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Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

I was flying home from New Orleans during the Jim Zorn news conference, but I'm told by an eyewitness that it was an "awkward session." Having stripped the man of his play-calling duties, owner Dan Snyder sent Zorn out to face reporters Monday. This whole episode is so embarrassing -- even by this organization's standards.

It's almost like Snyder's trying to shame Zorn into walking away -- and he's refusing to do so. Anyway, here are some of the "highlights" from today's 18-minute news conference:

• Zorn said he wasn't in favor of giving up play-calling duties, but he went along with the idea because it was "strongly suggested" by executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato, a man who's shown that job security in this country still exists.

• Just in case you didn't know what type a guy Zorn is, he actually expressed empathy for the new play-caller, Sherman Lewis: "As far as the difficulty of the task, I feel for Sherm. He's been here for two weeks. We're going to give him as much help as we possibly can to get a spark out of our offense. That's really what this whole thing is about from my standpoint. The reason that I can comply with this is simply because of the lack of scoring. It's been several weeks. I want to win, too, and if this has to be done this way, if this is going to be the key, then I'm certainly willing to give it a try."

• So why doesn't Zorn tell Snyder and Cerrato to shove it -- and walk out the door? It's a fair question. There's this tricky thing about him having three years of his contract guaranteed. If he quit, I don't think the Redskins would have to pay him for that third year. But if they fire him and he doesn't take a coaching job next season, they'll have to keep paying him. Even ridiculously wealthy people such as Snyder don't like paying people to spend the fall mountain-biking.

• Zorn said it would still be his decision to make regarding who starts at quarterback Monday. Well that was awful nice of Snyder to let the "head coach" make this decision. Here's what Zorn had to say about Lewis' new role: "He'll be up in the press box. He'll call the plays on Monday night. I'll be down on the field, relaying the play. I haven't decided -- and it will be my decision -- who the quarterback will be to start. I haven't even talked to our guys yet. This is the first chance I've had to express anything to anybody. As we get further into this, I'll make a decision as to who will be our starter."

• Surely Snyder will stop this nonsense after the Eagles game. I can't recall anything like this happening. At this rate, Zorn will be a quality control coach for the Skins by Thanksgiving. There's no way he walks into that locker room today and exudes the attitude that he's still running the team -- because the players are smarter than that. This is a rudderless ship, which means that Capt. Snyder's at the wheel.