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Meet the New Boss
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"Vinny is a very, very talented executive," said Eddie DeBartolo, the 49ers' former owner. "He's a talented personnel man, he knows personnel, and he's a go-to guy, too. He demands respect of the people around him and I think he's gotten that, obviously, from Dan Snyder. He's very important to Dan Snyder and I can see why. . . . He has gotten himself to the point where he's ready to take on anything they want him to do in Washington."
Cerrato and Snyder came together in Washington by happenstance. After Jack Kent Cooke died and the team was put up for sale, a prospective ownership group led by Howard Milstein needed a consultant on football matters. Cerrato, who had lost his job with the 49ers when the team's fortunes soured, took the position in March 1999. After Milstein failed to land the team, Cerrato joined Snyder's successful bid. Cerrato then was hired to the Redskins' front office in July 1999 after Snyder ousted Charley Casserly as general manager.
In 2001, then-new coach Marty Schottenheimer fired Cerrato, who joined ESPN only to get rehired a year later by Snyder, who fired Schottenheimer. Cerrato was supposed to work under Bobby Beathard, whom Snyder wanted to lure out of retirement to be general manager for incoming coach Steve Spurrier. Associates of Beathard said at the time that he had agreed to work with Cerrato, but the deal unraveled over financial issues with Snyder.
Cerrato then shared front-office duties with salary cap expert and contract negotiator Joe Mendes, but Mendes failed in his attempt to rein in the team's spending and left in June 2003 to pursue other jobs.
Snyder and Cerrato have been together since. In January, the owner decided to give Cerrato, who had served as the Redskins' director of player personnel and vice president of football operations, control of the team after Gibbs unexpectedly quit.
The Redskins had just completed an emotionally trying season, having endured the November killing of young star safety Sean Taylor in an apparent bungled burglary at his Miami home. After Taylor's death, the team won its last four regular season games to reach the playoffs.
Cerrato's first job was to oversee the hiring of Gibbs's replacement as coach. Players and coaches openly campaigned for the job to go to Williams, the team's assistant head coach-defense, because they felt he was the best choice to maintain continuity and stability at Redskins Park in the aftermath of Taylor's death and Gibbs's departure. Williams was also the clear favorite of fans.
Snyder and Cerrato put candidates through a lengthy interview process that included spending the night at Snyder's home. They began to retool the coaching staff themselves, hiring Zorn as offensive coordinator Jan. 25 before hiring a head coach.
For 11 days after his last interview, Williams heard nothing about his status, people close to Williams said. One night late in the process, ESPN, Cerrato's former employer, and other national media outlets reported that Williams was out as a candidate because he had been disrespectful to Gibbs. They cited team sources for the reports, prompting Williams's agent, Marvin Demoff, to comment that his client was the target of a "smear" campaign by the Redskins.
Cerrato denied being the source for the reports, which also included information about his supposedly chilly relationship with Williams. Cerrato said the reports were "very upsetting to me."
"I got along with Gregg and I don't know where all that stuff came from," he said. "I know we had nothing to do with it. We were just totally focused on the coaching search, focused on trying to find the right coach, and that's it. I like Gregg, but it just wouldn't have been" a good fit.
Williams, who left to run the Jacksonville Jaguars' defense, has said little publicly about the coaching search, but did thank Cerrato for attending his son's football games and taking an interest in his family.
