ANALYSIS/OPINION:
There is no shortage of differences between the New England Patriots and the Washington Redskins. We didn’t need for them to play a game to realize that.
The space between the two franchises is far greater than the 27-10 score of Sunday’s loss — coaching, talent, etc.
But for the fans of both franchises, here is the fundamental difference between being a Patriots fan and a Redskins fan.
The Patriots sell today. The Redskins sell tomorrow.
New England has been selling today for 15 years. Patriots fans wake up every day thinking about today — expecting to win this week, thinking about who they might face in the playoffs this season.
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Redskins fans, though, get out of bed and wonder if their team will show enough promise to win in the future, wondering if the players on the roster will somehow get better to make the playoffs and compete in the future.
Today — and tomorrow.
The Redskins used to sell today, but they weren’t very good at it. They brought in players like Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Brandon Lloyd, and Albert Haynesworth to sell today — except year after year, today stunk.
Then Bruce Allen arrived in December 2009 — six years ago — and like a smart front office executive, he began selling tomorrow. He sold player development under the guise of building smart — the “right” way.
Fans could ignore the pain of today for the promise of tomorrow — except this organization is just as bad at tomorrow as it was at today.
But tomorrow sells hope. Tomorrow buys time. Tomorrow tells you not to pay attention to the results of today, because better days are ahead.
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You know, we’re moving in the right direction.
“We aren’t exactly, you know, one cohesive unit, a finished product yet,” coach Jay Gruden said Monday. “We’re working towards that. We’re going to get to that, but we still have some things we’re going to work out from a youth standpoint, working together, playing together and they will work on that.
“Coach [Bill] Callahan is working diligently with these guys,” Gruden said. “These guys are working hard. We’re just not quite a finished product yet. I don’t anticipate us being a finished product for a little while but we’re going to keep grinding it and good things will happen.”
Good things will happen — tomorrow.
“When you have a new organization in place with Bruce Allen and his team, and coach [Mike] Shanahan and all new coaches, things take a little time for them to shape what they want to do,” owner Dan Snyder said in 2010. “It took Joe Gibbs a year to get his organization shaped the way he wanted to, and the next year, we went to the playoffs and made a good run, and we’re looking forward to the same thing with coach Shanahan and Bruce Allen.
“Obviously, where we are right now in the season is not where we want to be, but we’re making progress as an organization, and I’m feeling great about Mike and Bruce. They’ve got great leadership. We’re in good hands.”
Since then, Washington went 28-52 when Allen’s leadership assured Redskins fans in December that he would “have this going in the right direction.”
Something, though, always gets in the way of the right direction — something to keep Redskins fans baited on the hook of hope.
When Shanahan was here, it was one thing after another — the uncapped year, the salary cap penalties, the Robert Griffin III injuries — that kept them from getting to the place at the end of the right direction, that place where the Patriots live. That place called today.
Then Shanahan was gone, and with his departure came another new beginning under Gruden, who picked right up where this team was before Shanahan arrived in 2010 with a 4-12 season.
A new coach, of course, is going to need time.
Following Gruden’s first year, Allen assured Redskins fans yet again that he was “making sure if there’s a way we can do things to help this organization to win, to get back to the basics of this great franchise — that’s what we’re going to do. That’s my job to help figure out that puzzle.”
But not today. Tomorrow.
Tomorrow arrived a few week after Allen’s post-2014 press conference in the form of new general manager Scot McCloughan, who said, “we’ve got some work to go ahead of us, but that’s why we do this. That’s what the NFL is all about. If it was easy, everybody would be successful, and it’s not.”
A new general manager, of course, is going to need time — and, as we know, things seem to get in the way at Redskins Park from making the transition from tomorrow to today.
Does anything feel confident that Kirk Cousins is really the quarterback moving forward to make that transition? If he is not, then it is back to square one again in the quest for a franchise quarterback — five years after Allen traded three first-round picks and a second-round pick for the right to draft Griffin, the hope of tomorrow.
And if Kirk Cousins doesn’t wind up being the right quarterback, will Gruden — who seemingly tied his future to Cousins with his decision to bench Griffin — remain the coach to make that transition?
Will the narrative then be to allow McCloughan time to pick his own quarterback and his own coach?
If so, that will buy more time. And if that happens, you can bet that Allen will likely stand up and tell Redskins fans — just as he has before — “I’m the president of the football team. I’m responsible for everyone with the Redskins and it’s my job to help improve this franchise and do everything I can to help everyone here be successful.”
Tomorrow, though. Not today.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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