As we look at their Redskins, we see in 2000, that with addition of Free Agents Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith the Redskins were the favorite by most sport experts to make the Super Bowl.
However, the Redskins seemed to falling down hill even though they won six of their first eight. With Brad Johnson hurt most of the 2nd half the Skins started to experience problems and fell out of first place by losing 4 of their next 5 games. Still in the playoff chase at 7-6, the Redskins got rid of their Coach Norv Turner. The move would backfire as the Skins lost their next two under Coach Terry Robiskie, before winning their season finale to finish with an 8-8 record. Following the season Marty Schottenheimer was hired as both the coach and GM, as he hired most of his family to assist him. I was always thought you should never mix business and family, but let us look to see if it works well for the Redskins.
In 2001, QB Brad Johnson left, the Redskins turned to Jeff George. George struggled early and clashed with Coach Marty Schottenhimer, before being fired after a terrible 37-0 game to the Packers in Green Bay. The loss dropped the Redskins to 0-2, as the Skins lost their first two games by a pooled 67-3 score. Under new QB Tony Banks the Redskins would lose, their next three before a remarkable come form behind win in overtime against the Carolina Panthers. The win over the Panthers would trigger a five game winning streak as the Skins climbed to .500. The rest of the way the Red Skins would go up and down with wins and loses finishing with an 8-8 record.
In 2002, the old coach got the boot and their new Coach Steve Spurrier would come to the Redskins as one of the greatest coaches in College Football, with the name of being an offensive Enstein.
His efforts did not do much and the Redskins posted a record of 7-9, which landed them in 3rd place in the NFC East. The season in which the Redskins celebrated their 70th anniversary as an NFL franchise would mark the end of CB Darrell Green's career, as the future Hall of Famer retired after a stellar 20-year career with the Redskins.
In 2003, the Redskins raided the New York Jets for several key players adding WR Leveranues Coles, PK John Hall, and KR Chad Morton through free agency. As fait would have it, they would meet their former team as the NFL kicked the season off with a special Thursday Opener at Fed Ed Ex Field. Coles would have 106 yards receiving while John Hall nailed the game winner with 5 seconds left as the Skins started the season with a solid 16-13 win. A week later the Redskins showed their ability to comeback recovering from an early 17-0 deficit on the road as Patrick Ramsey passed for 356 yards 180 of which were to his new favorite receiver Leveranues Coles in a 33-31 victory. After losing to the New York Giants in overtime the Redskins looked solid again in a 20-17 win over the New England Patriots that had them off to a solid 3-1 start. Ramsey began to have problems on the field and the Redskins lost their next four games. After a 27-20 win over the Seattle Seahawks the Skins slide continued as Patrick Ramsey under pressure all season was forced to the sidelines with an injured foot. The Redskins would win just one more game the rest of the season finishing in 3rd place with a disappointing 5-11 record. The only highlight in the final weeks came when Bruce Smith Jesse Palmer of the New York Giants to set the career all-time sack record, in what would be the Hall of Famer's final season. As the season came to an end it became apparent that Steve Spurrier was not made for coaching in the NFL. He was fired following the season.
Owner Daniel Snyder was determine to bring the Redskins team back to fame and show the fans that the Redskins still had it in them. To do this Snyder looked at the teams past performance history and hired Hall of Fame Coach Joe Gibbs.
In 2004, they were hoping to rebuild the team with the new supervision of Gibbs. There goal was to bring the teams performance up, the way they played in their good old days. Gibbs who led the Redskins to three Super Bowl Championships had not coached since 1992, spending his time at the track with a successful NASCAR team. Gibbs being decade away from the sidelines showed as he had trouble adjusting to some new rules including the shorter play clock, as the Redskins often were called for delay of game at crucial times while wasting key timeouts.
Now in 2005, the fans realize that bringing back professional Coach Joe Gibbs did not really do too much and their hopes that the team would excel proved to be a downfall. Gibbs had his walks of fame and created moments to remember, but after being away for so long and having some of the rules change. You have to expect that his walks of fame are over and he should go back to NASCAR.
