John Riggins rips Daniel Snyder
Former Redskins legend John Riggins recently called owner John Riggins “a bad guy.”
John Riggins: “First of all, it’s what I do, JB. I have been in broadcasting for the last 15 to 20 years, so it is sort of my job. And the other part is, and I’ve been asked this question a lot, when they say do you have an ax to grind? And I think any time an older player criticizes or says anything about his former team, unless he’s throwing Bon Mots at them, that all of a sudden you get a, ‘What’s he griping at?’ type of thing. Maybe that’s the case. But truthfully, I do have an ax to grind and I just realized I have been a little bit disingenuous. But this is a bad guy that owns this team. I’ll just tell you that upfront. Bad guy. And if the Commissioner is worried about potential new owners and saying some of these guys shouldn’t apply, he might want to police his own inside guys….”
Brown: “Why is he a bad guy?”
Riggins: “Because his business practices, I think. I don’t want to say they are unethical, but I don’t think it’s a place, a climate that is created there where people can be successful. It’s driven all by his ego and everything has to come from him. And I just don’t think you can be successful in those situations and when you are dealing with someone with the mindset of a child and yet owns a franchise in the NFL. I think you have some problems there.”
Cris Collinsworth: “We are talking about Daniel Snyder . Are you saying in some way he is unethical? Because I have dealt with him in the past and I have never sensed anything close to that. Or are you saying he has made bad decisions on the football side as an owner? Or what is specifically the issue?”
Riggins: “I am saying that I don’t think that this franchise can be successful where you have people saying, ‘Oh, this person Dan Snyder wants to win. He wants to win.’ It’s all about priorities. ‘What’s my priorities? The priority is it’s all about me. I have to have my needs met, then I want to make money, and those are one and two, and then I want to win. You can see by the decisions that are made….I don’t know if you have agreed with anything I am saying so far, but at this point, I would think you would say, ‘Yeah, I’ll go along with that.’ This person knows nothing about football, absolutely nothing. I don’t think they have a clue how a football team comes together, how it works. And yet they are the ones that are basically calling all the shots through a puppet, which is Vinny Cerrato. That is my take on it….I speak for the fans because these are the people that paid my salary for all these years. They are the ones that need to know that this is a bad guy.”
Collinsworth: “There is a fine line between being a bad guy and a bad GM, if you will. Are you saying a bad guy as in the NFL needs to take a look at this?”
Riggins: “Let me put it to you this way, Cris, this person’s heart is dark.”
Wow, tell us how you really feel, John.
I think Collinsworth brings up a good point in that there is a fine line between being a bad guy and a bad GM or owner. Just because someone doesn’t know how to run a football team (which Snyder clearly does not), doesn’t make him a bad person. So I wonder if Riggins is just venting his frustrations and that it came out wrong.
That said, if you come out and say that a person’s heart is “dark” then I’m willing to bet you know exactly what you’re saying.
Riggins is 1000% right!! If you told Dan Snyder he could have 2 SuperBowl Championships or have his team worth less than it is now he would would say NO trophies..ALL he cares about is money. I pity him since he suffers from LMS..(little man syndrome). I use the work “man” loosely. He is not worthy toeven tie my shoes..
I understand what Riggo is referring to. Though, I don’t think it came out the right way. I believe he is referring to incompetency mixed with greed. Dan Snyder wants to win but he also wants to make money (since he’s lost so much thus far). He doesn’t have the experience or knowledge necessary for turning around a team with a significant losing streak. Cerrato is not a good GM. I would think he is the first who should step down. His inability to “buffer” Snyder from Zorn has shown that thus far. Unfortunately, stepping down now would only solidify Riggo’s comments and Cerrato nor Snyder want to inadvertinately give Riggo (or any other critic) the satisfaction. Zorn on the other hand is too close to his team as a head coach. He seems like he wants to kiss up to his players in order for them to play good. He should be more assertive not only with his team but also with Cerrato and Snyder.
Campbell is only doing the best he can for his career. I don’t expect him to stay past his contract unless things change significantly.
In summary, Riggo did go overboard but someone had to do it. I think he didn’t make his point clear enough and the readers ran the other way with his comments.
All I know is the Skins SUCK!
Dan Snyder has been trying to buy a Super Bowl scince he first bought the skins. He dosen’t realize you have to build a TEAM first.
John is right on,This man shuts down his own fans when they voice their opinions ,what a paranoid dwarf,He doesn’t deserve to own this team and if people would just stop buying tickets and boycott the team,maybe he will go away or get a clue.
To tell the fans that go to the game they can’t bring in signs is awful.I don’t care what he gives to non profits.HE SHOULD,period .That doesnt make him an exceptional human being.And he takes care of his players and coaches,GUESS What,he should.
The problem is he only gives a hoot about the$$$.
He is a greedy little man ,and should sell the team to someone thats willing to get people in that know football.The problem is Im not sure anyone can tolerate him for any extended period of time .
He had Marty Shotenheimer and he was turning around the team without spending zillions of dollars and whats he do cause he has a love affair with his man Spurrier.
Gets rid of a football guy for a college coach that couldnt voach in the NFL on his best day.
oh ,by the way the only reason the other x players don’t blast Snyder is because they are gutless and are afraid if they speak out he’ll squash them like he did John,Its why Sunny,Sam,Joe and the others toe the line.
You guys are Redskins show it by calling Snyder out
I don’t know about the black heart stuff ,but he is an egotist,elitist.
This team needs to be rebuilt totally
And John has the right to call players out for not performing.
If your gonna collect millions at least give a noticible effort
I used to admire this guy’s business prowess and his ability to maximize his investment. Nut what about OUR investment. We’ve gotten NO return for 10 years. Riggins speaks for the fans when most others tread lightly around the man who is buying up everything so he can control it all.
Would love to see a group offer him enough money to make him go away.
http://www.savetheskins.com (Get your owne SELL THE TEAM, DAN bumper stickers here)
Could it be Dan Snyder and Peter Angelos are brothers?
As a season ticketholder I can attest to Snyder’s business practices & obvious greed. Publicly, it’s already known that we pay the highest ticket prices of any fans in the league (with absolutely no return thus far for 10 yrs running). What many aren’t aware of are the many ways he finds to stick it to the fans that go to the games. Not just in all the concessions & merchandise, but the number of regular seats that are now premium seats because they are sold with some sort of premium membership. I entered into one of these several years ago to get off the waiting list. What was not anticipated was that the seats that were available through an upgrade process would change & far less were suddenly available because of a new, even more expensive, even more premium club – this happened TWICE – so now, in addition to all those premium yellow seats, there THREE different premium clubs and this covers all of the lower level seats that have been given up by long term season ticketholders – I doubt there’s really any chance for a new upper level ticketholder to move down to the lower level. But that isn’t even enough – what is always a constant, despite prices staying the same or going up, is how something gets taken away from the club – I can only speak for my lowly bottom level tailgate club. Whether it be food variety, type of food, availability of promised “entertainment,” or having endless commericialism shoved in your face even though your paying a premium fee. My favorite example is how, after 2 years of Burgers being available in the Tailgate club for every game, they just disappeared about two or three games before the end of a season. The next season Johnny Rockets is suddenly a concession in the stadium. I thought “Oh Snyder inked another exclusivity deal.” Then I found online that Snyder had BOUGHT Johnny Rockets. Of course. And I’m still paying the same FEE for the tailgate club but if I want burgers (a LISTED menu item for this club), I have to pay the outrageous concession price to get one.
And let’s not forget Snyder’s attempts to sue fans – regardless of whether the ticketholder could be replaced to regain the income on the seat/box. He may have had a legal right because they stupidly signed that contract – mine does not include this, fyi – but it’s still not particularly ethical to go after these people the way he did.
Money & ego fulfillment for his Napolean Complex are his only real motivating factors. And this is nothing new. People are finally just sick of it now.
Oh yea, I forgot one other little gem: we got what looked like parking upgrades this year, only to find out they had re-aligned all of the existing colors to move them further away, eliminating the furthest away color (what I had), so we were basically as far away as we had always been. What he then did was add more “premium” parking (OF COURSE) up front & made a couple outer, smaller lots cash lots. This is CLEARLY deceptive and unethical because he could’ve kept the color associations the same for the distance – he obviously wanted to trick people into believing they were getting an actual upgrade. Furthermore they mismanaged the parking so badly on an early game, we got there our normal 3 hours early to enjoy our tailgate club premium visit before the game and it took 85 minutes from the time we got to the stadium property to get parked. And having sat there staring at those new cash lots that used to be my pre-paid lot) for much of that time, I contemplated (briefly) just paying so I could get the heck in there. They were actually stopping and holding cars for no apparent reason. We were then run around to the other side of the stadium (even though there was empty space they wouldn’t let us get to on the side we were on), funneled through the entire set of people tailgating in the lot and forced to park there, which on that occasion was easily much further away than our old parking lot, rather than just as far away, like now.
It’s always something new to the detriment of any fan. Oh, I’m sure if you’re paying $10,000 or more a season per seat, you probably don’t have that issue, but I suspect that’s about the only way.
Danny Snyder is not only the greatest sports owner of all time but he also the greatest human being of all time. I think people should stop bashing Snyder and start worshiping him. My dream in life is to be Snyder’s Yes Man (and I think I am well on my way).