Redskins owner Dan Snyder releases statement on Bruce Allen, future

In the wake of monumental front office changes in the Redskins organization, owner Dan Snyder has released a statement to the fan base.

The Washington Redskins have been under the command of Dan Snyder for twenty years, and until this morning, their football operations were under the oversight of team president Bruce Allen. Under those two entities, the organization displayed a startling lack of self-awareness and accountability, and sustainable success was unattainable.

Now, for the first time in over a decade, Redskins owner Dan Snyder has, at the very least, acknowledged the need for change, and acted on that acknowledgment. Snyder shared a statement with Washington’s fan base, via the team’s official Twitter account. Here is what the statement says:

“As the season concludes, Bruce Allen has been relieved of his duties as President of the Washington Redskins and is no longer with the organization. Like our passionate fan base, I recognize we have not lived up to the high standards set by great Redskins teams, coaches and players who have come before us. As we reevaluate our team leadership, culture and process for winning football games, I am excited for the opportunities that lie ahead to renew our singular focus and purpose of bringing championship football back to Washington D.C.”

Snyder’s statement confirms that Bruce Allen has been removed from the organization, and doubles down on the emphasis on change that has been apparent in recent reports, which dubbed Ron Rivera a likely head coach. Snyder also emphasized a change in culture, which might be why he’s leaning toward Rivera, a proven culture-changer, as the next head coach. It’s not just a page turn in D.C. It’s the start of a new chapter, and that, at the very least, deserves some degree of excitement.

As I noted in a tweet, there’s no guarantee that Dan Snyder rights the ship from here. His track record is far from perfect, and in a very real sense, he was just as big of a problem as Bruce Allen was, for the past two decades. But Snyder alone had the capability to make the move that needed to be made; the only move that could be made. And he made it.

At the very least, Snyder is displaying some level of accountability here, and moving forward, the Redskins will view their future with a new lens. Can they capitalize on the clarity that the removal of Bruce Allen has provided? Only time, as it always happens, can yield the true answer.