It is the beginning of training camp and the month of celebrating redemption, so perhaps it is time for Dan Snyder to forgive Redskin Nation.

Dan Snyder, the Boy Shepard of the Washington Redskins Flock, has been trying for many years without success to please the villagers and their scribes who yearn to see his Redskins win it all. Unlike the boy Shepard of Aesop’s fable who villagers shamed and pilloried because he lied by “yelling wolf” too many times, Dan has been shamed and pilloried for “yelling buy” too many times.  Really!

What’s the bigger offense here: lying or trying?

First of all, Dan the Boy Shepard owns the Redskins Flock lock, stock and barrel. Aesop’s Shepard just tended his flock; he was not even part of management. Second, the Redskins Flock IS a business that happens to play the game of football, while Aesop’s flock only had to graze and get a good hair cut once a season. Third, even though Dan is not a football expert, he is a business expert that became a self-made billionaire by his mid-thirties. Finally, Dan is a fan first and foremost, who surely loves his Redskins Flock as much as Aesop’s Shepard loved his, and certainly more than the villagers and their scribes who are fickle and quick to criticize Dan’s every move as if it is their job to tell the owner how to manage his flock. It always seems easy from the outside.

And there’s this: If you owned a Lamborghini would you let somebody else drive you around?

If Dan is guilty of anything it is the error of commission—the unintended consequences of acting aggressively to go after top talent and taking the business risk of writing big checks to secure this talent. Along the way Dan has been learning how the business of football works and is getting better at his check writing and hiring strategies.

Compared to Dan, the slacker in Aesop’s fable was guilty of the error of omission—the intended consequences of leaving out the truth that there was no wolf all those times he called out. Unlike Dan, there is no evidence that Aesop’s Shepard learned any lessons from his lying.

The moral learned from Aesop’s Shepard is this: He who is not pure of heart and tells lies should not be honored or believed when he tells the truth

The moral of Dan, the boy Shepard, is this: He who is pure of heart and tries and tries and tries should be honored and believed when he achieves truth.

It comes down to these sheparding offenses: Manipulated truth sitting on a pile of lies and inaction, or; Provisional truth sitting on a pile of cash and action?

I personally believe it is time for Redskin Nation to give Dan Snyder a break and ask his forgiveness for the way we have criticized him for the “offense” of passionately trying to give us the truth of a Redskin Super Bowl Championship by doing everything he knew how to do and could do to win.

His most recent “try” of acquiring Desean Jackson may be the lynchpin that does it. If this move proves to be successful, will you say “Sorry I was so critical  of you in the past Dan,” and begin to believe? If not successful will you say, “Thanks for trying Dan, keep it going; we believe you care as much as we do about the Redskins.”  And while we are at it, give Desean the benefit of doubt until his actions prove otherwise.

Go Skins!