Back-stabbing at its best

By Mike Wise

The Washington Post

November 08, 2009

During a week of more off-field chaos, brought to you by the franchise that just keeps on giving, Jason Campbell answered the phone.

It was 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, and miracle of miracles, he actually spoke about his thoughts regarding an upcoming NFL game.

'I'm not thinking, 'How in the world can I keep my job?' That doesn't even enter my head,' the embattled quarterback of the 2-5 Washington Redskins said. 'It's, 'What do I have to do to beat Atlanta?' Not, 'Where am I going to be next year?' Results, not negative things.'

Granted, it's not exactly as juicy as typing a manifesto next to a woodpile outside a Glen Echo cabin or, going on cable television to announce Dan Snyder is evil incarnate.

But Campbell was kind of busy preparing for the Falcons, so busy he didn't even want to fire back at any of his public critics -- some of whom once wore the same colors he does now.

'At this point you can't do much else than laugh at some of it and block the rest of it out,' he said. 'No offense, but we got nine games left. That's my focus.'

In this season of the Redskins' malcontent, that's not just refreshing -- it's exceedingly rare.

For all the talk about who's really calling the shots and who's undermining whom, the current situation in Ashburn comes down to the same cheeseball proposition confronting a struggling high school program: You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.

And during this septic season, very few are on the right side of that divide around this no-fault franchise, where coming together to beat an opponent hardly has the same priority as splitting apart to be the next to point a finger.

The bonding continues, all right -- over the perceived common enemy, over someone you played with, worked with or were employed by. None of them, of course, can found on a Falcons' roster, which begs the question: Who, really, was part of the Redskins' solution this week?

Not John Riggins on Showtime, forever crossing himself off Snyder's holiday-card list. Greg Blache? That bear of a defensive coordinator finally broke his media silence, not to defend his players or his head coach. But instead, he felt compelled to slam Riggo while defending the owner.

The critics of this team -- and the critics of the critics of this team (all of them, unfortunately, seem to be multiplying like rabbits) -- need to consider that their words might be doing as much to pollute the air as anything coming, or not coming, from management.

There is no issue here with glib former Redskins trading on their celebrity to squawk and, in some corners, occasionally tear down the very franchise they helped build. It's a nice cottage industry they have going.

But because so many have concluded Campbell is not part of the solution, consider this: If you're Sam Bradford or Colt McCoy or Jimmy Clausen, would you want to cut your NFL teeth in a town where every football icon shares his wisdom not during private moments in training camp but in front of a mike during drive time?

Sonny, Joey T, Doc, B-Mitch, LaVar and Riggo can all say they're paid now to be media members with opinions, not team consultants with advice. But once that route is taken, it becomes a little more difficult to knock Dan Snyder alone for selling out burgundy-and-gold tradition for the sake of personal profit.

Most of this season's wounds are self-inflicted, including the decision to strip Jim Zorn of his play-calling duties. But if Zorn is deemed to be part of the problem, the idea that any supercoach would take this job with the expectation of making his own decisions is ludicrous. A rash, quick-fix decision made in October might just prove harmful while head-hunting in January. Prospective employees are watching.

From the gray lot to the owner's box, disenfranchisement abounds.

Yeah, the people who ban fans' signs at FedEx Field are gutless suits hiding behind the changing definition of 'stadium policy.' But what do you call the people who make the obscene, tasteless ones, calling the owner a 'cancer' when his wife is in fact fighting it?

And does the media get a free pass? No, we've certainly preyed on all the enmity. (Full disclosure: I host a radio show for a station that competes with Snyder's sports-talk station.) But remember that we're essentially wallflowers inside a mixed-martial-arts cage, chronicling happenings good and bad. Bad can often make decent copy, especially historically bad. But no one buys, frames and hangs in their den the copy of The Post that reads 'Fail to the Redskins' after the loss to the Lions. They do that for Super Bowl wins. Or at least they did.

Remember when this organization was facetiously christened annual champions of the offseason, getting ink for its free-spending ways? Given the attention a 2-5 carnival has gotten, everyone involved should be congratulated for a

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