If it sounded familiar in the last week or so for the president of the Washington Football Team to stand before the public and take the bullet for his silent, hiding superiors, it’s because it is.
Three years ago, after the team claimed linebacker Reuben Foster off waivers only days after a domestic violence arrest, it was left to vice president and franchise legend Doug Williams to issue the statement to the fans and media explaining and justifying it.
Not the team owner, Daniel Snyder.
Not Bruce Allen, his right-hand man at the time and the ultimate decision-maker on football matters and recipient of Jon Gruden’s now-infamous emails.
No, it was done by those underneath them, something this franchise has become too comfortable doing and another that it will face a reckoning for one of these days.
The problem is who falls on their sword for the organization, the most recent sacrificial lamb being team president, Jason Wright.
Wright issued the apology for the botched timing and announcement of the ceremony honoring Sean Taylor.
Wright should not have been under the wheels of the bus for that one, but that’s where he landed.
And if and when the smoke clears on all the wreckage surrounding that franchise, don’t act shocked if Wright gets sacrificed again.
Jason Wright has been one of the two faces of the franchise’s overhaul the last two seasons. The reconstruction of the image, operation and culture of a team has continued to be a blight on a league that itself has been a growing blight on the sports landscape.
Under the harshest spotlight of his 22-year tenure as owner and on the eve of the team’s first season without the racial slur of a nickname under which it had operated since 1932, Daniel Snyder hired Wright as the first Black team president in NFL history just a year ago,
Wright joined new head coach Ron Rivera, the franchise’s first head coach of color and the man in charge of football operations.
The pair faced a daunting task.
Rebuilding from the ashes of the previous regime – the good-old-boy architects, Allen and former head coach Jay Gruden – was the least of it. The stables had to be hosed out from the serial sexual harassment investigation started in the past several months and which the NFL had finally stepped in to oversee (for lack of a better term).
Wright and Rivera have done what they can to put the right pieces in place, to make the franchise accountable, responsible and a source of pride for its loyal but abused supporters.
Currently, it’s not clear what more can be done by Wright, Rivera, or anyone else.
Except, of course, the one obvious choice who has a track record of doing wrong.
The revelations of hundreds of thousands of emails that were part of the league investigation into the franchise have again stripped the franchise of its pretenses.
The rot of the sexual harassment and abuse, crude and casual racism, homophobia and misogyny, clearly came straight from the top, with Allen at multiple intersections. The notion that it stopped there and didn’t continue through the majority owner is laughable.
Even more laughable is that the owner has still not officially been touched.
But the full undressing may be closer than ever.
Congressional leaders have taken note of the email leaks and demanded concrete answers from the NFL and, to be sure, from the team at the center of it all.
Remember, as vile and unconscionable as Jon Gruden’s emails were, this is not primarily a Raiders problem.
There are 31 franchises and owners that have a lot to answer for, but none more than the one in the nation’s capital.
Wright and Rivera continue to toil as the organizational janitors.
The Sean Taylor mess was only the most recent toxic spill, but it was Wright who had to come in with the mop and bucket.
Rivera’s mess on the field is spreading out of control as well.
The legacy of the previous administration remains, the NFC East is no longer a top-to-bottom patsy as it was a year ago now that the rival Cowboys have re-emerged, and the flaws on the roster and on the coaching staff are growing more evident by the week.
Someone will pay.
History has told us who has paid in the past. Allen lasted nearly 10 seasons, seemingly untouchable and immune, a legacy hire, a golden name in franchise history.
Does Wright have that luxury?
Why would anyone believe he does? He showed up loaded with credentials and goodwill. Yet despite being new, he’s already been dragged into a quagmire not of his own making and has served as a human shield for a situation that fans will never let go of.
In doing that, he’s followed in the footsteps of a different team icon, Williams, who was made to do the dirty work not very long ago.
Meanwhile, it takes about five minutes of reading Snyder’s coach-hiring history to recognize the danger Rivera is facing.
The win-loss record has always been a symptom in D.C., never the whole problem. What he’s tried to change can’t be changed while the same person is at the top, and he’s now learning that the hard way.
This franchise excels at certain things, few of them positive, the main one being scapegoating.
There have been far more of them in the last 22 years than there have been, say, playoff appearances.
So if the Black team president or the Latino head coach, or both, get tossed overboard while the ship sinks, don’t pretend you didn’t see it coming.
