But now it's all clear: Bowlen set Snyder up!

Turns out Bowlen was still paying off Shanahan's huge coaching contract. The only way he could get out of writing more big checks to Shanny was to get some other NFL team to hire the guy he'd just fired. Kind of like alimony payments, where you keep paying until somebody marries your ex-wife.

So, as soon as Shanahan signs the deal with Snyder that will be announced later today at Redskins Park, Bowlen's off the hook for a big chunk of his ex's nut.

From the Denver Post:

Bowlen will be relieved of roughly $7 million in expenses today when the Washington Redskins announce Mike Shanahan as their new coach. Shanahan, who was the Broncos' head coach from 1995 until he was fired after the 2008 season, completed a five-year deal Tuesday evening with the Redskins, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations.

Shanahan will receive approximately the same average guaranteed salary — $7 million a season — he had during his final contract with the Broncos. He still had three years remaining on his deal when he was fired nearly a year ago.

The Broncos will still owe Shanahan approximately $3.5 million per year in 2010 and 2011 to essentially have him coach the Redskins. Then again, Bowlen will save roughly $3.5 million each of the next two years now that their former coach is no longer unemployed.

Bottom line: Bowlen hoodwinked Snyder again!

And this deal is a clearer-cut hoodwink than that Portis-for-Bailey-plus-draft-picks hoodwink back in 2004!

Before moving on, let me repeat something from above: Shanahan was fired by Bowlen a year ago for losing a four-game division lead in the last four weeks of the season to the San Diego Chargers, a team coached by Norv Turner, who wasn't good enough to coach Dan Snyder's Redskins.

Got that?

(AFTER THE JUMP: Shanahan and Allen won't keep fans from fleeing FedExField? Sherman Smith says the worst came to pass? The Wall Street Journal doesn't think the Skins are the worst team in the NFL? Ben Olsen won't be leaving United after all? The New York Times runs a sad correction to its George Michael obituary?)

***

From the sound of things, the mere hirings of Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen ain't going to be enough to retain season ticketholders. The members over at Dan Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, are polling themselves about who's going to renew their tickets for the 2010 season.

The results are informal, but it should be considered that the extremeskins posters are the most devout followers in the burgundy and gold flock. And as of last night, the respondents saying they ain't coming back outnumbered those that would be buying season tickets again by a huge margin. Most of the naysayers threw in some explanations about why they're dropping out, and listed things like the on-field product, lousy game-day experience, cost, economy, availability of single tickets through StubHub and eBay, and, overwhelmingly, disdain for Dan Snyder.

My favorite post came from the extremeskins member who goes by stew, who told the board that he had dropped off the Redskins seasons ticket rolls in 2008, and couldn't be happier with the decision. From stew:

This was my first year not renewing tickets, not buying merchandise, and not shopping at Redskins sponsors stores. Honestly, its been great! I bought a 50 inch big screen, a PS3, and a new L shaped sectional couch, with the money I would have spent on my season tickets. I have enjoyed the hell out of my TV and PS3 and have received compliments on my couch... some of which came while watching the Skins lose.It just isn't worth it right now. Snyder has his hands too deep in my team for me to let him put his hands deep into my pocket. When his attitude and personality change... and there is proof of this, not just what people say, then I will rethink my stance on spending money on this team. Its liberating knowing I am part of his profit loss, and there has been one. I am part of what is getting Snyders attention. If we drafft a QB, I will know that Snyder still has his hands all over my team and I will not support moves like that with my hard earned money. I still love the redskins, but I will not contribute to Snyders profits while he is destroying a franchise that I have been passionate about since my childhood.The good thing about this mythical waiting list is that the games will never be blacked out... the tickets are sold, no need to black out any games... I can watch them all from my 50 inch big screen silly.

If the timing wasn't off, I would have accused stew of basing his lifestyle on my charticle on how to spend the money you won't be spending on Redskins season tickets!

But, the thread and all its vitriol confirmed one thing: Snyder needs to announce he's building a Jumbotron real, real fast.

***

Long recap of the 2009 season in the Washington Post by all the folks on the Redskins beat. The best part comes late, with a quote from Sherman Smith about how he consoled Jim Zorn at year's end:

"I told him all the reasons why people were telling me not to come here all came true," Smith said prior to the Redskins' final game.

***

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?)

Butt seriously, this new low/high in Snyder's cheerleader marketing schemes might have something to do with personnel changes.

Donald Wells, the longtime director of the Redskins cheerleaders who predated Snyder, got fired a few months ago. Wells is now director of marketing for Sweethearts for Soldiers, a cheerleader-centric charity based in San Diego.

Wells' replacement as Redskins cheerleader director, Stephanie Jojokian, told me on Tuesday that she wasn't aware that any of her cheerleaders were going to be washing cars. Melanie Treanor Coburn, the Redskins Cheerleaders director of marketing, did not return phone calls. Jojokian says Treanor Coburn is on maternity leave.

***

While there is no agreement on whether to call him "Sherm Lewis" or "Sherman Lewis," everybody agrees the Redskins hiring of an "offensive consultant" is going to do nothing other than humiliate Jim Zorn.

But only TGDS took time to write up Sherm Lewis's past as a bingo caller this morning.

For whatever reason, the ever-humble Bogger leaves out his personal past with the churchy game. In 2002, when he was Just Plain Dan Steinberg, JPDS blew the lid off DC bingo queen Vanessa Woodland in a fabulous City Paper cover story. Read it here.

***

Zorn isn't the first guy Snyder's humiliated here, of course. We've already heard Jon Jansen gloating over the greatness of taking part in ending the Lions losing streak with a win over Washington.

But there's a lot of Snyder haters on the schedule this year.

Mike Nolan is doing better than OK in Denver. Nolan's the guy who Snyder kept delivering vanilla ice cream to during the 1999 season just after buying the Redskins,  a super twerpy way of saying that he thought the Redskins defense was bland.

Snyder had  started at middle linebacker for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers during a stellar NFL career and therefore was quite qualified to render such judgements never played a down of foootball at any level in his life but still felt qualified to render such judgements.

From the San Franciso Chronicle's telling of the Nolan/Snyder ice cream tale, which has been told a billion times but not enough:

"It happened twice," Nolan said of the ice cream deliveries. The first time, rapidly defrosting gallons of extravagant flavors were placed outside Nolan's office door with a note saying, "No more vanilla."

"I wrote him a note, saying that my kids would enjoy the ice cream and that the advice was well taken," Nolan said. "(I was) thinking he was kidding. Then I found out he wasn't kidding."

When Nolan stayed conservative with his defenses, Snyder went industrial. Nolan showed up one day to find a hand cart parked at his desk with melting 5-gallon drums of ice cream.

Fast forward to 2009...From an AP story that appeared on washingtonpost.com yesterday titled "Once dismal Broncos defense thriving under Nolan," a different image of Nolan's abilities as a manager of men emerges. As in this quote: "In this defense, I see pride, I see hunger, I see a battle for respect," linebacker Mario Haggan said.

Has anybody said any of those things about this year's Redskins? Well, when I look at Albert Haynesworth, I guess I do see hunger. But that's another story.

Denver's 4-0, and Nolan's defense is given as the reason. The Skins play Denver at Denver FedExField on Nov. 15.

Gregg Williams is doing ok, too. Dan Snyder rejected and humiliated Williams after a Gitmo-esque interview process that had the Skins former defensive coordinator shacking up at Snyder's Potomac mansion, the one with a good view of the River. No sensible explanation was ever given for bypassing Williams for Jim Zorn as head coach.

(My fave rumor out of Redskins Park, still being told, has Williams getting blackballed as head coach by Joe Gibbs because he wasn't godly enough, which would explain why Snyder ended up with Zorn, who appends a biblical proverb  to every autograph. Geezus Chrysler!)

But Williams is now with 4-0 New Orleans, and is getting a lot of kudos for the undefeatedness of his team. Michael Wilbon, who has taken to putting Williams' name in his columns about as often as Charles Barkley's or Michael Jordan's, credited the defensive coordinator with Sunday's big win over the previously undefeated Jets in a Tuesday story:

Okay, we knew the New Orleans offense was great, but how about Gregg Williams's defense? Yes, Gregg Williams. That guy. Getting it done. The Saints harassed the Jets all over the field and forced Mark Sanchez into some killer INTs.

Skins play New Orleans at home on Dec. 6.

Norv Turner ain't doing that great. Turner, the last head coach Snyder fired midseason, has his Chargers at 2-2. But San Diego's .500 seems a helluva lot stronger than the Skins' .500.

Washington plays at San Diego on the last weekend of the season in what will surely be a meaningless game for at least one of the teams.

***

Major League Baseball's playoff series are all on as of today. But Nationals Park is always available in October. So a literacy group decided to book the big room today to try to get publicity.

This morning, a crowd in the hundreds, or what a typical Nationals/Marlins game would draw, was expected to show up for "Read for the Record," which organizers claim will be an attempt to set the record for "largest one-day shared reading experience ever." Representatives from the Nationals, including Stan Kasten, did some reading.

The book everyone will be sharing is called "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Too bad Dmitri Young wasn't around for this one.

***

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Let's get right to the issue of the day. The winners of the first three AT&T National events at Congressional:

2007 — KJ Choi

2008 — Anthony Kim

2009 — Tiger Woods

The liberal media doesn't want you to know: There's an Asian bias to Tiger's tournament!

***

Woods exploited this bias to beat a field that included upstart white guys Hunter Mahan and Bruce Boudreau. (What? The Capitals coach wasn't in the AT&T National? I coulda sworn I read 10 stories about him playing Congressional, saw some video even. My bad.)

AFTER THE JUMP: Another Nats fireworks snafu? Why do tennis players carry their own sweaty shit? Is Manny Acta the new Norv Turner?

***

To assist in filling digital inches, let's continue pretending it's not Post-Racial America! I spent much of my Fourth of July weekend watching two Asian Americans in the final pairing of a golf tournament in DC and two grown up black kids from Compton win another Wimbledon doubles crown, after battling each other for another singles crown.

These ain't your father's country club sports!

One of many things I love love about tennis over golf. Will MacKenzie, the dude who finished last in the AT&T National and missed the cut by 14 strokes, had somebody carrying his bags all day on the golf course. But yesterday I saw Roger Federer, just crowned the Best Player of All Time with his 15th Grand Slam win, stuffing his own sweaty shit into a bag. And Andy Roddick, seeming tragic even though he just played a match for the ages, not having time to mope or rest his bones, because he had to stuff his own sweaty shit into a bag. The Williams sisters? Yup, a day earlier they stuffed their own sweaty shit into bags and carried 'em.

In tennis, no matter who you are, or what you've been through, you stuff your own sweaty shit into a bag and carry it!

***

How good was Wimbledon to DC tennis? Let's look: Serena Williams won the women's final. She's the assigned star player of the Washington Kastles, the World Team Tennis squad that starts its 2009 season this week. Serena beat sister Venus Williams in the final. Venus is the assigned visiting female star for the Philadelphia Freedoms, and is (as of NOW, anyway) supposed to face the Kastles here tomorrow night. John McEnroe announced all the Wimbledon matches and got scads of face time. He's the featured male visiting player for the Kastles this season, and will be in the lineup when the New York Sportimes come here on July 16. Andy Roddick is the one big name that always comes to the Legg Mason, with this year's tourney beginning August 1 at Carter Barron. Hope his hip flexor, which he might have hurt while stuffing his own sweaty shit into a bag and carrying it, is better by then.

***

With two outs and the Braves having the tying run at the plate, batter  Chipper Jones took a low outside pitch. But the Nationals Park fireworks operator, probably a new guy — pushed the hot button on what he thought would be a game-ending called third strike. It was a ball. The game wasn't over. Jones stepped out of the batters box and laughed as the smoke cleared.

Then Jones walked. A hard grounder to first base later, and the game, and the button-pusher's job, was saved.

Enough with the fireworks, Nationals. They don't add a damn thing to a day at the stadium. But let Charlie Slowes keep his home run and victory call: "Bang Zoom go the fireworks!" I love that.

***

Speaking of saving jobs: A guy on Nats postgame show on WFED 1500-AM after Friday's 9-8 loss to Atlanta nailed the team's coaching situation pretty good: "Manny Acta is the new Norv Turner."

***

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