Baby things change

Yesterday was fun again. Sweeping at home won't happen in our division, but beating up on the lesser divisions is fun, even if we didn't win by much. Campbell looked solid again, espcecially during the first drive and especially during the second half. The end of the second quarter and the storm in the second half seem predicated on one guy that Campbell was throwing too; Chris Cooley. He is a fan favorite because most Skins fans have probably never met him in person, and as soon as he started getting the ball the offense opened up. Moss is a beast who has been playing great since Cerrato essentially traded for Lav Coles and then back again for more than a few high draft choices to the Jets. He opens up the field vertically and scares the hell out of opposing safties, which gives room for Cooley to open up the game horizontally. It seems like Zorn (who I am increasingly horny for) waits until right around halftime to start utilizing him. I don't know if he is strategically saving him, but if he starts opening up the middle of the field from the get-go, who knows what the rest of the offense can do.



Like Devin Thomas, who had a huge 66 yard touchdown called back because of a stupid forearm to the head courtesy of Stephon Heyer. According to Portis the guy Heyer clubbed was playing dirty all game and deserved it, but it still could have drawn the ire of Zorn. However, Heyer was the guy Zorn picked to start over former fan-favorite and second-round pick Jon Jansen, and is probably one of "his guys." Instead Zorn picked the new punter, Durant Brooks, to release his fury on the sideline for the first time in his head coaching career when he called for the snap on a kick when the ref had not even given the center the ball yet. According to Zorn, "we iced our own kicker." Brooks was picked by Cerrato, Daniel Snyder's best friend because he doesn't have any others that are not on the payroll, in the 6th round this year while we had glaring needs at several other positions. No one actually drafts a punter in the NFL; Brooks was the only one. One can only deduce that Zorn wanted nothing to do with Brooks and would have stuck with Frost if it was his choice, and it would have been a wise choice as Frost was promptly picked up by Green Bay and has been booming coffin-corner kicks ever since.



This is the disconnect that is the Redskins. After the last two weeks it looks like we have a guy that may have some genius in him coaching our team. (I said looks like, not genius yet, but I say a prayer every night.) We have this ass-hat who insisted on keeping every single pick that he made this year. Can Cerrato really tell me that every guy he picked is an NFL player? If so, our second pick in this year's draft, Fred Davis, surely would have been the second tight end option after Chris Cooley and our other five receivers right? Congrats to Todd Yoder on his first TD catch. I didn't see a whole lot of Davis, but I was at the game so maybe they spotlighted him on FOX. I'm sure Cerrato highlighted him to Danny-boy in some way.



While speaking of young Daniel, let's not forget that even though he bought the stadium and the franchise from the Cookes, who were competent owners, in as far as they knew that they did not know as much about football as guys that have been around football, that he still re-named Jack Kent Cooke Stadium Fedex. Dan Snyder is the only guy in the world who you can stand next to Jerry Jones and Jones wins the "not the biggest horse's ass contest." Jones was at least around the game, so he can have some input.



We have come upon the first Dallas week, and thus, the last Dallas week that will ever culminate in Texas Stadium. I hate Dallas more than anything; when we lose this week it will take a while to get over it even though I am preparing myself. But Jones never renamed the stadium to make a little more cash after he has already scalped all of his fans. As far as I know he hasn't named the new billion dollar stadium after some corporate conglomarate. I hate Texas Stadium, but it does have a certain majesty that I will miss. One of my earliest memories is the Washington Post picture of a Skin with his hands t-ed for a timeout while the game clock loomed in the background with three seconds left. Sure enough we "never called timeout" and the game ended as our field-goal team scrambled fruitlessly onto the field for a kick that would never come. The refs pulled one out again for who they thought was "America's Team," which is a reviled thought for most Skins fans. I hate Texas Stadium with its weird shadows, its awkward turf, its ignorant fans, and its sideline parading owner. I never really knew what "love to hate" quite meant, but I think I do now; I am going to miss beating the Cowboys in that place. They left a hole in the top so God could watch the Redskins beat the Cowgirls.



The last rivalry game at Texas stadium makes this week even sadder in sports, as Yankee Stadium was shut down last night. I wil preface this by saying that I hate the Cowboys and dislike the Yankees. I hate the Orioles so the Yankees get a reprieve. It was a great ceremony pre and postgame, but was the saddest thing I have seen at a sporting event since the Redskin Band played "Hail to the Redskins" as a funeral dirge after Sean Taylor's passing. It was great seeing the old guys come out, especially Yogi who tried to jog out as fast as he could to the plate one last time. I thought Girardi managed things perfectly, and it was appropriate that Rivera was the last guy to ever come off the mound in the house that a lot of guys didn't neccesarily build but maintained. It was weird seeing grown, and even old men cry in the stands because it was the last time they would be standing on such hallowed grounds. These were guys that probably fought in Vietnam, Korea, and even throughout the world in World War II. If you take these guys back to the battlefields they fought on, where there friends died, where they had to kill other human beings they might cry. If they were Yankee fans, and were at Yankee Stadium last night they definately cried. Those are the only places they would cry. Only sports and a place like Yankee Stadium can evoke the emotion that a battlefield can.

Because as sports fans we know; we live and die with everything that these guys on our fields do. Its why Dallas week is so huge. Maybe the players don't care as much as they used to, but we still do. Seeing the legends of yesteryear, just for one team was inspiring. The Yankees put on one hell of a funeral, and despite my distaste for them (at least they aren't the Mets) it was sad to see the stadium go. In an era where every stadium has a funny name, tickets are going up to almost $3,000 for football and baseball seats, and pro athletes sometimes don't care, it is sad to see Yankee Stadium go away. With the economy dropping out from the bottom things just don't seem right, but Yankee Stadium was always there; through the wars, the depression, Cuban missle scares, assasinations, facing the Eastern Bloc, ultimate terrorism, and all the the uncertainty that came from these things. Yankee Stadium was always a certain thing. It was never Fannie Mae Stadium or Freddie Mac Stadium, everything was always certain. I still don't like the Yankees but America doesn't feel right without the stadium.