There was the still-unemployed Mike Shanahan having his name floated as a possible future hire in San Francisco, only to have Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio immediately refute the report, writing that “the team won’t be hiring Mike Shanahan in any capacity.” There was his buddy Jeff Fisher finally losing his job three days before a game — which saved him the ignominy of setting the NFL’s losses record in front of a prime-time audience Thursday night. And there was Robert Griffin III, the kid whose fate Shanahan and Fisher had helped decide, throwing a flea-flicker interception from his own end zone for an 0-12 team bumbling its merry way to 0-13.

“Please clap,” they might as well have asked. Nobody clapped.

AD

AD

Why bring this up now? Because Fisher went out of his way to troll the Redskins over his cleverness, sending out his RGIII-acquired players as captains two years before losing his job. Because Rams GM Les Snead once wrote on his whiteboard, “build to dominate using Redskin picks,” right before a thoroughly dominating 17-28 stretch. Because Daniel Snyder, Bruce Allen and Shanahan flew to the Bahamas to celebrate their franchise-resuscitating trade, which nearly imploded their franchise a few years later. Has any disaster been jointly celebrated so many times? Did Chamberlain do Crown Royal shots in the Bahamas after signing the Munich Agreement?

So let’s remember that trade as evidence that no period of caution is ever long enough. Some analysts have suggested the Nats’ recent trade — a passel of prospects for one big sure thing — could wind up as a win-win. The Nats will fill a gaping need, and the White Sox can rebuild their rotation, and both fan bases will be happy. This is pleasant to think about, like trading a lumber for an ore, and then eating some chips and dip while waiting for your next turn. Sometimes, though, everyone loses, even if you can’t see it in real time.

“I’m going to always call this [a] win-win,” Snead told The Post in 2012. “This is something we’ll have to look at in five years. But even in five years, I don’t think you’re going to be talking about a winner and a loser. I think this will be a win for both sides.”

AD

AD

Well, he’s right about one thing: No one is talking about a winner and a loser. The trade was NFL ebola: Everyone who touched it needs to be quarantined.

Shanahan called Griffin “a guy who has a chance to take us to the promised land.” But he managed to look both dictatorial and incompetent as his tenure here wound down. He was the man who allowed the prize acquisition’s body to be ruined, who was unable to check his quarterback’s personality, who presided over a failing regime with more leaks than a Metro tunnel. He was a two-time Super Bowl winner before that epic trade; now he does Web ads for NFL Ticket Exchange.

Fisher, on the other hand, earned praise for making off with just about all of Washington’s picks. “Jeff ought to break his arm patting himself on the back for getting that deal,” NFL.com draft analyst Gil Brandt told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The term I use: You oughta be put in jail for stealing. The Rams stole.”

AD

AD

It’s what every smart team is supposed to do: stockpile picks, build through the draft, construct a proper foundation. Turns out that doesn’t guarantee success, especially if you can never find (ahem) a franchise quarterback. Fisher’s captains prank indicated just how clever he still thought he was. That was two years ago this week. Since then, the Redskins have gone 17-14-1, the Rams 11-21. Wide receivers aren’t the only ones who drop the ball in celebration before actually crossing the goal line.

Griffin, meanwhile, wound up with a franchise whose coach needed to win quickly, whose fan base was willing to crown him before a single snap and whose owner was eager for a new best friend. Maybe he was doomed by his college offense and slight frame. But would his career have needed a laugh track if he had been drafted by the Packers, or the Broncos, or the Patriots?

It isn’t just them; everyone who came into contact with this trade wound up reeking of stale cabbage. Washington’s fan base spent four years devouring itself, and those hard feelings still aren’t gone. St. Louis lost its football team entirely. Washington’s defense remains talent-starved, and it’s hard not to think of those missing draft picks. The Rams used them to hit on some players and miss on others; just three of the eight picks they netted from the Griffin deal outlasted Fisher, and none has been to the playoffs. The Redskins have the NFL’s 24th-best record since making the deal. The Rams are 27th.

AD

AD

“This team is on the fast track,” quarterback Sam Bradford once said of the Rams, when asked about the RGIII trade. That was before he was himself traded twice.

Perhaps the trade’s only winner was Kirk Cousins. The years of drama meant he didn’t get a real chance to shine until the end of his rookie deal, which led to his current franchise tag — and a price tag that keeps rising. The Griffin drama wound up making Cousins an awful lot of money. Are there any other winners?

So maybe don’t fly to the Bahamas to celebrate your trade wins, NFL executives. Don’t tally up your winnings on whiteboards, and don’t brag about them with your choice of ceremonial captains. Save the victory laps for the actual victories and the “win-win” talk for actual wins.