Just before game time yesterday, Dan Snyder, following Cheap Seats Daily's pro bono crisis PR counsel, dropped the FedExField sign ban. Snyder had just as quietly and cowardly put the ban in place before the Tampa Bay game a few weeks ago to keep fans from showing how much they hate him.

“We have no intention of trying to control our fans’ varied ways of expressing their views on the Redskins organization and the team’s performance,” former newspaperboy turned Redskins COO  David "Yeah, That's the Ticket!" Donovan said in the very brief ban-lifting statement.

“We’ve disappointed our fans so far this season, and I’m as disappointed as they are,” added Dan Snyder. “I understand that some fans want to express their feelings with signs and they should do so, as long as they stay within the boundaries of good taste and don’t block the view of other fans.”

This gives the "He's learning as an owner" crowd something to throw out as they perpetuate that myth.

The "He's a D-bag!" set, meanwhile, gets plenty to work with here, too.

The timing of Snyder's lifting of the sign ban was grotesque, since it was announced too late for anybody going to the Denver game to even get word. Much worse: The announcement also surely has something to do with the fact that Snyder's sponsoring a fan sign contest this Friday with his sportstalker, WTEM, at Dave & Busters at White Flint Mall as part of a Redskins pep rally.

Snyder's station sponsored the same sign contest at the same venue before last year's home game against Dallas.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Sign policies show Dan Snyder's a hypocrite? Dan Snyder ran the same sign promotion at Dave & Busters last year? Dan Snyder likes signs? You can call Albert Haynesworth lazy, but not cowardly? Tank McNamara's neither fair nor funny? Dunbar's season ends atypically? Spingarn's season ends typically? Will somebody tell Mike Miller to stop dressing funny until his damn team wins?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Dan Snyder Lifts Sign Ban Just In Time for Sign Contest He’s Sponsoring?" »

Cheap Seats Daily and its inferiority complex ravaged sister publication remain the go-to news organs for coverage of what the Redskins have officially dubbed the Cheerleader Car Wash Sweepstakes.

Yesterday, in this very space, we blew the lid off the latest listener contest for Dan Snyder's sportstalk station, WTEM-AM, in which the Redskins owner promises to send his cheerleading squad over to winners' houses and make them wash cars.

And in this week's analog edition, we blow the lid off Dan Snyder's cheerleader past, from his 2000 rackumentary "Beauty on the Beach," all the way up to his latest scheme, which tells the cheering crew to put down their pom poms and pick up sponges and service his 25-54 male audience.

And, as promised, throughout all this lid-blowing we've run the same photograph of all those sudsy blondes, again and again and again.

That's the shot that got The Great Dan Steinberg so lathered up he rudely barged into the comments section to pooh-pooh our Snyder/T&A expose. TGDS basically accused Cheap Seats Daily of hypocrisy and of being as exploitative as Dan Snyder!

Just because we ran this photo of sudsy blondes!

That hurts.

What kind of message does that contest (and this photo) send to the Little Ladies of Football? Think of the children, Dan and Dan!

(AFTER THE JUMP: Could Snyder's layoffs at Redskins Park have helped this car wash debacle along? Is it Sherm or Sherman? Dan Steinberg reveals Lewis' bingo past? Dan Steinberg conceals reveals his own bingo past? How loaded is the Skins' 2009 schedule with Snyder humiliatees? Yankee Stadium ain't the only ballpark in use this October? Nationals Park gets loaded with readers?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Will Sherm Lewis Fail? Or Will Sherman Lewis Fail?" »

Has Dan Snyder figured out how to hold events at FedExField?

Well, special correspondent J.P. Szymkowicz says that while he can't vouch for everybody, his U2 experience was uneventful, other than the show itself.

Szymkowicz says he left DC via Metro at 3 p.m. yesterday and arrived at the Morgan Boulevard station quickly and without any problems. He went into the stadium at 5 p.m. when the gates opened and with his general admission tickets got to the spot on the field that he desired. He got a ride home and found that the drive took "30 minutes from the stadium to the Rte. 50 exit," which is acceptable.

Szymkowicz, an expert on Snyder's parking methods and U2's discography, left so early because he feared the crowd would be too much for the stadium operators to handle.

The show, he says, "was great," and featured a sound system "as good as any of the other shows I have seen dating back to Unforgettable Fire."

Any other travel tales from u2 goers?

***

The Great Dan Steinberg mulls an issue that will likely get more timely as the 2009 season wears on: What do you do if you're mad at the Redskins, but get offered free tickets?

(AFTER THE JUMP: Paper or plastic for Sunday at FedExfield? DC football recruiting star in trouble? DC basketball recruiting star in trouble? Maryland hoops recruit in trouble? Stubblefield 2.0 in domestic and non-domestic legal and financial trouble? Sean Taylor's survivors in some money trouble?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Will Fanimosity Rear Its Covered Head at FedExField This Weekend?" »

How over are the Redskins?

So over that on WRC, Lindsay Czarniak did her sports report Sunday night without ANY visible Skins logos on her person. (Fact.)

So over that Sonny Jurgensen didn't tussle with Jim Zorn in his postgame interview. (Fact.)

So over that starting this week, the Virginia Lottery has changed first prize for its $20 Redskins scratch tickets to two (2) Redskins season tickets, and second prize to four (4) Redskins season tickets. (Fiction!)

Butt seriously:  What kind of buffoon is going to pay $20, the most heinous sum in the history of lotteries, for a chance to win Skins season tickets that pretty soon won't be worth $20? Commercials for the scratch tickets ran throughout the Redskins radio broadcast yesterday, and the uglier the game got, the more absurd the prizes  seemed. Who wants ANYTHING associated with the Redskins right now?

Coming soon to a courthouse near you: Dan Snyder sues lottery winners who turn down their Skins season tickets. (Fiction.)

But, good god, are the 2009 Skins over. (Fact.)

(AFTER THE JUMP: Skins' suckage is the lead local story? The national newspeople take break into Tiger Woods coverage to dump on the Skins? Jurgensen takes it easy on Zorn? Sam Huff can't stomach Albert Haynesworth? Will Haynesworth make everybody forget Dana Stubblefield? Bad news is good news for extremeskins.com? Who is this "Synder" fella? Nats get swept again? The Nats Tragic Number is down to what? It's hockey season?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Who the Hell Would Buy a Redskins Scratch Ticket Now?" »

Clearest sign that it's about time to crank out the Countdown to Cowher™: Jim Zorn's post-game interview with Sonny Jurgensen, heard on Dan Snyder's WTEM.

Here's the opening:

Sonny Jurgensen: You had one offensive touchdown...

Jim Zorn: Thank you.

Sonny Jurgensen: You've got to get into the end zone...

Jim Zorn: Yes.

Uh oh.

Dan Snyder and Jurgensen are cigar smoking buddies. Jurgensen wanted Jeff George. So it's a good bet that in private Snyder's getting everything the Redskins listening audience got from Jurgensen and then some.

(AFTER THE BREAK: Albert Haynesworth don't play that? Folks want to trade in Jim Zorn et al on something with less mileage? Even the all-news station is piling on? Snyder's dastardly deeds have trickled down to 'Bama? Everybody but the Washington Post thinks Michael Jordan's a jerk? ANOTHER blonde DC sportscaster?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Monday Morning Coming Down!" »

Great Moments in Capitalism™, Special 9/11 Edition

On this date in 2005: Get your Tragedy Hats!

None of the Redskins marketing endeavors under Dan Snyder dropped the jaw faster than the "Redskins Flag Hat" that went on sale on the team's web site and at FedExField at the beginning of the 2005 season.

For $23.99 plus shipping where applicable, Snyder would sell you a Redskin baseball cap with a red, white and blue Pentagon stitched on the side to tug the heart strings and stir more nationalism at a time when the country was already crippled by an oversupply. The hats were a great way, according to the radio ads that ran on the sports stations owned by Snyder, to "commemorate Sept. 11."

The punch line: The proceeds weren't earmarked for any charity or cause. Unless you consider the owner's wallet a charity or cause.

Genius!

***

(AFTER THE JUMP: Bankers going for Michael Vick haters? Bob McDonnell, you lie? Boswell basking in the afterglow of his Snyder bashing? DC Divas become video stars? A bump in the Nats' Road to 100 Losses?  Jaycee Dugard jokes?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: It’s 9/11! Did You Pay $23.99 Plus Shipping for Dan Snyder’s Commemorative Hat?" »

Hey, what's this in the Washington Post? Another story "uncovered by Redskins, verified by The Post, or whatever"? Why no! This story is about the Redskins suing fans who've fallen on hard times, and it is seriously harshing my day.

Read More "Morning Roundup: Burgundy, Gold, and Slimy" »

During the Redskins Broadcasting Network's telecast from Baltimore, Lindsay Czarniak asked Albert Haynesworth, in street clothes, if it was enjoyable watching his teammates play the Ravens.

"Nah, it ain't enjoyable," Haynesworth said.

Which means one thing: Big Al didn't bet the Cheap Seats Daily Double™!

Because had he followed Cheap Seats Daily's Tout #1 and bet this month's mortgage on the Ravens, laying three points, he would have won. And if he'd have followed Cheap Seats Daily's Tout #2 and bet next month's mortgage on the under (31 1/2), he'd have won that, too.

Haynesworth would be rich!

***

Lindsay Czarniak showed up during the game broadcast and the post-game show wearing a licensed Redskins shirt, logo and all. That makes sense, since she was working for the Redskins Broadcasting Network, owned by Dan Snyder.

But Czarniak was carrying a WRC microphone. She took off the Redskins costume and put on a blue fluffy top for her 11 o'clock news segment from Baltimore, so clearly her superiors have some inkling about the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Why is this dual role allowed? Czarniak works for the news department of an NBC affiliate. But she works for Dan Snyder, too. For the ethics police, other than the import of the subject matter, what's the difference between Czarniak's Redskins deal and Armstrong Williams taking money from the Bush White House?

(AFTER THE JUMP: Why not have Redskins salons? Joe Theismann, musicologist? Will Ladell Bettis ever get over it? What's Cora Masters Barry trying to get away with now? Karl Swanson writes in? The Tom Boswell Curse lives on?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: How Come Sports Journalists Ain’t Journalists?" »

For the Titanic platform (or maybe not!) of the latest City Paper, I wrote about Dan Snyder's newest parking scheme.

Snyder now adds a parking surcharge to the cost of every ticket sold at non-football events at FedExField. All other venues around town put parking charges, if there are any, in the advertised price of the ticket.

Snyder doesn't. He throws it at the consumer at the point of purchase, as a line item on the invoice that can't be turned down by the buyer. For Paul McCartney, where around 60,000 folks attended and there was a $10 per ticket parking charge, whether they intended to use FedEx parking services or not, that added an additional $600,000 to Snyder's bank account.

For U2's upcoming show at FedEx, the forced charge is $8 per ticket; if that show sells out, the add-on charge will mean more than $700,000 sneaky dollars for Snyder. And this is with zero overhead, unless you count the cost to his reputation, which really can't be harmed around here at this point.

Snyder's the king of parking schemes, as outlined in the story, and a godfather of the sneaky surcharge: He's the guy, remember, who after buying the Redskins took a ticket price that had historically included state and local taxes, and then added a new charge equal to the state and local taxes onto the old ticket price, but left the old price as the face value of Skins tickets -- just so he could act like he wasn't really raising the price of tickets!

So where's the outrage?

***

Betting Football season begins tonight!

(AFTER THE JUMP: Cheap Seats Daily gives you tonight's winner? "Biggest Loser" back in play? Which pregame show are you going to listen to? What's the meanest sport? Is there a Curse of Tom Boswell?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Dan Snyder’s Sneaky Parking Charge Nets Him Millions?" »

Dan Snyder's magna cum hurtin' theme park chain, Six Flags, has hit the small time: After being bum-rushed out of the New York Stock Exchange, Six Flags and its $2.4 billion in debt showed up yesterday on the OTC Bulletin Board, a minor league trading venue for so-called penny stocks.

Snyder got some nice sendoffs during his last days on NYSE.

On Thursday, bond rater Standard and Poor's lowered Six Flags corporate credit rating from CCC, or "junk," to default status.

And a day later, during Six Flags' final stand on the big board, investors were trading its stock (SIX) for just 13 cents a share.

That's a new record low.

Read More "Update: SIX Flagging" »

Dan Snyder's running a fab 2-for-1 deal over at his Redskins.com store that sums up his team's offseason moves and general raison d'etre: Pre-order a Albert Haynesworth #92 Redskins "replica jersey" and he'll give you a free Jason Taylor #55 jersey.

Which leads to an existential question: Can something that's not yet been -- an Albert Haynesworth Redskins jersey -- be replica'd?

Snyder's answer: For $71.99, hell yeah!

What a great weekend for all involved. Just a fine couple of break-out days, days to indulge in the early spring that this region belches up every year. They say that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, but the transition from king of the jungle to perennial doormat happens more quickly in D.C. Nothing like a few lines of throwaway weather talk to kick off the WIR!

From the New York Times comes this killer little bit of commentary on the free-agency moves of the Washington Redskins, which snatched up Albert Haynesworth of the Titans and DeAngelo Hall as well---both for bi bucks. Anyhow, let the New York paper take it away:

Guaranteed money: Granted, the Washington Redskins’ defense got a lot better, but giving Albert Haynesworth $41 million guaranteed — hours after guaranteeing DeAngelo Hall $22.5 million — left almost everyone else in the N.F.L. agog.

OK, but I think there's going to be a little reverse mojo going on here. For years, the Skins would acquire free agents, and the moves never got them anywhere, going all the way back to Deion Sanders and Dan "Big Daddy" Wilkinson and Laveranues Coles and the like. Back then, people thought, wow, this team is gonna be something special. As we know, they specialized in mediocrity. But now that everyone is slamming them for these pay-scale busting acquisitions, I guarantee that Dan Snyder is going to look like a genius come this time next year.

Folks: I am sure I missed something here, but why on earth is Adrienne Washington writing about national stuff now (in this case, a tepid analysis of Obama's health care plans)? Wasn't she supposed to be a local kid?

And a note to the WashTimes Webmaster: When you put announcements up on the site, like this one about the hiring of an editorial page editor, make sure you get the dates right. This story, available on the site Sunday evening, said, "The Washington Times on Monday named Richard Miniter as editor of the editorial pages and vice president of opinion, the latest of a series of dramatic moves to boost the newspaper's global impact."

But it wasn't Monday yet. I know times flies, especially when you're boosting your global impact, but this is crazy.

A little self-promotion here.

How fast can MoCo close its schools? We're talking 4-8 inches here, a snow emergency declared by D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, and, no doubt, a run on milk at groceries everywhere.

But the big story of the weekend: Haynesworth? Is this guy worth $100 million? Will he finally be that one free-agent acquisition who actually makes a difference? At the very least, he'll psych up the fans. No matter what fan board you may have visited over the past month or so, NFL fanatics in all franchise cities wanted this guy. He was the answer to everyone's defensive problems. The standard line from Joe Fan: If we can get Haynesworth, plus a couple of second-tier free agents to fill in at [SOME KEY POSITION] and [SOME KEY POSITION], we'll be the team to beat. Not sure whether anyone's saying that about the Skins, though.

Read More "Weekend in Review" »

All last season, Dan Snyder defenders said that the lack of big names signed by the Redskins -- coaches and free agents -- during the offseason showed the owner had learned from past mistakes.

Snyder's unsuccessful attempt to convince everybody but Jim Zorn to coach the team, the acquisition of Jason "2 1/2 Sacks" Taylor, and the offer to give up all future draft picks to Cincinnati for Ocho Cinco screamed otherwise. But, whatever.

So what's the story line going to be now?

$100 million for Albert Haynesworth?

Fans over at Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, are ready to stomp some heads of their own.