The Coldest Shoulder

But why not tell Williams those things a week ago? At the very least, Williams deserved the loser's ritual in every coaching search, the opportunity to withdraw from consideration and save face. Instead, Williams's departure was announced via news release.

Then there's the matter of the "smear," as Williams's agent Marvin Demoff, royalty among NFL agents, put it. Three media outlets, in a span of about eight hours, credited team sources in reporting Williams was out as a candidate because he had been disrespectful to Gibbs. This came at about the same time Blache was signing on to replace Williams, a fact few outside the team knew.

I spoke to several team officials yesterday, trying to ferret out the leak, asking why things had to get this ugly. I got a lot of angry denials, including from Vinny Cerrato, whom Snyder recently named the team's executive vice president.

"I would go to Gregg's son's games every Friday night," Cerrato said. "Me and him talked about that today, how we were both upset that there was a story out there that we didn't like each other. I didn't talk to Mort [Chris Mortensen of ESPN] or anyone. I don't know what happened there, but that's not how I feel about him."

We don't know who to believe.

One thing is certain: This unseemly drama cost Snyder some of the goodwill he had gained after Taylor's death. He was seen as a galvanizing force for the generosity he showed after Taylor was shot and at his funeral. He showed strong leadership in a time of genuine crisis.

For a franchise always accused of never grasping the significance of how to behave at an important moment -- public perception changed in a matter of months. With how Williams's firing was handled, it took less than two weeks to undo all the unifying feelings that emerged from the Taylor tragedy.

In the end, everyone lost much more than a coaching job.