That's great. Congrats Bruce. The first time in 588 days of nothingness from the grand puba of the most dysfunctional franchise in professional sports.
And then we found out why Bruce doesn't speak very often. He's not very good at it.
Then again, he's not very good at running the organization as his 59-84-1 record (as the top Redskins executive) spells out bluntly. He also hasn't been able to get the Redskins a new stadium deal yet, one of the chief reasons he's still employed here.
There were many semi-interesting, generically vague items dropped by Allen, but one in particular caught mine and most avid observers' attention.
"Once again, we're trying to find the winning combination for 2019 and there's a lot of good ideas out there, a lot of good football coaches out there," he said. "And the more you talk to others, the more you can learn and that's what we're using this next month for."
Wait. What?
The interviews with Bowles, Williams and others have happened already. You're not learning anything in the next month, that you haven't already been told or gathered in the last month. Right?
To find his potential replacement? Or to learn from smarter people who have had more success, that are currently out of work and who you would have a natural and well-rooted interest in?
Think about it this way. The Kansas City Chiefs lost in overtime on Sunday night in the AFC Championship. They were one play away from the Super Bowl. On Tuesday, they fired their defensive coordinator, Bob Sutton. Harsh, but a needed change.
If Allen was telling the truth, the Redskins not only had no plans to move on from Manusky despite plenty of legitimate reason to do so, but they were also having him participate in or conduct/ orchestrate meetings with better coordinators than him! For a seven-win team in each of the last two years, and for a defense that largely collapsed down the stretch.
Who does this? Seriously. What in the blue hell are the Redskins thinking?
Using a guise of learning new concepts is cute. It's also not what any other organization would do that doesn't have a vacancy. It almost surely is not the truth and is a convenient coverup.
When reporters tried to confirm that indeed Manusky had been involved in these specific interviews with Williams, Bowles and even former Arizona Cardinals head coach, Steve Wilks, Allen said "he’s been in a lot of the interviews, yes."
Which ones? We don't know, because Allen refused to answer multiple questions with any specifics. However, he had no problem correcting the record on Wilks, who joined the Browns.
"We never interviewed Wilks," said Allen.
Again, Allen had no problem getting specific on Wilks, but when given a chance to clarify Manusky's role in the Bowles/Williams pursuit, the almighty emperor refused to clarify which meetings Manusky allegedly sat in on.
Here's a novel idea. Let's not cherry-pick what we clarify and get specific on. Better yet, let's try spelling out the truth. Or we can continue to mis-LEAD. In more ways than one.