Flirtation Between Snyder, Shanahan Already Has Begun?

We realize that, because it’s April 1, many of you will be suspecting that every story we post today will be part of our annual April Fool’s Day routine. In fact, most of you are so keenly aware of our ritual of making up a story on April 1 (as opposed to the ones we make up the other 364 days of the year) that you’re bracing for the inevitable “Ben Roethlisberger To Retire” headline. (Meanwhile, roughly five percent of the audience now believes that we’re reporting Ben Roethlisberger is retiring.) We’re not saying whether or not we’ll slip in a little April Fool’s blurb between now and midnight, but we realize as the traffic mushrooms that perpetuating phony stories will jeopardize whatever shreds of credibility we’ve managed to compile over the years. We say all that because, while the following story might be perceived to be an April 1 gag, it’s not. During an impromptu PFT spot on WJFK in D.C. this morning, one of the Junkies mentioned that there was a rumor of a January meeting between Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and former Broncos coach Mike Shanahan. We’d heard the same thing, but to my recollection we’d never posted it. With Broncos quarterback and Shanahan protege Jay Cutler now linked to the ‘Skins, it makes sense to point out that, indeed, there was/is a rumor that Snyder and Shanahan met. We fully expect the team to deny it -- just like they did last year when rumors flew that the Redskins had spoken with Bill Cowher after Joe Gibbs retired. (Cowher, by the way, would later confirm the discussions.) And we figure that, at some point, the Redskins will have to address the new report linking them more strongly than ever to Cutler. It’ll need to be far more convincing that Vinny Cerrato’s statement from last month.