An information void surrounding Sam Mills III and why he was fired by the Commanders has naturally paved the way for speculation.
Why was he fired? Was there a specific incident? Nobody outside of Ron Rivera knows the answers. So, 106.7 The Fan's Brian Mitchell and JP Finlay decided to kick around some ideas and they came up with some good ones.
The Mitch Tischler Theory
"This is the Mitch Tischler theory on Sam Mills," Finlay began (23:00 in the player above). "And, you've been in a lot of locker rooms, you've seen a lot of stuff, you know how this league works. So, Warren Sapp showed up to OTAs and a little bit of minicamp. And that's fine. It's OTAs and minicamp. Jeff Zgonina and Warren Sapp are friends. Zgonina had kind of invited Sapp to practice. Martin Mayhew and Warren Sapp are friends. They played together in Tampa.
"Mayhew was quite fond of Sapp coming to practice. Sapp showed up yesterday. Now, perhaps it's coincidence, perhaps it's not, but Sapp showed up the day Mills was fired. And the Mitch Tischler theory is such, that Mills saw Sapp and was like, 'Yo, what the hell? It's one thing at OTAs. It's one thing at minicamp. But you've already got Kerrigan here — because Kerrigan's been kind of shadowing the coaches and he's a presence — now you've got Sapp here. What are you doing?' Because when Ron Rivera told the media that Mills had been fired, he said we had a difference of philosophy and he said that a few different times.
"And Mitch thinks maybe it was that Sapp was there and Mills got pissed, and that led to perhaps an argument or a discussion that went sideways. What do you think, Brian Mitchell, of the Mitch Tischler theory?"
"I don't know if that would have been it, because one thing Ron has shown with his coaches: he's loyal," said BMitch. "And if he's been around that long, I don't think that's a reason to let anybody go. I would hope that that wasn't the reason. But then again, you could see somebody starting to feel a little uneasy when you're bringing in a Hall of Famer, more than once, and then you also brought in a Ring of Famer — he's gonna be damn sure a Ring of Famer soon — and he's around the building the whole time. And who did we discuss the most about having the least production last year?"
"So that's natural human nature to get a little uneasy," BMitch said. "But, what I'll say is this: When you get uneasy like that, now you gotta focus on just you and improve how you do things. Because, if you can't do that, then you start dropping and, maybe like as Mitch is saying, you get a little worried and you say something wrong or out of character, and then the coach has to make a decision.
"But let's just be real, I can't see that being a reason, because he was uneasy about those guys being around to make him go, because coaches MF each other all the time behind the scenes. They have as many arguments as players do with each other. So I don't think that would have been just the main cause to let him go. Unless, someone has been saying all the while that, 'Hey, we know there's certain players on this team, they like to go run and talk to the teacher and tell them about things behind other people's backs.' So, you never know, it probably came to a head."
"Yeah, I don't think that is it either," Finlay said. "I just think it's kind of an interesting theory with the timing and the coincidental nature of it all."
"But it seems a little strange when Warren comes back that day, you know what I'm saying? And things happen on that day," said BMitch. "But I think a culmination of Warren being there, Ryan Kerrigan back into the franchise, and we know he's loved by ownership and everything else, by the area. I'm sure that can make anybody feel uneasy if they're not a man's man and very, very confident in themselves."
"And we know that the unit's underperforming, right," Finlay said. "So what makes you get a little bit on edge — it doesn't matter if you're an accountant or if you're a football coach — if you know that you're not performing and that your boss might have an eye on you, you might act a little different. Like that's just human nature. And again, I don't think that's the case either, but it is a hell of a coincidence."
The BMitch Theory
"I'm gonna give you another one," BMitch said. "If we're going with hypotheticals, I'll do a hypothetical. What if Sam had gone to Ron and Jack and said, 'Look man, everybody's putting all the blame on me and my unit, when all I'm doing is going out promoting what the hell y'all telling me to do. And I need some support, because if you're telling me to do something, I'm taking the marching orders and doing exactly what you're telling me, and then y'all are allowing everybody to act as if it's just on me and this unit. I think that's wrong. I need y'all to say something."
"And then all of a sudden," he continued, "you get all the other people come in and say, 'Well, you know what? We have a difference in opinion. We believe it's you. And you believe it's our message.' You get what I'm saying? That could be something too."
"Yeah, the difference of opinion is you believe we're the problem," Finlay said, "and we believe we're gonna fire you."
"Yeah. Yeah," BMitch said. "We believe we get final say."
"That's an interesting theory, dude," Finlay concluded.
Which one's more believable to you?
Listen around the 23-minute mark in the audio player above.
