Zorn Named Redskin Offensive Coordinator

The head coaching job of the Washington Redskins is still up in the air in the debacle of the team’s post-season. But at least one mystery is resolved, sort of. Jim Zorn, quarterbacks coach of the Seattle Seahawks, has been named Redskin offensive coordinator.

Team owner Daniel Snyder apparently took his cue from the paragon of NFL management, Jerry Jones, of the Dallas Cowboys, who last year named Jason Garrett OC before he named Wade Phillips head coach.

But this country boy would think that the head coach should be the one to say who is to be his OC. But with the Snyders and Joneses, rationality has no place.

Zorn was a good NFL quarterback and comes to the Redskins after developing Matt Hasselback for the Hawks.

Al Saunders and all the investment, and that’s not just cash, placed into him and his 700-page playbook are out the window. He has reportedly been told to look for employment elsewhere. What loyalty this crowd has!

Piece by piece, and in a matter of days, everything Joe Gibbs built has been shot to hell by Snyder and his stooge Vinny

Weeks Before A Redskin Coach

What a mess the Washington Redskins management has made of selecting a coach to succeed the retiring (for the second time) Joe Gibbs. The brain trust interviews Gregg Williams four times and does not hire him. They float every name in the Western World except that of this writer. They find that virtually everyone they want to hire is blocked from taking a Redskin job. They float the name of Jim Fassel, another retread from the NFC East wars (Yes, he got the hated Giants into a Super Bowl early in this decade.) but now apparently have put him on hold along with Gibbs' old coaching staff. The current staff and their families have been in limbo for 16 or more days waiting for The Danny and his sidekick, Vinny, to decide this thing.

If I were Williams I would be packing and telling the boys in the executive suite to eat a big one.

What is going down here is that everything Gibbs worked to build is being exploded. The Redskins cannot bring in an outsider and do it has it is being done without destroying what was in place.

Yet again Mr. Snyder is about to blow up the team.

The fans, the long-suffering fans, are fed up with this charade, and we should be.

Looking For A Redskin Coach

It may be hard to feel sorry for those making exorbitant sums for coaching football. But I feel sorrow for Gregg Williams, of the Washington Redskins. Here is a coach who by all accounts has earned the right to be the successor of Joe Gibbs as head mentor of the team. Williams has been interviewed four times by owner Daniel Snyder while the latter has interviewed virtually everyone in the Western World for the position except the writer of these little words.

Now words come that the latest "hot coaching prospect" is former New York Giants head coach Jim Fassel. Give me a break! What has Fassel ever done for this Washington franchise? The Redskins would not have won nine games and made the playoffs this past season without the Williams-coached defense.

Snyder owns the team and can do anything he wants and hire anyone he wants. As Michael Wilbon, of The Washington Post, said you can pencil in most seasons that the team, regardless of what it does in the offseason, will end up being about 8-8. There always is high drama in the offseason and it does not always translate into a stellar season. Even the storied Gibbs ended his four-year run on his second tour as coach at 31-36.

Fassel is known as a developer of quarterbacks. The Redskins obviously need a steady hand to develop young Jason Campbell. But has it occurred to anyone that Campbell may not be the star so many believe him to be? I have been high on him, but what if he does not have it? This is not Auburn. This is the National Football League.

Anyway, stay tuned. It should get mighty interesting in the Redskin community this week.

Blackstone Not On Navy's OLF List

RICHMOND – Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter today announced a narrowed list of three Virginia and two North Carolina sites that the Navy will consider for the location of an Outlying Landing Field (OLF) for Naval Air Station Oceana. The Virginia sites are in Southampton, Surry, and Sussex counties. The North Carolina sites are in Gates County and in Camden County. According to the Navy, the Virginia and North Carolina sites will now be evaluated in a 24-30 month Environmental Impact Study (EIS) process, which involves public hearings and additional analysis of the suitability of the locations for an OLF.

Blackstone in Nottoway County was not on the final list. Blackstone town officials and others had opposed the OLF coming to nearby Fort Pickett.

Governor Timothy M. Kaine, in response to the Navy’s announcement, stated:

“The Commonwealth is committed to assisting Southampton, Surry and Sussex counties, the United States Navy, and our Congressional Delegation as efforts to locate a suitable Outlying Landing Field site continue. I recognize that this is an issue that causes great concern among many in the potentially affected localities. I also recognize that it is critically important that the Navy identify a new Outlying Landing Field to meet the training needs of its personnel in the 21st Century.

“My staff and I will work closely with all of the parties potentially affected by this process to ensure that it moves forward in a deliberative and open manner, that all concerns are heard, and that all opportunities for additional economic incentive for our communities are fully explored.”