The Scot McCloughan experiment in Washington has come to an end. Team president Bruce Allen announced on Thursday that McCloughan has been fired. The team did not formally say why, but the Washington Post is reporting that “an official with direct knowledge of the situation” said he had multiple relapses with alcohol.
The official said that McCloughan had shown up drunk in the locker room, and the situation has been a “disaster” for the past year and a half. The Post spoke with some players who did not see it as a disaster, which naturally raises questions about how all of this is going down.
McCloughan’s history with alcohol is well known, so relapses would not be entirely surprising. However, there have also been reports about a power struggle in Washington between McCloughan and Allen. That does not mean that this report is untrue, but it also raises a question of the behavior of Washington executives. The power struggle was a real thing based on everything I’ve heard, and Mike Jones of the Washington Post had this interesting tweet.
Was told late in the season of jealousy up top and how they'd one day use McCloughan drinking as an excuse to can him. Exactly what happened
— Mike Jones (@MikeJonesWaPo) March 10, 2017
Again, this does not mean McCloughan wasn’t drinking or showing up intoxicated. But did Washington fire him because of that, or was that simply an excuse to fire him amidst the power struggle? Given how dysfunctional that organization is, nothing would surprise me.