Written by Jerry Brewer at Washington Post.com
Some offseason, Washington Redskins. It began with a team official anonymously detailing Scot McCloughan’s alcohol abuse to justify firing the popular general manager. And it ended Monday afternoon with Bruce Allen, the team president and director of deception, breaking policy and common NFL courtesy, releasing the details of a failed contract negotiation with quarterback Kirk Cousins and demolishing a relationship’s trust just to combat a little criticism.
Two despicable bookends, crunching hope — that’s the best way to describe the past four months. For all the good the franchise has shown over the past two years, it has not changed. In fact, a modicum of success has made Washington only more arrogant, insufferable and dangerously unhinged.
First, the franchise dismissed McCloughan, a talent evaluator who set the team on the right path, while embarrassing him as best it could and shunning sensitivity toward the disease of alcoholism. Now, it wants to paint Cousins, who has helped turn around the team with his performance and professionalism, as greedy and unreasonable in negotiations.
Is it any wonder why Cousins is so reticent to commit long-term to this travesty of an organization? Of the many things a player doesn’t want his franchise to be, I’m guessing petty and classless are high on the list.
The window to sign Cousins to a multiyear deal closed at 4 p.m. Monday, which means he will play under the franchise-player tag — a one-year deal that will pay him $23.9 million this season — for a second straight year. Anticipating the backlash, Allen sent a statement in which he broke protocol to “clarify our negotiations” with Cousins. In it, he revealed an offer that Washington made to Cousins in May: $53 million upon signing and a total $72 million in guarantees when counting money guaranteed only if the player gets injured. According to Allen, the deal “would have made him at least the second-highest paid player by average per year in NFL history.”
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