People Who Say What They Really Think

Another tough loss for the Skins. The decisive factor was not forcing Favre into any mistakes. The guy is the all-time leader in INTs, and we couldn't even get him to toss one pass off of Rodger's stone hands. In a year when even going to the Meadowlands next week is winnable, we can safely say that the door to the playoffs is not shut, but it is barely cracked. Shanahan in his press conference even alluded to the rebuilding mentality in his Monday press conference. When asked why James Davis got so may carries when Keiland Williams has been playing well the past few weeks, his reasoning was that he wanted to "get some looks" at the guy. Not "he put us in position to win" or Williams' "cardio-vascular was struggling," but for looks. As in, we are trying to decide who to keep around next year.


Rebuilding is fine, the Skins haven't had a rebuilding year year since Snyder took over. Lets just call it what it is, and not try to push up sales in a stadium that everyone with a brain knows hasn't been sold out in years. Even I started to get my hopes up and led to my head almost exploding after the St. Louis game. I think we are in a position to do rebuild with our coaching staff, who needs to be around here for another five years. Mike Shanahan has been great, and will end up netting us 3 or 4 more wins than last year with a brutal schedule. You can't tell me that the Cowboys would not be in playoff contention if Shanahan had been coaching them this season. The 3-4 isn't built overnight, and while it is discouraging to not produce turnovers against Favre as well as letting a backup RB run right over us after we took out another team's star again is frustrating, but I'll take it. The only real discouraging part of Sunday's game was Kyle Shanahan. In the first drive of the game the offense looked the best it had all year, driving 88 yards down the field and looking like it was going to dominate the game. The key reason for this was they were consistently running a two tight end formation with Cooley and Davis. Then we never saw them on the field together for the rest of the game. I am no expert, but did K. Shanahan run out of plays from that formation, and why have we not been using that formation all year like I have repeatedly asked? I guess we will just have to wait and see. I know we have rattled off 5 straight wins to get to the playoffs before, but that was under drastically different circumstances.

So lets switch over to the early NHL season for a brief moment. Surely we won't pick up where we left off, with the xenophobic NHL and its constituents bashing the Russian-led Caps team? After all, the Canadians finally have a player they can tout on par with OV in Stamkos, so their fear of an all-encompassing Russian encroachment on the real talent in the NHL must have subsided right? Enter Mike Milbury, yes the same guy who referred to the Russian team as Eurotrash, the same guy who has continually tried to compare Crosby to OV despite what people who know hockey think, the guy with a clear chip on his shoulder for the team that he like to call the "Crapitals." This guy is a proven idiot. If you aren't a huge hockey fan, you should know that he single-handedly destroyed the entire New York Islander's franchise by trading away guys like Chara, Kasparaitas, Luongo, Jokinen, and Spezza, and in turn signing guys like Alexei Yashin and skipping over guys like Heatley and Gaborik in the draft. He is the hockey equivalent of Matt Millen, but instead of putting together a hall of fame career while playing, he is best known for beating up a fan with a shoe.

So naturally this guy has something stupid to add over the incident over a week ago where OV and Semin may or may not have been laughing when having a post-game conversation with the Devil's Kovalchuk. I paid about as much attention to this story as I did the Haynesworth conditioning drama earlier in the Skins year. Its a stupid story trumpeted by the media that is increasingly unable to do the very basics of their job. (Why was Japer's Rink the only place to hear that there were any rumblings over the Fleischmann-Hannan trade.?) But Milburey's comments are just insulting. Anyone that has bothered to watch OV over the course of his career knows that he makes everyone around him better. Japer's Rink again puts up a great statistical defense for that fact so I won't have to. Furthermore, if Sid is so great no matter who is around him then why do the Pens look for new wingers every year for Crosby, but Boudreau can run different lines with OV every night and the Caps are still the top team in the league? Lets get real.


Milbury compares OV to Ochocinco. If anything Crosby is a little closer to the guy due to their obsessions with their numbers. Chad legally changed his name to correspond with his number, while Sid wears 87 because he was born on 8/7/87. Both of their driver licenses mention their numbers, isn't that sweet? In my last post I talked about the bogus concept of racial coding. Milbury doesn't believe in it either, he prefers to go straight into sharing his racist views. We already have the "Eurotrash" comment and as he goes on to compare Crosby to Manning or Brady, and OV to Chad Ochocinco, you can clearly see the disparity that he is trying to make. OV, much like Ochocinco is different, either in color or nationality, than all of the other more "mainstream" and "more marketable" stars that happen to be white or Canadian, as opposed to black or Russian. The only reason Milbury is still employed is because his bigoted, xenophobic views are embraced by a NHL that is imbedded in a Canadian culture that has had not one, but two teams named the Swastikas as I showed in an earlier post.

The continuous comparisons of OV to Crosby make my blood boil. The whole argument of who has won a Cup is faulty, based on the fact that neither guy has won a Cup yet; Crosby was given one. (If you are new to this blog, go back about a year to see the numerous ways it was given to the Pens.) So to base who is better off of a faux Cup is simply circular logic. As if taking away from OV to give to Crosby wasn't enough, they pile on in other ways as well. After several bad calls against OV, the league went on a deliberate tear to besmirch OV as a dirty player, while those of us in DC have known who the dirty "superstar" really is. The problem is the entire NHL is entrenched in circular logic, where you can't take action against a player's cheap shots if you don't start by calling at least one of them. From starting a tug-of-war match with an unprepared player off the faceoff earlier in the year so Pens fans can cite the kid as "tough," to repeated cross-checks, to previous slew-footing, to being caught on tape literally punching Valabak in the groin from behind, Crosby has been a cheap-shot crybaby from day one. (The punch to the groin is the most infuriatiing, Crosby did not even get a fighting major for those low blows.) He continued to cheap-shot without repercussions last night, slew-footing Callahan of the Rangers last night. Sure a penalty was called; on Callahan for interference. Slew-foots are usually given a five minute major and an automatic suspension to prevent the usual injuries that occur because of them; namely concussions and cracked tailbones. But not for the Canadian savior, if he does it you need to move out of his way.


These are the types of calls that have gone against the Caps since this nobody 87 has entered the league and played against us. The streak of penalties going against the Caps in the Pens series still stands at 15 straight games. Crosby is the guy who needs to be suspended, but never is because he has "no history" of playing dirty. He has never been called for any of these cheap shots, so how about we start calling penalties on the Canadian darling every once in a while. For the racist xenophobes like Milbury, they now have Stamkos to trumpet as the Canadian savior to the Russian Satan that is OV. Leave Crosby to rot on the pile of above-average players who play dirty with Sean Avery and Matt Barnaby, and stop comparing the low-life to OV. If you let OV play just the way he has on the ice, without any ref and league interference, he has always done just fine. I could care less who he is friends with off the ice, as long as they are more reputable than low-lifes like Milbury and Crosby.

This Town is Going Crazy (Again)

I had to step away from the Redskin's up and down season for a little bit, because the craziness was just too much to handle. Not the Redskins themselves for once, but everyone else around the team. As if the last 10 Snyder years haven't been nutty enough, when things start to calm down a little, the media just can't let it go. They should have enjoyed the last ten years, with the Deions, Jeff Georges, "pitch and catch" Spurriers, Gibbs resurrections, Brunell religious devotion inspiring fans to pray every time he threw the ball, the Cerratos, and of course Zorn and all the swinging gate lunacy and bingo-calling insanity. It was great fodder for a media that is gravitating more towards the tabloids every day. That time and the media frenzy that accompanied it has ended, so lets move forward.

I'll be honest, when Shanahan benched McNabb I was mad. Not because I think Grossman is the worst QB we have had since Jeff George, but because McNabb probably should have been benched earlier. A baseball manager does not get grief (usually) for pulling a pitcher out of a game early, it is when he pulls him too late and the damage is done. McNabb should have been pulled before the interception when the offense was flailing. I was ready to pull McNabb in the Green Bay game at half until he finally scrounged up a FG right before the half. I was also mad about the decision because with the bye week coming up it was going to be two straight weeks of trying to ignore the medias over-scrutinizing of a simple act that happens all the time in sports that was going to drive me crazy.

I understand that this is not the same as pulling Shuler for Frerotte, George for Banks, Matthews for Wuerffel, or Brunell for an inexperienced Campbell. Those guys were all pretty bad, and I think both McNabb and Grossman are both better than the rest of that undistinguished (and really, really sad) list. McNabb is probably better than Grossman, but who knows, he might not be playing like it and no one knows that better than the Shanahans. The media however, have chosen to speculate on possible nepotism instead of the fact that McNabb just hasn't been playing that well. The media has chosen to go after Shanahan's post game comments instead of acknowledging the fact that Shanahan is just trying to do whats best for the team, and his record here thus far has shown that he is pretty good at looking out for that number one concern.

McNabb acknowledged that his hamstrings are bothering him. We have known since week one that the playbook has been scaled down for McNabb, just as it is for every other QB in the league on a week by week basis. Do you think there might be a possibility that Grossman, who was is Kyle Shanahan's number one ranked pass offense last year without a shred of nepostism (#10 without him,) might know the offense better? I'll give you that the cardiovascular excuse that was a little nutty, but not completely so. While I think Shanahan may have been reading his leftover Haynesworth notes, there may be a kernel of truth beneath the surface.

McNabb can't defeat the cover-2 yet. The Eagles still can't, as evidenced by their first game against the Skins, where Haslett left McCoy open all day and eliminated the long ball en route to a win. That is how the Pats defeated them in the Super Bowl. (Well, that and by cheating.) If Reid doesn't know how to beat the cover-2 after a decade of coaching, is it so far-fetched to think his protege might not have a full grasp on it either? Would you like to guess what defenses run when their team is winning with two minutes left? McNabb did not know that games that could end in ties until two years ago, so it is entirely possible that maybe, just maybe, Grossman was the right guy to have in there at that time.

Or the most likely reason for the benching is the one that Shanahan can not articulate in press conferences. He wanted to give McNabb a wake-up call. No one is so high and mighty that they can not lose their job now that Shanahan is in town. McNabb has nothing to lose now that he has been embarrassed. QBs tend to play a lot more loosely after being benched. Perhaps this will lead to McNabb not bouncing 3 yard passes off the turf when the wide receiver is five yards away. Its dumbfounding how the guy can throw a 60 yard bomb in the numbers and consistently miss five yard hook routes. This can easily be blamed on over thinking. Benching him for this reason may seem trite and childish, but so was the Haynesworth situation. If McNabb plays the way that Fat Albert has the last three games the Skins have a shot to go 7-1 the rest of the way. The benching needed to happen before the bye, because I can guarantee you McNabb, a fiery competitor, is more focused than ever.

The media somehow missed this point. While looking to fill columns and four hour blocks of radio time with this same "controversy" for two straight weeks they missed simple things like, say, Brandon Banks having knee surgery. I was waiting for someone to pull the race card, because unfortunately that train is never late. So while I was looking for the 8:15 Wilbon for my dose of self-aggrandizing racial tomes in one of the most color-blind parts of our society, the 8:00 Feinstein came and nailed us all out of nowhere. For the record I love John Feinstein, and "Next Man Up" is a must read for anyone that wants to see how a NFL team is run over the course of a season. However, his hate of Dan Snyder sometimes blinds his objectivity as a reporter and leads him to spout nonsense.

I dislike Snyder as much as anyone, but he is my owner. When guys like Feinstein or Emmitt Smith, who has the grammatical syntax of a 14 year-old girl's cellphone text bank, go after him just for the hell of it I have a major problem. Feinstein can't stand the entire Skins organization because of Snyder, and his lack of objectivity is a major handicap in his profession and it shows. Rick Reilly shows why he is one of the best sportswriters in the nation in refuting Feinstein's drivel, so I won't focus on it too much. Feinstein's defense of his indefensible position of "racial coding" is best summed in his discussion with Steve Czaban:

"You know what, Steve? A lot of the people who voted the way they voted last Tuesday didn't do it because they thought Barack Obama was a terrible president. They did it because he's an African American president, and because he didn't fix George Bush's mess in 13 minutes, ok? That happens in this country. There are a lot of angry white people in this country who can't deal with the idea that we have an African American president, and there are a lot of coaches in this country to this day who, if an African American athlete isn't doing what they want done, as in winning games and making them rich and famous, they will throw them under the bus in a second."

This makes my skin crawl. I try my best not to bring politics into play in the most political town in the world, but Feinstein opened it up. The greatest virtue of DC sports and especially the Washington Redskins is that they really break down all racial barriers. I have seen some redneck-looking types in burgundy and gold go after other redneck-looking types wearing a different team's colors because they were picking on a black kid in a Skins jersey. Tonight in the corridors of Fedex, the only color that anyone is concerned with is putrid green. Ageism, racism, sexism and every other -ism goes out the door in DC when the Skins play. As for Feinstein's non-sensical comments, I am pretty sure that the American people knew Obama was black when the majority of them voted for him in 2008. I am pretty sure it didn't matter what color he was when he failed the last 2 years and had his ineffectual policies voted against by the majority again who saw what he has tried. (And the economic policies of Bush didn't start to slide until Barney Frank and his cronies took over Congressional finance in 2006 but that is neither here nor there.) Secondly, I think the Shanhans knew what color McNabb was when they traded top draft picks to get him. I also think his race did not really come into play when he threw the interceptions in the hurry-up in the Lions and Colts games. I don't know if it is Feinstein's bleeding liberal heart that is causing him and Mike Wise to cross over their politically correct beliefs into the world of sports, but we can do without it.

McNabb got benched, deal with it. It lasted all of two minutes, and it will be forgotten at this time tomorrow. His agent is in town negotiating a contract extension today, so I don't think he was too hurt by it. If it focuses him even more, look out, because he is already a great second half QB. McNabb, excluding 2 meaningless final game losses in the Eagle's Super Bowl year and the the subsequent injury-plagued year, was fantastic in the second half of the year. He was 43-27 (.614) in his first 8 games from 2000-2009. In his last 8 games of each year (excluding the playoffs of course, which with the Eagles is always a disaster)he was 52-17-1 (.742) The guy just plays better when there is a bite in the air. If he is even more motivated than usual watch out, with health the Skins will go 6-2 down the stretch to make the playoffs. Realistically we start off with a win at home tonight to finish 5-3 down the stretch and hope to make it in in a topsy-turvy NFC.

(As an addendum: while spell-checking this, there is a report that McNabb is about to sign a 5 year extension. I guess he wasn't all that insulted. Its about football, its about results, and clear-thinking people recognize this.)