Report: Redskins May Try To Fire Head Coach And Withhold The $8 Million He Is Still Owed

The Washington Redskins are weighing the possibility of firing head coach Mike Shanahan following the team's latest embarrassing loss according to Mark Maske of the Washington Post.

One hold-up at this point may be that Washington will try to fire Shanahan for cause and withhold any money that is still owed to him on his contract. Shanahan makes $7 million per year and his contract goes through the 2014 season.

If he were fired now, with three weeks remaining, Shanahan would be owed approximately $8.2 million.

One possibility is that Washington will try to withhold the money in an effort to negotiate a settlement. Another possibility is that Washington will wait until after the season hoping Shanahan will resign and forfeit the remaining $7 million.

Maske speculates that the team could blame Shanahan for the leaked report over the weekend that he nearly resigned following the 2012 season due to Robert Griffin III's relationship with owner Daniel Snyder.

After losing to the Chiefs 45-10 at home on Sunday, Shanahan is just 24-37 as coach of Washington. He also has just one playoff win in 14 seasons as a coach since leading the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl championships in 1997 and 1998.

However this plays out, it seems clear that Shanahan's days as coach of the Redskins are numbered.