A great move, a last chance for Snyder

The multimillion-dollar question wafting over the euphoria in the Washington region is whether Dan Snyder is prepared to leave the football end of the Redskins to Joe Gibbs.

His intentions, no doubt, are to do just that.

No one likes being vilified from coast-to-coast, and Snyder in particular has bristled under the assault of negative portrayals in the national press in recent seasons.

Aside from being brusque and meddlesome, he mostly is one of the losers in the NFL, which is the unforgivable transgression among sports fans.

You can be far worse things than heavy-handed in sports as long as you are perceived to be a winner. You can be a druggie or a town drunk or a gun-toting low-life with a rap sheet. Yet no one objects too strenuously as long as the product on the field or in the arena is worthy.

Snyder, for all his past faults, is in a position to claim this city. He can be the owner he undoubtedly aspires to be instead of an easy target.

Gibbs II is his chance, perhaps the best one he ever will have to step out of his pedestrian box. This move is too good, too perfect. If Snyder gets it wrong this time, he may have to resurrect Vince Lombardi from the grave on the next go-around.

A nonsensical idea has persisted in the minds of Snyder's spin doctors that he has been victimized in the press because of his money and relative youth.

If America was in the habit of resenting those who acquire vast wealth before middle age, the Hollywood crowd would be out of business. There would be no supermodels. Most important, there would be no interest in securing marital advice from Britney Spears.

Besides, Washington, in brimming with the powerful and wealthy, hardly has the time and energy to be resentful of the income-tax return and birth certificate of one person.

There is a big world out there, tugging on us all.

The animosity directed toward Snyder always has been about his management of the football operations. It is this simple: The Snyder-led Redskins have fallen appreciably from their previously high perch in the NFL.

Yes, Snyder likes to fire people. He apparently fires people by the thousand, which perhaps is his way of doing them a favor. He also fired people long before he purchased the Redskins.

Did anyone care other than those involved in his previous ventures? Did anyone notice? Did any of it merit a headline in the daily newspapers or a 15-minute segment on a talk show?

The hands-on approach of Snyder often has been compared to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. The comparison never has been entirely apt because of the genuine sports backgrounds of both Jones and Steinbrenner.

Snyder was the quintessential fan of the Redskins while growing up in Wheaton, the extent of his sports background.

As an owner, Snyder fits more in the mold of Donald Trump, the one-time sports neophyte who made a splash with the USFL in the '80s before dragging it down.

One difference between Snyder and Trump is that Trump could take a beating in the tabloids and come up smiling.

Trump knew what every publicist knows. Even bad publicity can be good. And Trump embraced the bad as well as the good.

He no longer is that swashbuckling soul in his late 30s who was ready to challenge the NFL.

But big hair and all, Trump is still laughing, even laughing at himself, as he escorts this or that babe around Manhattan before reading about it in the next day's gossip columns.

If Trump were reduced to being Snyder's Napoleonic cliche, he would sprint to the producers of "Saturday Night Live" and stick his right hand inside his jacket in preparation of the skit.

Steinbrenner has shown the same capacity to poke fun at himself, most recently after fussing about the inner night owl of Derek Jeter last spring. The two proceeded to do a riff on it in a commercial.

Snyder has been unable to find humor in the parody that envelops him, which is too bad.

To paraphrase the words of one Washington philosopher, "Loosen up, Danny, baby. You're too tight."

Perhaps with a legend in his midst, Snyder can discover it does not have to be a root canal every step of the way.