Dan Syder has a dark heart An examination

John Riggins famously commented recently that Snyder has a dark heart and that created quite a stir. Coaches and players came out and gave testimonial that his heart was less than black. It's obvious that people who work for him would not dare to cross Snyder. So, we should take the recent adoration from his employees with a pinch of salt. Here are some of the things I have picked up over the years that shed some light on Dan Snyder:

1) Tre Johnson on Snyder from DC Sports bog in WaPo

"I mean, he was always good to me," Johnson said, when asked about the relationship between Snyder and players. "I can't say anything bad about his personal treatment of me. I mean, he always treated me well. We were at the Pro Bowl, he flew myself and Brad Johnson out to his little house out there. We hung out, we had a ball. I mean, it was nothing but love. I can't say anything bad about him.

"But I have seen him put the squeeze on many a person, though. You better not cross him. If you're somebody he wants to make an example of, it's pure comedy. Like, I saw him cut Norv up in the locker room of the Dallas game once. I mean, I'm sure you've heard some of the stories, and most of them are true. He's definitely sitting there waiting, perching above, like impending doom. It's funny."

The Norv story comes from halftime of the game at Dallas, and even if you've heard it before, it's worth listening to again.

"You're in the middle of the game, we're not doing well obviously, and to see your boss get pulled in and get reamed like a child, you're like damn," Johnson said. "What [reaction] can there be? There's some giggles, some smiles, some head shaking going on....Him and what's the other guy's name, Drasner? They came down there and made their presence known, like the mob. It was real. Halftime, we're all doing other things, changing, making adjustments, changing shirts and gloves, but you're hearing stuff, you know what I'm saying? Like what's that, what's that yelling?...It was funny. It was a trip."

2) John Jr. Feinstein wrote in one of his books regarding an incident between Mike Nolan and Snyder

"Early that season, after a Redskins loss, Snyder told Nolan that his defensive calls were “too vanilla.” Like the other coaches, Nolan had figured out by then that trying to explain football to Snyder was pointless, since he already had the game figured out. A few days later a gallon of 31 Flavors ice cream showed up on Nolan’s desk with a note that said, “This is what I like. Not vanilla.”

Nolan laughed and sent Snyder a note: “Thanks for the ice cream. My kids enjoyed it.”

“The first time it was actually kind of funny,” Nolan said. “I didn’t mind it at all.”

The next time wasn’t as funny.

The Redskins lost on the road to Dallas, and Nolan went into his office late Sunday night to start looking at game tape. When he arrived, there were three giant canisters of melting 31 Flavors ice cream on his desk with another note: “I wasn’t joking. I do not like vanilla.”

3) The Laveranues Coles Flat screen TV incident.

If you want to know how badly Coles and the Redskins needed a divorce, consider this: Redskins owner Daniel Snyder threatened Coles when the receiver's refusal to accept the trade without a contract extension thwarted the deal last month. "He said that if I stayed in Washington, he would turn me into another Terry Glenn," Coles said. (Glenn, now with the Cowboys, missed most of the 2001 season with New England as his public feud with head coach Bill Belichick resulted in various fines, suspensions and ultimately Glenn's benching). "He said he would send a flat-screen television to my home because I'd be better off watching the games there. That was his way of saying I'd be sitting for the next couple years until they cut me."

I do not know what color his heart his and I don't really care. He needs to get someone competent make football decisions who's name is not Cerrato and he needs to stop meddling.