Not only that, but Jack Kent Cooke first invested in the team in 1961, did not become majority owner until 1974, and did not win a Superbowl until 1983. That was a long wait for anyone who was paying attention. What's more, Cooke did not "restrict himself to being an owner". He was involved in personnel decisions and always cast the tiebreaking vote.
Some misconceptions, I think.
1. The Redskins rebuilt after new management took over the team in 1963, later having their first winning season in about a dozen years (1956 - 1969); then becoming a consistent winner in the 1970's, going to the playoffs about four times in an era when only four teams per conference went.. That was big stuff.
No one thought that the Redskins were failures because they did not win the SB during that stretch.
2. If Joe Gibbs had not coached the Redskins these last four years, is Snyder so accomplished? Oh, and it is incredible how many frequent posters sneered at Gibbs even while he took the fragments of a team, given by Snyder and Spurrier, and built them into playoff contenders
3. Looking carefully at who owned the Redskins, who ran them, and how:
- George Preston Marshall, showman, loudmouth, founder of the permanent NFL, racist, ran the team until he suffered a stroke in 1963. Marshall, like Snyder,
was the front office. He selected Sammy Baugh, sensing that Baugh's bullet-style passing would make a more interesting game. He also persuaded the other owners to change the "five-yard" rule, so passers could be m ore effective. The forward pass became a part of the normal offense, rather than a piece of desperation. That said, Marshall also fired all his coaches, drafted on his marketing whims, and proudly refused to accept black football players.
He skipped Jim Brown, even though the great Maryland coach, Jim Tatum, called Brown "The greatest football player I have ever seen".
- Edward Bennett Williams persuaded Harry Wismer to sell his roughly 25% share in the team to himself and to Jack Kent Cooke. Wismer got about $250,000, which he needed to fund his New York franchise in the AFL, the Titans/Jets.
- Williams had power-of-attorney over the Marshall estate, and ran the team until Cooke got divorced and had to leave Los Angeles about 1978. During that time, Williams picked the coach/GM, and provided the money -- the annual Redskin profits that Marshall had been hiding. Williams used part of the profits to buy back Marshall's shares, so Marshall's sons owned almost nothng of the team when GPM died in 1969. Sleazy lawyering, but Williams made the Redskins a modern team.
- Williams hired Otto Graham to run the team, replacing "Toot", who had no use for the run game or defense, with Vince Lombardi. After Lombardi died (skipping the interim Bill Austin year), Williams hired George Allen as HC and GM. Allen, like Lombardi and Graham, made the decisions.
- When Allen took a job with the Rams, Williams hired the Bears cvoach, and Redskin hero, Jack Pardee. That year, Coocke came east, and hired Bobby Beathard as GM. Williams bought the Baltimore baseball team.
- Beathard and Pardee, and then Beathard and Gibbs, and later Casserly and Gibbs ran the Redskins.
- Cooke sat in his owners box, entertained celebrities, made speeches when he received the SB trophy, and, at most, acted as referee between Gibbs and the GMs when, sometimes, they disagreed. Cooke did not select players; under Plan B, he provided money so Carlie Casserly could sign other team's expensive reserves, but Cooke never pretended to be more than the king who selected his principal ministers, and let them work. That's how it ought to be done.
To repeat myself, Snyder likes to dress up in Redskin jackets, be flown around in a Redskin plane, play at being a football man. He's not. That's dangerous and sad.
I call it "sad" because I lived through the last Marshall years, and they were miserable times for Redskin fans.
I'm starting to wonder about you two. 
