Talking NFL

With the arrival of the Big Tuna in Miami, it looks like we won’t be able to laugh at the incompetent moves of the Dolphin’s front office anymore (at least until Parcells gets bored and quits two years from now).

Lucky for us, we still have the Raiders and the Redskins, who are battling it out for the Isiah Thomas Mismanagement Award for an NFL Franchise.

First we have the Raiders and the surreal story (broken by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Friday), that Al Davis wants Head Coach Lane Kiffin to sign a letter of resignation that Al himself has drafted! Here’s the report Mort filed on Friday:

The best part of this is the tone of Mortensen’s voice during this whole interview. He basically just wants to say, “you know what? Al’s done. He’s having full blown conversations with Napoleon and wants to hire Knute Rockne. For the love of God, will somebody please take the keys away from him and get him set up in a Springfield Retirement Castle penthouse?!”

Even better is the name of Kiffin’s rumored replacement. True story; on Friday night I was talking to a few buddies about this story, and said, “you’ll NEVER guess who Al wants to bring in as coach! C’mon! Guess, but you’ll never get it!” Immediately, one of the guys said, “Dennis Green.” When I asked him how he guessed, he replied, “well, I went with the most ridiculous answer I could think of. By the way, you’re not serious are you?”

I mean, you know who Dennis Green is, right? He’s…oh, never mind…

Meanwhile, there’s similar bedlam inside the Capital Beltway. Fans and bloggers are none to thrilled about the decision to jettison defensive coordinator Gregg Williams after four (that’s right , FOUR) interviews for the head coaching position. I particularly enjoyed Mr. Kenney’s comparison of Dan Snyder to George Steinbrenner. Ouch.

Another move that has baffled the Redskins faithful is the replacing of accomplished offensive coordinator Al Saunders with first time offensive coordinator Jim Zorn. Most confusing of all is the idea of hiring an offensive coordinator before you’ve hired a freaking coach! Oh, really? I’d be hard pressed to find that move in Football Team Building 101.

Lucky for Al Saunders, there’s some interest in his services around the league. Most notably with…you guessed it…the Oakland Raiders.

How apropos. The dumb raiding the dumber…

Oakland Raiders, Washington Redskins, Al Davis, Dan Snyder, Isiah Thomas, Kenneth Lay, Angelo Mozilo, Edward John Smith, you get the idea