Mike Shanahan was given the chance Monday to shoot down reports that he wanted out of Washington at the end of 2012. Shanahan declined to do so for the second consecutive day.
Shanahan won't announce the Redskins' starting quarterback or talk about his future. For the second consecutive day, Shanahan was asked point-blank if he even wants to coach the team next season.
"OK. Does anybody have any questions about this football game?" Shanahan responded.
It was a remarkable moment of news conference theatre. A head coach wouldn't deny a destructive story or even say that he wanted to keep the job he is well paid for. Shanahan confirmed that he has spoken with owner Dan Snyder since Washington's embarrassing loss in Week 12.
"I'm not going into details of my relationship with Dan. We get along quite well," Shanahan said.
Shanahan indicated that he discussed with Snyder possibly benching Robert Griffin III for health reasons. Even though Griffin is healthy, Shanahan says he fears for Griffin hurt going into the offseason because of poor pass protection. (After listening to Shanahan, we expect Griffin to benched.) Kirk Cousins could wind up starting the finalthreegames, yet Shanahan admitted that he hasn't spoken to Griffin about the idea yet.
The closest Shanahan came to denying anything happened when he addressed the ESPN report that emerged Sunday morning. That report claimed that cleaned out his office late in the 2012 season because of disagreements in philosophy with Snyder. After repeated questions on the issue, Shanahan finally bit.
"There's always going to be rumors, there's going to be partial truths and everything that comes out there," Shanahan said. " ... The fact, when I read it, it talked about me cleaning out my office, it would take me two minutes to clean out my office. I've got two notebooks and an iPad. That would get me out of my office."
It feels like only a matter of time before Shanahan winds up taking home those two notebooks and an iPad. In the meantime, expect plenty of awkward, oddly fascinating news conferences.
*The latest "Around The League Podcast" recapped all the Week 14 games. *
