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Either knowingly or unwittingly, Dwayne Haskins has given his digital stamp of approval of the Redskins firing head coach Jay Gruden on Monday.
Haskins liked an Instagram post sharing the news of Gruden's firing. The post's graphic reads: "Breaking: Redskins are parting ways with longtime head coach Jay Gruden after six seasons." The post itself is captioned: "Bruce Allen and Daniel Snyder met early this morning with Jay Gruden and relieved him of his duties. The Jay Gruden era in DC is over. Wish you nothing but the best of luck in the future Coach Gruden."
RedskinsToday is a fan account that posts news and blurbs about the team and has developed a massive following – with a follower count of 107,000 – that includes many current and former Redskins players.
The Sports Junkies discussed whether this should be cause for concern with Haskins on their Tuesday morning broadcast.
"By the way. JP showed me during the break, and I almost think it has to be Photoshopped," said Eric Bickel. "You're gonna think this is no big deal, but I think it's... I just think it's not classy, that Dwayne Haskins liked the NBC Sports Washington or whatever, Redskins Today, whatever it was, story that said Jay Gruden was fired today. JP showed me that on Instagram."
"And I had to ask you what does liking mean?" said Jason Bishop, who doesn't use social media. "I thought it meant just read it, he just read it, but he actually liked the article or whatever."
"It's like giving like a thumbs up," Bickel explained. "No, he went out of his way to say I like this story, I like this comment."
"Well, can you blame him? The guy doesn't like him," said Bishop. "Gruden didn't want to play him. He knows, he didn't want to draft him."
"Right," Bickel agreed. "I understand it, but it's not a good look."
"Yeah, I would agree," said Bishop.
"If he just read it, nobody would know that he read the article. So that's how people are seeing it," chimed JP Flaim. "They click on Dwayne's page and then it's like whoa."
"Well, no, also because if you follow the same guy, it will say who else liked it," Bickel continued to explain Instagram to his co-hosts. "I don't think that's a great look for him. It doesn't mean anything. It's trivial. But..."
That trailing 'But...' is a good place to leave this.
While there's a case to be made that a 22-year-old quarterback less than a year removed from college maybe isn't considering how every 'like' could be perceived, this is also the Redskins, an organization run by Dan Snyder, an owner with well-documented interference into football affairs, many of which were driven by his all-too-close relationships with players.
From Jeff George to Bruce Smith, Clinton Portis, Deion Sanders and Robert Griffin III – Snyder has a long history of sidling too close to his star players, blurring the employer-employee relationship and then trusting their insights over the coaches', which is the blueprint for undermining a head coach's authority.
Haskins also liked another post from RedskinsToday on Monday:
