UPDATE (11:17a ET): Bob Glauber of NEWSDAY has same thought I process I do on the Redskins’ abrupt announcement - via Snyder-owned ESPN 980 - of Bruce Allen’s hire:

(In zeal to control message, did scooped Snyder break hiring rule?)

“The announcement that the Redskins had replaced vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato with former Buccaneers general manager Bruce Allen may have been a violation of the league’s expanded Rooney Rule requirements for diversity hiring practices.”

At 9:30am ET this morning Jay Glazer was first to report the possibility of Bruce Allen being hired by the Redskins as the team’s new Executive VP of Football operations - posted at FoxSports.com:

Redskins coaches were told the team is now in talks with former Bucs and Raiders head honcho Bruce Allen to replace Cerrato, FOXSports.com has learned.

It is unclear what job title Allen will be given if they lock him up, but his brother George Jr. is a big player already in Washington, D.C. Their father was legendary coach George Allen.

It’s unclear who the team interviewed to satisfy the Rooney Rule or if such an interview has taken place yet. They cannot hire Allen until a minority candidate is interviewed for the position.

What followed was a predictable response from Dan Snyder’s radio station in DC.

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Dan Snyder-owned ESPN 980 in DC is reporting Redskins Executive VP of Football Operations Vinny Cerrato has “resigned” this morning. The station certainly wouldn’t be reporting the news if it didn’t have a seal of approval from the team.

Snyder must be stoked. Not because Cerrato’s departure signals a new era in Redskins football that will actually give fans hope.

No, because the owner got to report the news himself and control the message.

Our older and/or better-read NFL fans will undoubtedly remember John Riggins, the eccentric, bruising running back of the Washington Redskins. He was the Super Bowl XVII MVP, but only after a contract dispute led to him sitting out an entire season on his own volition. Needless to say, he’s an iconoclast.

(That look then: badass. That look now: some combination of badass and homeless.)

He’s also a Redskin to the core, having played his final 10 seasons at RFK, leading to a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The mouth that made him larger than life is still at work, and as you can imagine, he’s not terribly impressed by the current state of affairs.

Riggo went after owner Dan Snyder last month, and now he’s set his sights on head coach Jim Zorn and Vinny Cerrato as GM. Thus, he went to YouTube and delivered a wonderfully eloquent, political, measured soliloquy on–okay, we couldn’t even finish that sentence; he tore Zorn to shreds and told Cerrato to quit football. Video is after the break.

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HOGS HAVEN of SPORTS BLOG NATION *hacks* Redskins GM Vinny Cerrato’s email account:

Brilliant stuff.