Questioning Zorn's future a big waste of time

I see where Vinny Cerrato, the executive vice president of football operations for the Washington Redskins, said that Jim Zorn will return next season as the team's head coach. That's great, except there's one thing I don't understand: Why is this a story?

Zorn is in his first season as a head coach anywhere. The Redskins have more wins than losses. And, if they finish with a defeat of San Francisco on Sunday, they produce their second-best record over the last nine seasons.

With Zorn's coaching, Campbell became a more polished QB. (Getty Images)

"I was asked about it on the radio," Cerrato said Tuesday afternoon, "and I said this is a creation of the media. This is not a creation of the Washington Redskins. We haven't discussed anything like this. Our focus was on beating Philadelphia (last week) and beating San Francisco (this week). This wasn't something that the Redskins said -- it was something the media said."

On this score, I'll side with the football team. Two weeks ago star, running back Clinton Portis took a shot at Zorn, sarcastically calling him "a genius." Big deal. People say stupid things, and that was stupid. I never knew that Portis was speaking for the team, and I haven't heard anyone suggest he was speaking for the team.

What's more, I haven't heard anyone suggest Zorn was or should be in trouble. The guy is 8-7 in his first season as a head coach, for crying out loud. But that's not the point. This is: HE'S IN HIS FIRST SEASON, PEOPLE! I mean, give the guy a chance.

I could see if the team went belly up or there was a player revolt or Al Davis was calling the shots, but last time I checked that wasn't the case. So there are 15 teams with records better than Washington. That puts Zorn in the top half of the league in his first crack at coaching, and that's not bad.

All I know is that if you told me prior to the season that Washington would be sitting 8-7 with a game to go, I'd say that Zorn had passed the bar.

The problem, of course, was that he raised it by winning six of his first eight -- something no one anticipated, and that probably includes Zorn. When the Redskins went into a tailspin, losing five of six, speculation immediately centered on Zorn's future -- and I'm not sure why.

Yeah, I know, the Redskins made the playoffs a year ago. They were also 9-7. If they win Sunday that's the record they have this season.

One other thing: I don't recall anyone calling for Joe Gibbs to be fired after he went 6-10 in his first season back on the job. And I don't recall anyone calling for his canning after four years of Gibbs produced a 30-34 record, either.

So why the fuss over Zorn and why now? Because they didn't make the playoffs? Tell me that when you surveyed the NFC East last summer you honestly expected that to happen. I didn't. In fact, I never anticipated the Redskins to get this far, largely because I'm wary of head coaches with no experience.

This season has been a learning process for everyone, with Zorn overcoming the freshmen mistakes he committed in the season-opening loss to the Giants. Zorn improved as the year wore on, and he got so much better the Redskins vaulted to their best start since 2000.