Cerrato's Radio Show Lacks Insight

By Leonard Shapiro
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, October 7, 2008 11:39 PM

About 90 minutes into Vinny Cerrato's new radio show on ESPN980 Monday morning, George from Montgomery County called in to say he was terribly unhappy with the host's response to a question posed by another listener minutes earlier. The first caller asked Cerrato how the Seattle Seahawks could have allowed longtime assistant coach Jim Zorn to get away and join the Redskins earlier this year.

Cerrato, the Redskins' executive vice president for football operations, had answered that Seattle's president of football operations, Tim Ruskell, "had it in his mind" that he wanted Seahawks assistant head coach Jim Mora Jr., and not Zorn, to replace head coach Mike Holmgren when Holmgren retired.

But that response wasn't good enough for George from Montgomery County, otherwise known as George Michael, the occasionally bombastic former Channel 4 sports anchor. Michael, who actually helped Cerrato launch the show three weeks ago as a guest host, now reminded Cerrato what he had said the day the show made its debut.

"You said the goal was to tell the fans the truth all the time," Michael said with a tone of mock indignity. "You didn't say that Tim Ruskell screwed up royally [and] showed Zorn no respect. The fact is Tim Ruskell screwed up royally."

When Michael added that Holmgren and quarterback Matt Hasselback surely miss Zorn at the moment with the team now 1-3, Cerrato's meek response to Michael was "I would probably say so."

"Someone tell the people that Seattle made a real mistake," Michael continued. "You can't say that, can you?"

"No," Cerrato said. "I can't talk about [college] juniors, I can't talk about officials. There are a lot of places I can't go."

That was clearly obvious over the course of Monday's two-hour show, which also included Cerrato saying, "it's all-access. It's why I did the show. For fans, sometimes you get tired and frustrated by the message put out there. Now you can hear it from the Redskins."

But this is what I heard on Monday, the day after the Redskins' road victory against the Philadelphia Eagles: a radio show that offers listeners hardly any insider insight as to what's really going on with their favorite football team. Instead, listeners heard a lot of nondescript, clichéd GM- and coach-speak, lots of talk about momentum and confidence, and Cerrato repeatedly saying he was proud of the players and coaches over two hours of not-so-easy listening.

At the end of it all, I also thought back to the opening show, the day after the Redskins' victory over the Saints in Week 2. That morning, George Michael wasted no time getting to the question many who follow the Redskins as fans, or for a living, want answered.

"Why in the world are you doing a radio show?" Michael asked Cerrato -- a talk show host on the sports talk station owned by Daniel Snyder, the man who also owns the football team that employs Cerrato in one of the two most important jobs in this billion-dollar plus franchise.

Cerrato launched into a lengthy explanation that ended with him insisting that, "if I would not have had the time, I would not have done it. Anything that would have interfered with my Redskins work, I wouldn't have done it. I do have the time."

Later, when Michael posed the very same question at the start of the second hour, Cerrato said, "I want to be the voice the fans can call and hear it directly from me."

That day, I particularly enjoyed Michael constantly pounding on Cerrato to stop with the "we're taking it one game at a time" clichés and to quit dancing around some of the questions Michael and some call-in listeners tossed his way. But for the most part, Cerrato clearly hasn't been taking that advice to heart.

When he was asked by a caller this past Monday whether frequently erratic rookie punter Durant Brooks should be concerned about his job security, Cerrato said, "We need more consistency. He had a great game against the Cowboys. It's consistency. He's doing a good job holding (for placekicks)."

The very next questioner wondered if the NFL has ever considered hiring full-time officials. Cerrato said, "I don't know that."

Oh please. It's a discussion that has frequently come up at NFL owner and competition committee meetings over the years. The answer was, "Yes, of course it's been discussed, but never instituted" -- for a variety of reasons the executive vice president for football operations ought to be able to rattle off in a heartbeat.

The bottom line on the show is that while there are occasional interesting nuggets Cerrato has thrown out -- Dan Snyder lending Andre Carter his plane to fly to California last week to take care of a personal problem, for example -- this is hardly must-listen radio. That is, unless you like to listen to one exuberant fan insist that Cerrato yell out "Hail to the Redskins" four different times on Monday. (He did.)

This is a show Cerrato would be wise to ditch sooner rather than later, particularly during the regular season, and especially if his team starts losing football games. If he wants to do radio, then debut the show the week after the NFL draft and run it until a few weeks before training camp starts, something of a down period around the league, save for the mini-camps. But even that would be a stretch, for one reason and one reason only.

Cerrato has a day job, and a night job and a seven-day-a-week job, and radio host should not be included in the job description. Any general manager worth his weight in draft choices will tell you that the position demands an all-consuming existence, virtually a 24/7 whirl from the start of training camp in July through the April draft. In Washington, maybe you take a little time out for some racquetball with The Danny, but that's about it.

I've been around the NFL since the early 1970s, and I can't think of a single general manager charged with the same responsibilities Cerrato has been handed who spent that much time on the radio -- four hours a week, twice a week, including the day after a game. Maybe they had a regular segment for five or 10 minutes once a week on radio or television. But four hours? In prime business hours, including the day after a game?

Over the last couple of weeks, I've called several people I respect around the league and asked what they thought about Cerrato's new gig.

To a man, they literally laughed out loud.

"Monday mornings are pretty busy," said one veteran personnel man. "Say your kicker misses two short field goals the day before, you'll get calls from 40 agents the minute you walk in the door. You need to be there."

"I don't know how he could find the time to fit it in," one long-time general manager said. "You have to make yourself available to the media, but his own radio show? I don't think so."

"I couldn't imagine my guy doing it," one former head coach said. "Maybe when you retire, but during the season? It's a joke."

But if you are a fan of the Washington Redskins, this is no laughing matter.

Seriously, wouldn't you much rather have Cerrato on college campuses Monday watching practices and game tape of potential draft choices? Or have him in his office working the phones, trying to improve his roster with a trade or a signing of a recently waived free agent who might fit in? Or have him in a personnel meeting discussing all the options if and when a starter goes down the previous day?

What if you're yakking on the radio with Ricky from Rockville when a desperate general manager calls to offer you a third-round pick for your third-string running back? What if you're not there, and that GM calls someone else?

That being said, if Cerrato insists on staying on the air, here's what else I'd love to see:

Maybe The Danny could show up as a guest on a regular basis and, better yet, field questions from the fans, as in, "Why are you allowing Vinny Cerrato to waste time doing a radio show while he should be trying to improve your football team?" Or "How come I'm paying $40 to park my car a mile away from my seat?" But don't count on it from a media-shy team owner who's been ducking the tough questions from the day he bought the team.

If the Redskins truly care about their fans and want them to get an unbiased, unfiltered, all-access inside look at the football team, the answer is not to put Vinny Cerrato on the air to offer his party-line pabulum and Skins' spin. They might just open practice up and allow the media to do its job, just as the director of football operations ought to be doing his job -- four-hour-a-week radio show not included.

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Len.Shapiro@washingtonpost.com.