The Gestapo Has Arrived! Heil, Danny!

Can the news get any worse? Has Danny Boy ever heard of PR? Does anyone in Redskins' management "get it"? Obviously not.

In what can only be characterized as too stupid to believe, reports in the paper indicate that the Redskins' official "security guards" (aka the Gestapo) were confiscating signs brought into Fedex Field by fans at Monday night's game. One had the traditional "D-and-Fence" sign, another said "LET OVECHKIN CALL THE PLAYS" (which is actually a creative idea, much more so than those coming from upper management these days; at least, Ovechkin is a bona fide winner), another said "Bingo Night Football" which is actually clever and would have gotten a lot of air time during the game.

I mean really, is Snyder out of his f*cking mind? Censorship? This is the way fascist regimes take care of the opposition: shut down their voices, kill dissenters, squelch all criticism. I'm surprised the "security guards" didn't turn the hoses on the fans. Trust me, that's next. Keep the riff raff from telling it like it is. Who needs them, anyway? There are 50,000 people on the waiting list to buy season tickets, so let's just wash away the annoying minority. Paranoia reigns!

It can't be long until the Danny hires his Herr Goebbels to take care of propaganda. Here's one possible party line: the demise of the franchise is the fault of the media (no, sorry, they've already used that). How about: the demise of the franchise is the fault of a certain minority of rowdy fans, those who bring signs to games that criticize the Redskins! Critical signs are disloyal to the team, undemocratic, unAmerican, and disruptive of harmony and goodwill. YES, by jove, we've got ourselves a winner! Everything bad that's happened is the fault of fans bringing critical signs to the games! They must be punished! Make them wear armbands! Make them gather in a special parking lot to tailgate, a parking lot with a fence around it! No one enters or leaves the parking lot without passing through a security checkpoint! And a curfew is imposed. No weapons of any kind may be carried by the signmakers, and they must turn in their charcoal grilles after each tailgate party. We'll show them that such disunity will not be tolerated in the Land of Danny. (repeat signmakers will be dealt with harshly).

Given all this weird behavior, I'm a bit surprised the pregame show of Monday Night Football didn't have its plug pulled by the Gestapo, given the rough treatment of the Redskins by ALL of the announcers. No one, and I mean no one, gave any excuses for the sorry state of the Redskins franchise.

There is no excuse, except the one pointed out by Tracee Hamilton in her wonderful column in today's Post (she is rivaling Wilbon as my fave columnist...): the fault is Snyders, for thinking he knows football, and for being unwilling to give up control of the football operation to someone who does.

I can't resist one little p.s. to all this: did anyone see or read about Cerrato's press conference? It was really painfully pitiful. This is the face of the franchise? This is the spokesperson for the Washington Redskins? C'mon, almost anyone could do better than Vinny's heming and hawing at those softball questions, like: "Do you feel you gave Jim [Zorn] a roster that could get to the playoffs?" The answer (what's he supposed to say?): "Yes." Any amateur knucklehead like me knows that the offensive line was a disaster waiting to happen. And we did virtually nothing in the offseason to address that problem, with the exception of adding Dockery who has proven to be one of the last men standing (with Rabach).

Enough.