Congratulations Washington, put another “Offseason Super Bowl” championship in your invisible trophy rack-you’ve managed to land the biggest free agent coach out there (except for Bill Cowher, but he’s not coaching probably and who wanted him anyway, right?) 

Mike Shanahan and the Meddlesome One have agreed to terms, and now Shanny will be Head Coach and Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the Washington Redskins.  He will also, clearly, be watching  a lot of News Channel Four.  Watch this link and tell me that Lindsay Czarniak won’t be getting a “Lunch with Lindsay” interview with the new HC in the next month.

This comes just days after (officially) firing Jim Zorn and a few weeks since hiring son of a former Redskin Bruce Allen to be Executive Vice President of Football Operations.

Wait.  What?  Oh-they are co-Vice Presidents.  Well I think those of us who have watched “The Office” this season know how well co-managers work out.  Officially, reports are that Shanahan would have the final say on player personnel-but I don’t think that makes Allen in charge of the wait staff or anything.  Final accountability for whether the ‘Skins sign overpriced free agents will, therefore, be with Shanahan.

Despite these “sweeping” changes, there is still plenty of reason to doubt that anything is actually different.  Despite the dramatic swing from Zorn to Shanahan, this isn’t the first time in the Dan Snyder era that the ‘Skins have been steered by a well known skipper with clout.  Norv Turner, Marty Schottenheimer and one Mr. Joe Gibbs are all household NFL Head Coaching names that weren’t able to do much, if any, better under Snyder than their lesser known colleagues.  If Snyder, who knows a lot more about business than football, continues to get involved in football operations don’t expect Washington football to be relevant over the next five years.   

Yes, it would seem that Snyder is finally ready to divorce himself from the field-but Washingtonians have heard that song and seen that dance before.  Shanahan’s contract may say he has the final say-but we all know that the man writing the checks always has the final say.  Given that the ‘Skins continue to make money hand over fist despite such terrible outings this past decade, the man writing those checks probably realizes he only needs to appear to be making changes rather than actually making them. 

Still-there is hope.  In Washington there always is (and only seems to be) hope for the football team, but hope nonetheless.  The Number 4 pick overall and a coach that knows what he’s doing are definitely steps in the right direction-and Bill Romanowski seems pumped up in this clip where he’s forecasting a Super Bowl for Washington.

Oh-and if you have a Clinton Portis jersey you may want to put it on Ebay, like, now.  With his spat with Jason Campbell over the last day gaining heat, he’s inability to do anything worthwhile on the field and a guy who already traded him running the team…well…let’s just say Hilary might be the only Clinton working in Washington come Spring.