Latest developments cement Redskins’ position as laughingstock of the NFL

For much of the early part of the 21st century, the Oakland Raiders were the worst-run laughing stock in professional football. But in recent years the Raiders have regained some dignity on and off the field, leaving a void at the bottom of the NFL’s respect totem pole.

Right now, it looks as though the Washington Redskins are more than willing to become this era’s version of the Raiders, because the franchise has become a colossal trainwreck on and off the field.

It’s not just that earlier this week the team was forced to bench Robert Griffin III for the third time in less than three years, all but spelling the end of Griffin’s career in D.C. only a few years after the team sacrificed four high-end draft picks in order to crown RG3 the next face of the franchise.

And it’s not just the latest you-can’t-make-this-up story in which the wife of the team’s new general manager used a public forum to suggest that an ESPN reporter was performing oral sex in exchange for scoops, and that the reporter in question was sleeping with her husband. And it’s not just that the team announced immediately that those tweets came from an account that was “definitely a fake,” just hours before Jessica McCloughan issued a public apology for writing said tweets.

It’s all of that, plus the fact the team — which by the way has lost 26 of its last 33 games and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005 — continues to staunchly defend its racist nickname without the foresight that the defense they’re staking will inevitably one day find the organization on the wrong side of history in an increasingly politically correct world.

It’s all of that, plus the fact the team’s media relations honcho — the same guy who denied Jessica McCloughan wrote those tweets before, you know, checking with Jessica McCloughan — has become a caricature of the gate-keeping industry to such an embarrassing extent that he’s become common fodder for Deadspin.

That’s so Raiders. It’s all so Raiders.

There’s a lot more to the story, which I covered in depth while calling the team a joke late last year.

Now, they’re not just a joke. They’re THE joke. The NFL’s newest laughingstock. Nobody can look away, but for all the wrong reasons.

About Brad Gagnon

Brad Gagnon has been passionate about both sports and mass media since he was in diapers -- a passion that won't die until he's in them again. Based in Toronto, he's worked as a national NFL blog editor at theScore.com (covering Super Bowls XLIV, XLV and XLVI), a producer and writer at theScore Television Network and a host, reporter and play-by-play voice at Rogers TV. His work has also appeared at Deadspin, FoxSports.com, The Guardian, The Hockey News and elsewhere at Bloguin, but his day gig has him covering all things NFC East for Bleacher Report.

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