What These Redskins Are Missing Is Fear

If the Redskins aren’t really careful, they’re going to become the kind of national joke the Saints used to be. It’s bad enough to be lousy and winless; it’s worse to be comical.

Two weeks ago, Jeff Hostetler loaded up the truck and headed toward West Virginia, figuring he was being waived. Then, he U-turned before he got there and wound back at Redskins Park, having been told he wasn’t waived and wouldn’t be. End of story? Not a chance. Hoss, who’s already left the clear impression if he didn’t get the chance to be at least the No.2 quarterback he’d have his knee surgery and call it a season, had a boo-boo on the sideline today and is headed straight for the operating room.

Now, the Hoss subplot in and of itself is, well, worthless. So we’re not going to waste one second debating whether he was injured in Seattle while holding a clipboard. We’re talking about a 37-year-old third-stringer who didn’t play well when he had the chance last season. Who cares? If he wants out, call him a cab. When you’re 0-3 the last thing you need is a revolving door involving a non-marquee quarterback. (And this is coming from somebody who’s been a Hostetler fan for a long, long time and who semi-defended him last week).

If this was going on with, say, the Broncos or the Packers it wouldn’t be worth a paragraph on page 12, much less a column. But perhaps you’ve noticed the Redskins aren’t the Packers or Broncos. The Redskins aren’t even the Saints; Da Saints are undefeated, not winless and toothless.

This Hostetler episode is an issue because it’s symptomatic of a much larger problem:

There ain’t enough fear of consequences at Redskins Park.

I’ve been hearing ex-players, several of whom are currently broadcasters, some of them former Redskins and others of them hall of Famers, say this for two years now and for the longest time I didn’t want to believe it. But it’s becoming an inescapable conclusion.

Show me a successful NFl team and I’ll show you a locker room where everybody fears for either his playing time or his job. A couple of Hall of Famers have finally convinced me--as if they didn’t already know--that the really good teams are always made to feel miserable from Sunday to the following Sunday after a loss. I didn’t say, “feel miserable” I said “made to feel miserable” and there is a difference.

Players fear Bill Parcells, period. Why do you think Terry Glenn played like a terror for Parcells, who called him “her,” but hasn’t done much of anything since Parcells left Patriots. Don Shula, when the Dolphins were in their heyday, made his players so miserable they would do anything not to lose. Bill Walsh may have looked relatively harmless but in reality a week after a loss was like torture when he was in San Francisco. The bears, when they were good, feared Mike Ditka’s volatility. Players in Pittsburgh fear Bill Cowher now, and fear Chuck Noll before him. The Redskins might not have feared Joe Gibbs, but nay loss was treated as the end of the earth. Plus, they knew Bobby Beathard would have them standing in the passenger lounge at Dulles Airport with nary a word of warning. If Marv Levy wasn’t the heavy in Buffalo, you can bet GM Bill Polian didn’t mind filling the role. Jimmy Johnson, particularly when he was in Dallas, had the bite of a pit bull. He never cut anybody during a game, but the Cowboys sure believed he would.