Redskins lose new executive Brian Lafemina, and hope with him

Hope for Redskins football suffered a critical blow on Wednesday afternoon.

For much of Bruce Allen’s tenure with the Washington Redskins, there has been talk of improving the team’s tanking public reputation. There have been several attempts at reboots, and this offseason, the latest reboot began with the hiring of Brian Lafemina as the team’s President of Business Operations, and the hiring of Jake Bye as the Senior Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing.

Both hires were made in May. And now, just seven months later, two figures intended to help with the remolding of a dying franchise mired in malpractice, are gone. Bye was confirmed to have resigned by Kareem Copeland of the Washington Post. Lafemina’s cause of departure has not yet been distinguished. D.C. sports reporter Craig Hoffman first broke the news.

At the time of his hire, Lafemina was regarded as one of the best business executives in the league. He was expected to be the forbearer of change in the Redskins front office. Early on, he voiced his desire for the fan experience to be resurrected, and for the “sleeping giant” in the nations’ capital to be awoken.

Lafemina, however, was given no more than a lone season to reverse two decades worth of damage. For that time, twenty years, a wedge has been driven farther and farther between the Washington Redskins and their loyal fan base; a wedge fueled by a lack of clarity, patience and common sense in the front office.

Lafemina was expected to bring the common sense and care for the fans that the current president has consistently lacked. But now, just seven months later, Lafemina is out of the job. And Bruce Allen lives to tarnish another season. Perhaps Lafemina deemed the Redskins a lost cause, with the culture instilled by Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen. Perhaps friction between them led to Lafemina’s ousting. No matter the case, Snyder has chosen his people over everything else.

Has a franchise owner ever been this blind?

This offseason, I wrote that the Redskins were not doomed to eternal failure under Dan Snyder. But now, with the prevail of Allen’s prehistoric ways over a module of necessary, fundamental change in Lafemina, it is clear that Snyder is a part of a package deal with Allen. The two have grown inseparable. Allen has too much power in the Redskins front office, and it is power that Snyder is able, but not willing, to take away.

The tunnel grows longer, and darker, yet.