to do something based on the offense Spurrier said he needed.

That was pretty much the last straw. Snyder wanted Spurrier to succeed, for selfish reasons as well. But changes were ready to happen the next offseason. I believe it would have started with putting Cerrato in charge of the football operations, and responsible for the roster. The same way he is now, but five years earlier. But when Spurrier quit, and Gibbs came aboard, VC took a back seat.

In short, there was no sense of responsibility under Spurrier and he constantly skipped out on important meetings and off-season decisions. It was every man for himself in the locker room. There was no "team"

Snyder and Ramsey: http://www.thewarpath.net/redskins-l...tml#post824076

Not to sidetrack this conversation, but that's not exactly true about #1. Regardless of what Snyder told the WaPo Magazine. Ramsey was not their first choice. Choice #1. Heck 1-3 was Joey Harrington. They tried desperately to move up to get him. When that option failed, they decided they would sit at #18 and wait to see if Donte Stallworth fell to them. When that didn't happen is when they mobilized a trade down with the Patriots to get Ramsey and add picks later in the draft. He can say he "discovered" Ramsey (whatever that means) and that Ramsey was the guy they wanted. But I can tell you first hand it was really Joey Harrington all along. Why do you think they were so close to trading Ramsey to the Bears before he even took a snap with the team?

Bruce Smith: http://www.thewarpath.net/redskins-l...tml#post609354

Bruce Smith did worse than go to Dan Snyder, he (and Fred Drasner) used to go to Snyder's father and had Snyder's father berate Dan Snyder for not seeing to it that Smith got more playing time

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