Yet the Washington organization itself shares the great blame for Haskins’ downfall. Haskins placed the conditions that would make it difficult for someone to be successful, and he was in a particularly bright spotlight because he was drafted by his hometown team. Washington had previously embraced and spat out players – look at Robert Griffin III – and it was hard to miss the spirit of coaching staff’s resentment towards Haskins last year, and Rivera’s reluctance to work at Haskins this season. Haskins did not create the difficult culture in Washington, where alliances between decision makers were created and undone with a frequency that required a flow chart, but he is just the latest example of how Byzantine politics of the place could undermine individuals and torpedoes . the football product.
At age 23, the machines in Washington had to be difficult to process for a player accustomed to success and stars. Haskins looked unhappy and sounded like Sunday’s game. No matter how frustrating his game and behavior were, it was impossible not to feel bad about how dejected he looked.
“Definitely the hardest week of my life,” Haskins said Sunday night. “I just want to jump back and move forward and pray and get my life together.”
If he – honestly, even if he does not – definitely get Haskins a chance, and probably more than one, to relive his career elsewhere. He is young and physically gifted, and a fresh start may be exactly what Haskins needs, away from the perception that the owner has chosen him on his coaches, and in a place where he can work calmly on his game and grow word.
Remarkably, Washington is still able to go to the playoffs. It is an honor to both Rivera and Smith, whose own rising return story was the counterweight to Haskins’ decline.
If Washington reaches the post-season, it will help provide coverage for what the football team hopes is the final fiasco designed by Snyder’s regimes. The dysfunction has run deep for years, and Rivera still has a lot of cleaning work to do, just like Snyder, who is confronted in his organization with a series of allegations of widespread abuse of women.
There’s a broader discussion about why the culture of the NFL and its fans promotes more discussion of Haskins’ mistakes than Snyder’s. But it says a lot about a franchise that the shockingly quick failure and exile of one choice in the first round can arouse sympathy from another who has suffered the same fate: