Photo Credit: Who Dey Revolution
This week’s installment of Redskins Game Day Examination is coming with a twist. Instead of focusing on the Xs and Os of the Skins-Bengals matchup, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew Simon from Who Dey Revolution. WDR is something of a unique phenomenon among NFL blogs. WDR is focuses solely on enacting-forcing change at the top of Bengals management. In addition to a witty irreverent blog, they’ve executed of an ingenious public relations campaign (billboards, merchandise boycotts, donating tickets to charity, and game day stunts) designed to turn public opinion against Bengals owner Mike Brown and force him to hire a true General Manager—a not unfamiliar refrain around these parts. I’ll have more on that later. The Curly R will be at Paul Brown Stadium assisting the Revolution.
So in the spirit of Herbert Matthews here is my interview with WDR founder Andrew Simon.
Mark Newgent: Why did you start Who Dey Revolution?
Andrew Simon: We started the site about 9 months ago to document how the Bengals organization repeatedly falls short in comparison to successful NFL franchises. It is not just bad luck that has caused the Bengals to post a 98-186-1 record with Mike Brown as Owner/GM over the last 18 years. Over this span, the Bengals have the lowest winning percentage among every team in all four major sports. It is a failure that starts right at the top.
For example, this is an organization that says with a straight face every year that they intend to rebuild through the draft only to employ the smallest scouting department in the NFL. This team claims that they want to "compete"—note that they usually never say they want to "win," just that they want to "do well" or "be competitive"—and yet refuse to build the team an indoor practice facility, causing the team to practice at an indoor soccer stadium in the run up to the only Bengals playoff appearance in the last 18 years. This is an NFL team!
All things being equal, would the organization prefer to win? Of course! But they are not taking the common sense steps to actually make that happen.
MN: You've been fairly successful in generating publicity and disseminating your message. It seems very similar to a political campaign. Explain your strategy and tactics?
AS: The reason we started the blog was not to make money or get a lot of readers—it was to do our part to force change in how the Bengals ran their organization.
However, we realized during the season that you can only reach so many people on a blog. We had built up a good amount of readers so we decided to take the campaign out of the tubes and into the "real world" to reach more people. And let's be serious, Mike Brown doesn't use computers.
So we make sure that our efforts are ideas that will positively transform the entire organization. Its not "Fire Marvin Lewis,"—because Brown would just hire another yes man or someone like Marvin who has lots of promise and then gets "Bengalized.". So its "Hire a General Manager" instead.
There are a thousand fan blogs out there written by guys who have an opinion on who their teams should draft or trade or start. We never try to act like we are football experts. But we also know that the current Bengals organization, led by Mike Brown, isn’t comprised of football experts either.
MN: Any counterinsurgency from the Bengals brass?
AS: Nothing official, but we do have confidential sources who work for the team that are very supportive of our efforts. Also, after we launched our boycott of merchandise and concessions, it was pretty clear to everyone that the vendors were much more aggressive pushing food and beer. Furthermore, in Mike Brown’s only interview this year he was asked point blank if he had seen our billboards. So the Bengals are definitely aware of our counter-insurgency efforts.
MN: What do the players think about Who Dey Revolution?
AS: Again, nothing official but we have spoken to a few current and former players who are supportive of our efforts. Remember, we are doing this because of our support for the team. It would be a lot easier to stop following the team, but we want our team to compete year after year, and to accomplish this we need a change at the top.
MN: As a Maryland alum, I have to ask this—do you think you could get Boomer Esaison to join the Revolution?
AS: Boomer would be a fantastic member of the Revolution. He has seen the Bengals before Mikey and with Mikey. He made a Super Bowl before Mikey and then saw the team fall apart with Mikey.
MN: Can you give me a hint at what Project Mayhem has in store for this game?
AS: We are keeping the project confidential to ensure its success so the team doesn't try and stop it. Check out www.whodeyrevolution.com after 1:00pm Sunday for the results. I can say that I think its the most creative yet.
MN: If you could hire a new GM for the Bengals, who would it be?
AS: We don't think we know the best hire. Clearly, the current people making football decisions have not been successful. All we want are football minds making football decisions.
MN: Did you want the Chad Johnson trade with the Redskins to go through?
AS: Absolutely. At this point I'd be happy to trade Chad for a box of footballs and some ace bandages. If the offer is still on the table, have Snyder contact me. I'll make it happen.
MN: Any advice for diehard Redskins faithful fed up with Dan Snyder, Vinny Cerrato, no offensive or defensive line, and a crappy stadium?
AS: Hit Snyder in the pocket, that is all he understands.
MN: Since this is football, how about a prediction for the game?
AS: I am always an optimist, but I have also seen 13 Bengals games this year. So I'll say Bengals 20-Redskins 20.
Thanks Andrew,
My Prediction: Based on my preview post, Redskins 24, Bengals 16.
Obviously this is a way to build a grassroots fan-based movement. Take a look at the WDR Manifesto it is a clarion call for what all fans should demand of their teams, especially those who buy the season tickets, parking passes, apparel, and concessions. In light of the Redskins glaring on-field deficiencies I am reproducing Point #5 of the Manifesto:
Offensive and Defensive line depth always priority #1–There are reasons why the Steelers, Patriots, Giants, and Cowboys, etc. are able to compete year after year for the playoffs and beyond. For years and years, they can protect the passer, and they can get pressure on the other team’s quarterback with their down linemen. The Steelers defensive backfield is shaky at best, but they look pretty darn good when they can dial up pressure all game long. Bengals corners have long been the targets of scorn, but it would be a different story with defensive ends that actually sniff the quarterback every now and then. Any questions about this theory were answered with the Giants in the Super Bowl. Bottom line is this: the Bengals have always been an offense-oriented team…going back to the days of Paul Brown and Sam Wyche. When Paul Brown passed away, I guarantee you Paul told Mike in some capacity “Don’t ever change the way we do things.” The only problem with not changing is that the NFL is so much different than 1991. Teams are smarter, more intricate and much more competitive. Status quo doesn’t work from year to year anymore, let alone 18 years. This team already has the franchise quarterback. That’s the hard part, and it’s already there. Sign and KEEP an offensive line to protect him…and finally build and spend money on a defense that can keep you in games when the offense can’t put up 30 points. I keep hearing how the Bengals offense is so close to being like the 2005 season. Guys…those days are OVER and NEVER COMING BACK! 40 percent of that offensive line is gone, we will probably have a new running back this year, and who knows what will happen at receiver. If we had a defensive line that produced and got pressure on the quarterback, we wouldn’t have to worry about resurrecting the 2005 offense.
Looks familiar right? We too have our franchise quarterback, talk radio ne’er-do-wells aside. All we need to is build a stout offensive line around him. Imagine what Jason Campbell could do with an extra half second! Imagine the short fields he would have to work with provided by a defense that gets after the quarterback.
Now ask yourself, has the Redskins front office over the last eight years acted to field consistent top notch offensive and defensive lines? The answer has to be no. Just look at the inconsistency in where the team ranked in sacks since 2000.
2000: 8th
2001: 29th
2002: T 9th
2003: 27th
2004: T 9th
2005: T 20th
2006: 32nd
2007: T 16th
2008: 29th
Even in the two best years overall as a defense (2000 4th and 2004 3rd) they barely cracked the top ten in sacks.
Forgetting the sacks for a moment, if the current offensive line could protect the quarterback and put points on the board this defense with its lack of a pass rush wouldn’t be in the position of having to keep the team in games.
If Vinny Cerrato and his staff had bothered to adequately address even on side of the line of scrimmage over the last few years we’re looking at 8-5 or 9-4 and better playoff positioning this year and maybe 3 or 4 seed in 2005 and 2007.
Anyway this is an old argument—a good one to be sure—but Cerrato is entrenched in Ashburn, and the power that is doesn’t appear willing to jettison him.
We Redskins fans invest a lot of money and more importantly a lot of ourselves into this team. Its time we demanded more return on our investment.
Comments
Great article Mark!
Good interview and good points in your followup. I would argue that the Redskins' main problem since 2000 has been scoring points, not preventing them. But that still starts with building a solid, versatile O-line, so your point still stands.
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