By Harvey Hoffman
Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has fired team president Bruce Allen.
Issuing a statement early this morning, Snyder said, “As this season concludes, Bruce Allen has been relieved of his duties as president of the Washington Redskins and is no longer with the organization.
“Like our passionate fan base, I recognize we have not lived up to the high standards set by great Redskins teams, coaches and players who have come before us. As we reevaluate our team leadership, culture and process for winning football games, I am excited for the opportunities that lie ahead to renew our singular focus and purpose of bringing championship football back to Washington D.C.”
Allen, the son of the late Redskins coach George Allen, had joined the franchise as general manager late in the 2009 season shortly before Washington hired Mike Shanahan as head coach. In his 10 full seasons, Allen rose to team president. He fired Shanahan after three seasons and hired Jay Gruden to replace him. Allen also had hired Scot McCloughan as his general manager, but after two seasons filled with behind the scenes dysfunction, Allen fired him as well.
After an 0-5 start to this season, the Redskins fired Gruden, and Snyder evaluated Allen over the course of the next 12 weeks, which ended yesterday with a 47-16 loss in Dallas and a 3-13 record.
In 10 full seasons, Allen directed only three winning seasons and two playoff teams, losing more than 100 games.
Snyder had reportedly considered a number of scenarios: removing Allen completely, reassigning him. He’d expressed to people in the league he understood the franchise needed a reset, but people close to the team remained conflicted on whether they believed Snyder would actually fire Allen.
Now Snyder, whose teams have reached the playoffs just five times since he bought the team in 1999, will host Ron Rivera about his head coaching position, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized by either party to speak about the meeting. It’s believed that Eric Schaffer is the leading internal candidate to be elevated to GM, although additional front office hires could be made.
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