And why wait a full year to tell the story of his innocence?
Same reason why he didn't coach, or try to coach, last year in the NFL. Dan Snyder had to pay Shanahan the final year on his contract. If Shanahan started running his mouth before his last year was up I have no doubt Snyder would of done all he could to not pay Shanahan the last year he was owed. 7 million is a lot of money.
Shanahan's interview yesterday can be taken with a grain of salt to be sure, but a lot of what he said matches up with reports and rumors that came out towards the end of the '12 season up until Shanahan was fired. Chris Cooley at the beginning of his show yesterday said a lot of what Shanahan said was the truth, but there were areas where Shanahan could of elaborated more or was not totally honest. Cooley didn't elaborate specifically.
The timeline given by Shanahan was most interesting. The down word spiral began with the Cleveland game. Griffin starts pouting because Cousin's didn't run the 50 series, and Griffin couldn't understand Shanahan's reasoning behind behind why Shanahan runs a specific offense tailored to Griffin's skills and has to run a different offense tailored to Cousin's skills. That Griffin and Cousin's are 2 different types of QB's.
I remember, either before or after the Cleveland game, Griffin getting asked by the press about Cousin's potential performance, or performance, against Cleveland and Griffin emphatically stating he wasn't worried because the Skins were "my team". That was a red flag for me at the time because Griffin came off as feeling threatened by Cousin's with that comment. And nothing up to that point suggested, based on Griffin's performance on the field, that anything Cousin's did on the field was going to take the starting spot from Griffin. After the Cleveland game Griffin makes his feelings known on the 50 series and Griffin starts being less than truthful to Shanahan about his health (specifically his knee).
In the end what us Skins fans are left with is a high priced QB (draft pick wise) who is also high maintenance and has a very large ego. The type of ego stroked by a jock sniffing owner and a bronze statue of himself down in Baylor. Hard to imagine the Griffin era in DC will ever reach the excitement and promise of 2012 based on what we know now. Time to start hoping for a miracle.