Dan Snyder Stinks at Everything

I love my brother Tommy. I'm a pretty die-hard DC sports fan, but I have nothing on my brother. He is such a die-hard homer, he won't even let you speak ill of Dan Snyder in his presence. Tommy thinks Dan Snyder is just the dean's peanuts. His one go to defense of the man is that our fine owner makes money, he is very successful at it,and eventually he will be very successful at constructing a Super Bowl-winning franchise.

We all know at this point that Dan Snyder has had one successful company in his life. A broken clock tells the right time twice a day, and sometimes it stops on 12:01. Unfortunately, he used the money from that one company to buy the Washington Redskins. He has failed at every other thing he has ever done. Since he has been in the DC limelight he has driven Jonny Rockets, 6 Flags, and Tom Cruise's movie career right into the ground. Dave McKenna can fill you in on all of the other crazy shenanigans this crazy SOB has been a part of.

Tom is convinced Dan Snyder is a marketing genius (I honestly think Snyder may have told Tom Cruise to go on Oprah to profess his love for Katie Holmes as a marketing ploy, but I have no proof.) Right around the time that Snyder started bulldozing the seats in the upper deck because he can no longer sell them after a decade of alienating a fan base that had a 200,000 plus waiting list for season tickets, I asked Tom if he still thought that Snyder had any clue about what he was doing with anything. Tommy said yes, the man is a marketing genius.

So he e-mails me this morning, telling me that he is still of course right, because the Redskins are the number four most valuable franchise in the world according to Forbes. I'm going to tell you why Tom is dead wrong. The NFL brand, which the Redskins are 1/32 of, has improved vastly with time, despite the current lockout. If I owned a Starbucks in 1995, and I consistently served the worst coffee in the company along with another Starbucks in Detroit, and my service was so bad that we were tearing out tables to create a "coffee-drinker party zone" where people can stand and drink coffee to make it look like there is not a bunch of empty tables, it does not amount to a hill of beans that my Starbucks location will be worth more in 2005. The brand improved, bringing the general value of all franchises associated up with value, including the one I have mismanaged.

This was not enough for Tommy.So instead of putting this breakdown in an e-mail back to him, I'll break down the numbers for the few people who will still see this nearly defunct DC sports blog. First off, every single NFL franchise is one of the top 43 most valuable sports franchises in the world. (They include soccer franchises, counting them as "sports" franchises.)In the last seven years, Dan Snyder has increased the value of the Washington Redskins from 1.1 billion to 1.5 billion, a growth of 36%. This might seem impressive, but the Cookes increased the value of the franchise from around $235 million to $741 million from 1995-2000, when Snyder bought out the franchise, a growth of 211.3% in value. In 1995, the Cowboys were the NFL's most valuable franchise, by 2000 it was the Skins. Since Dan Snyder took over, the Cowboys are the most valuable franchise again, worth $1.81 billion on Forbes' new list.

The Cowboys were worth $1.1 billion in 2004, a and grew 63.6% to their 2011 worth of $1.8. In fact the average NFL franchise worth grew from $552 million in 2004, to $1.02 billion in 2011, growing in value by 84.7% to Snyder's 36%. Snyder is underperforming even in franchise worth, barely building off what the Cookes built for him. Arizona was the least valuable franchise in 2004, coming in at $418 million. They have as dysfunctional of a QB situation as we do now, and they managed to grow to a worth of $919 million in 2011, a gain of 105%.

So lets take the average franchise. Indianapolis is more or less Acme City, USA. Since 2004, they have essentially had the same team; Peyton Manning is the star, put anyone around him, and he will get you to the playoffs and contend for the Super Bowl every single year since 2004. The Colts were worth $715 million in 2004. Nothing has changed, and they are now worth $1.04 billion, an increase of 45.4%.

Dan Snyder's beloved franchise is growing slower in value than the rest of the NFL. One of the only reasons it grows at all is because the general worth of the NFL is increasing exponentially. The other big reason is because of fans like Tommy and I. I will still go to the games, cheer on whatever piece of crap team he puts on the field, scream at the television during away games, and still wear the outdated Skins gear I have, because I refuse to buy anything new and give Snyder a dollar more of my money than I have to the last 5 years. The only reason the Skins have any value is because of guys like Tommy, who loves his football team so much he won't let you say anything negative about our stupid buffoon of an owner. Dan Snyder has no value whatsoever to the DC area. The only place I can imagine he has any value whatsoever is in Dallas, where if I was Jerry Jones, Snyder's pizza-eating pal, I would put up a statue of the imbecile running my chief rival right next to the statue of Staubach. (If they do that sort of thing in that freakshow they call a stadium.) I'll love the Skins until I kick the bucket, and that is why I will always hate Dan Snyder and what he has done to my once great football team.

Journalism at Its Finest

Its not mine, don't worry I'm not as full of myself as say, Sid Crosby or Deion Sanders. Now that I got my Penguins and Dallas digs in, read this guy's article. Pitchers and catchers report to Viera in a week.

Note This One

If the Caps make their long-awaited run in the playoffs with or without the refs interference this year, remember the game in Toronto last night. In what it is going to take to win, probably the prettiest Caps goal of the year this far was scored by Matt Hendricks, a grinder who was bludgeoned in a fight earlier in the game. And overall, it was about the fifth most important highlight of the game.

OV of course was the catalyst, but not because of his hat trick, but because of his stellar defensive play. On a team that is emphasizing defense, it is great to have a hat trick, but even more important to finish the night with a +3 rating. I wish the game was at home, because when OV dove on the ice to block a shot that was held back by the Leafs, picked himself up and adjusted, then threw himself back to the ice to block a late 3rd period attempt, he should have gotten one of the loudest cheers in his great career from grateful Caps fans. That is what it is going to take for this team to win, and his team understood that, mauling him when he returned to the bench more than they did for any of his three goals. That one defensive effort was just as important as any of his goals, in a night when the Caps finished with 27 blocked shots.

Every time OV goes Toronto, it is like he wants to exact revenge for every bad call that has gone against the Caps since he has arrived here. He relishes in going into the heart of a country that seems to dislike him so much simply for where he was born, and sticking it right to the crowd that always seems to begrudgingly eat him up. (Look at the picture above. The Leafs fans are smiling smugly as he notched yet another goal against their team. They don't want to like him, but they are after all hockey fan, and have to acknowledge if just to themselves that he is one of the best to have ever played, and are lucky to see him. But they will never tell you that.)

OV said his three goals were "lucky," which may be true, but overall I would consider the whole Cap effort plucky. This January last year, the team would have been celebrating a 5,6, or 7 goal night collectively, and coasting to extend a ridiculously long winning streak that in the end would have meant nothing. This January they finished a 3 game road trip with 5 out of 6 points, mostly with their third string goalie and a group of guys surrounding him that now get more excited over blocked shots than hat tricks. For that attitude alone, the demise of Bruce Boudreau has been much more exaggerated than the demise of Alexander Ovechkin.

With the league's "most marketable player" still out with a major whine, I mean minor concussion, the league's best player is stepping back up to the forefront, but this time playing defense first and letting "luck" and his talent get him the occasional hat trick on the "other" part of the ice. Most importantly for Caps fans, this attitude is rubbing off on the Captain's teammates. As the Caps get the "Penguin Treatment" with Pitt's "die-hard fans" tuning out with Crosby gone, the nation that hates the Great 8 got to see this close-up on Hockey Night in Canada. The US will get to see it Monday on the NHL network as the Caps take revenge on the Rangers for the first time since their 7-0 drubbing on HBO and the regular-season low point for their Caps team. With the all-star game coming up next weekend, the Caps are slowly building towards their high point, and hopefully won't hit it until June.

An Addendum: I wanted to include this video clip for two reasons. One, I want you to show it to any of your friends who believe the mainstream hockey media and the Canadian Wilbons consisting of guys like Mike Milbury and Toronto's own Damien Cox who say that OV is just some self-absorbed, self-serving punk from another country. Secondly, show it to anyone that ever says that sports is trivial, means nothing, and is taken way too seriously. It is a quick look into how it is anything but, done in a typically understated way that flies beneath the radar for guys like OV that do it just because.

One Reason Its Good To Be A Skins Fan...

is that you are not an Eagles fan. There are obvious reasons no one would want to be an Eagles fan, but the most damning one came after they were knocked out of the playoffs yet again this year. They seem to be under the impression that they had a good year. Ask your favorite Eagles fan what happened and they will tell you that they had a great year, and they are definitely better than the Redskins. (Who of course were rebuilding.) Winning the NFC East one of the few years that only one team went into the playoffs from it is not a great year in that division for anyone but the Eagles. When you boil it all down, the Redskins could not muster a playoff win. But neither could the Giants, Cowboys or Eagles: they all ended up with a big goose egg as well. I think that is a pretty big disappointment for the Giants and Dallas fans (though Dallas should be used to it by now with Romo there so long,) of course its a disappointment for Redskins nation, but is quite alright for the rabble in Philly and I find that tragic. Skins fans always overrate their team going into the season, but never overrate them coming out. Without a trophy, it is no good.

My cautious optimism for the season should have been a little lighter on optimism and heavier on caution as things turned out. I thought Shanahan would have these guys ready to play every game, and by the time our older guys started to get knocked out, the younger guys that he drafted would fit right in and start segwaying into the future of the Shanahan era. A bad early draft class did not help us when our starters began to go down, and the leftovers from the Snyder/Cerrato era played typically. All year the Skins said their second round pick was Donovan McNabb, and he turned out to be the biggest bust of all this year. However, they payed $3.5 million to have the opportunity to resign him, and unless we can get a comparable pick back for him, I keep him around another year. (My guess is that the Vikings would like one more shot at a Super Bowl and will trade big for him.)

There were a lot of signs of life. The Skins beat both of the teams playing in their conference championship. The Patriot are the only other team that can say that, and that is only because they played the Jets three times. Shanahan had them ready to play almost every week, with NY, Philly, St. Louis, and Detroit as the exceptions, and the rest of the losses can be blamed on the fact that he is still playing mostly with Cerrato's guys. Banks is the most exciting kick returner we have had in recent memory, and that includes Brian Mitchell who was great, but not nearly as exciting. Trent Williams shows that the Skins are much better at picking offensive lineman in the first round than they are at picking QBs and WRs. Torain, when healthy, is just as effective as any running back Shanahan has ever had. Cooley continues to be solid, and Fred Davis would take his job if he could just learn how to block. Rex Grossman is much better than most Skins fans thought, even though he is clearly no QB of the future. And Moss is still consistently good as the top wideout, and would be great as a second option.

The Haynesworth fiasco centered around him thinking he was the number one guy on defense, and therefore in his mind the whole scheme should be tailored to him. As it turns out, Orakpo and Landry are clearly the two best guys on that side of the ball, especially in the 3-4, and are the ones who should be built around. Fletcher is solid anywhere you put him, but his age should concern you. Finally, the starting corners are right around average, which isn't bad on a team that is the mess that Shanahan inherited. Rodgers is probably worth re-signing to a 3 or 4 year deal as long as we don't pay through the nose and he promises to at least try to catch an interception.

And that's it, everyone else can go. Seriously, the Skins are solid at KR, have a mentoring QB, 1 RB if he stays healthy, a slot WR, 2 TEs, a LT, 2 LBs, a SS, and are so-so at the CBs. Everyone else is replaceable except for Shanahan. Give the guy time, I don't care if he is 3-13 next year; he is rebuilding, and we can start to evaluate him year 3. All the Skins fans who just wanted Snyder to stay away from the team can't change their minds now. It will take a while to wash his stink off this team and franchise, and Shanahan can undoubtedly do that. Winning a Super Bowl is irrelevant right now, they just need to climb back into a spot where they can make the playoffs consistently again. Then we can start to think Super Bowl. It just takes time and will be disappointing. Not the same disappointment as the last few years, but disappointment with hope of something better. If you can't get on board with a little disappointment become an Eagles fan. Philly is kind of like your pee-wee soccer team; every year seems like a great year to them, no matter the failures.

The Inside of Fleury's Glove is All-White

So that begs the question, what is that black thing floating behind the goal line underneath it? I think it might have been the puck. The Caps got robbed by the Pens again.

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.)

I Want to See Cowboys Cry

Well I was right on several things in the Green Bay game, and almost completely right on the biggest play to win it. We needed Landry to neutralize Finley, which he did on the first play from scrimmage by knocking him out for the year. We needed to get pressure on Rodgers, and did rather effectively, with Jarmon ultimately knocking him from the game as well on his last play. And I really wanted Carlos Rodgers to redeem himself with the big interception, but the defensive player of the week (and thus far year) Landry stepped up with the big interception. We knew bringing Haslett in would net us more turnovers in exchange for giving up more yards, but the unintended effect is that the Skins whole team and attitude is vicious. Not only were Finley and Rodgers among the wounded, Clay Matthews joined the list as the Skins rolled another tough opponent.

The reason the Skins have not succeeded in so long is that they had plenty of talent at skill positions, but no grittiness at the key parts of a football team, especially a NFC East football team. Now, the defense and offensive line on the Skins are literally something to be feared. Thus far Trent Williams, while battling injuries of his own, has beaten down both DeMarcus Ware and Clay Matthews, and both have made an early exit against the Skins. Hopefully the O-line can keep it up tonight as the Head Hog Russ Grimm goes into the ring of fame. I said Rodgers needed to be nervous, but apparently Finley needed to be too. Manning better hope he makes the right reads tonight, or his health could be in peril as well.

He will. I think without a doubt Manning is the best QB to ever play in the NFL. He had an off performance last week and seldom does he make it two in a row. The Colts can't fall to 3-3 while the Skins can and probably will. Some Skins fans are already talking about the team not getting enough respect and its a bit too early for that. If they somehow beat the Colts on Sunday night they will get plenty of it, if not they are just a 3-3 team headed to Soldier Field next week. Furthermore, the injury bug is going to turn around to bite us at one point or another, and then our lack of depth could kill this season.

Maybe McNabb can pick apart the cover 2 that he could not beat in his Super Bowl against the Patriots. (And that the Skins employed against Reid this year to defeat Vick and Kolb.) Maybe Haslett can pull another bend but don't break gem to shut down another potent offense. However, if the Shanahans have some new trick plays up there sleeves, this is the week to use them. Hopefully the crowd at Fedex is earsplitting and the noise can shut down Manning's check-down offense, because defensive formations usually don't do it. Playing against Manning must be similar to playing against Ovechkin. You just have to hope the guy has a bad game, otherwise you are in trouble.

Even if we lose, at least we can root for the Cowboys to fall to 1-4. The Girls really should win, but if they don't, Skins fans can laugh at them if we lose. I predicted the Cowgirls would be in the NFC East cellar, but I didn't think they would fail this spectacularly. I think it is hilarious that they are complaining about the rules after their loss. They know not to complain about the refs, they get more calls than any team in professional sports other than the Penguins, so they have to go after an "unfair rule." Talk to Calvin Johnson and the Lions, and don't celebrate tying a game in the future and you might not be such losers. I honestly thought Romo was a hair away from crying after the Cowboys loss to the Titans. If he throws three picks again en route to another loss, I expect a complete emotional breakdown and I can't wait. Aikman has done the last two Skins games and that has been unfortunate. I didn't hear him during the Green Bay game, but I heard his anti-Skins bias shone as brightly as it did in the Eagles game. The guy is slowly unraveling as the Cowboys fail and the Skins win, and is becoming even more intolerable. I hope he cries too.

Its That Time of Year: Football, Hockey, and Somone Else's Baseball Team

Hockey is back in America's Hockey Capital and it is damned good. The Caps steamrolled the Devils, who many people fail to forget were the #2 seed who were knocked out first round as well. The Devils are a tough team, with 11 players making over $3 million a year, leading the league, and a future Hall of Famer in goal. After a somber opening night where the Caps honestly thought the opposing goalie may have died of fright facing a team of all-stars, they rebounded with a great home opener. Anytime you beat Brodeur you have to feel good, anytime you chase him from goal in favor of Hedberg you have to feel great. Anytime you beat him with a rookie goalie who is playing on the back end of back-to-back nights, you have to feel fantastic. If Neuvrith stays healthy and Boudreau can stay off his Varlamov-in-the-playoffs kick, thats the guy who will and should be in net come the playoffs.

The team gave the crowd a show with four fights as well, a penalty shot for MVP OV's second goal of the year, and a crazed Boudreau almost climbing over the plexiglass to get after the Devil's coaching staff to retaliate for the cheapshot on Johansson 2.0. The sellout crowd for the third straight season was great as well, so much so it prompted newly acquired Matt Hendricks to note that the atmosphere was "like nothing he had seen before." He came from Colorado, which used to have the best rivalry in the NHL when the Red Wings came to town. The fact that the Caps have already surpassed this for a non-rivalry, non-division game in October really does show that DC has become America's Hockey Capital.

In fact I can't remember the last time that I was at a Caps game and no one talked about the Skins while they were in first place, but it happened tonight. No one thought they would win last week, and I hate to say I told you so but I told you so. Shanahan rebounded after letting his team falter to the Rams. Don't let any of the talk about the Rams being better than people thought fool you, the Skins should have beat them. But they rebounded by going into the cesspool that is Philly and beating them with plain old nasty NFC East football. They've been playing that way all season and that has been the best part of the Shanahan regime. They have knocked the opposing team's best player out of the game in all but one game thus far. (And in the one, they knocked Andre Johnson around so much he hasn't been the same since.) DeMarcus Ware, Stephen Jackson and Vick (not to mention McCoy and Samuel) have all been subjected to the new attitude that Shanahan has infused, and while I am not condoning intentionally hurting someone, if I was Rodgers I might be nervous.

The Washington Post had a great article on how much Orakpo has been held so far this year. If the refs keep an eye on him, it could be a long day for Rodgers. Green Bay has an improved line, but Rodgers was still the most sacked QB in the NFL last year. (Yes, even more than Campbell.) I would look for the Skins to pass around out of the gate to show they can do it, then turn to the run game to keep that Green Bay offense off the field. That is, if Trent Williams, still the offensive MVP, can get back on the field. This is a winnable game, as opposed to the Indy game the very next Sunday, who will not drop to 3-3 or even less likely, 2-4. The Skins are going to need to beat either the Pack, Bears or both to have the kind of season I expect from them. It is a big game for Landry, who can elevate himself from team defensive MVP to talk of league defensive MVP if he can keep Finley to two or three catches and continue on his tackling tear. Furthermore, if we can get the aforementioned pressure on Rodgers, he should be forced into some errant throws. If three or four of those errant throws bounce off Carlos Rodger's hands and he can manage to hold onto one of them, the Skins should win. I understand it is not as bold of a pick as last week's Eagle prediction, but that's my take.

And as for last week, the simpleton Philly fans who say that the Skins never would have won if Vick wasn't knocked out just show how dumb they really are. Of course that was a possibility, but injuries happen in football. Philly sure seems to have wimped out for a town that talks about Buddy Ryan like he is Vince Lombardi. The Skins have gone without their starting safety for two games, their offensive MVP for over two, and our starting running back for parts of two and now an additional 4-6. We still lead the East and beat the Iggles, and it is not our fault their back-up QB and McNabb heir apparent can only dump off to his backs and Carlos Rodgers' hands of stone. And for the record Philly, you should be headed to Cincy in a 1-1 series. The umps blew the call that handed the Phils game two, and only in that podunk town could a postseason no-no be overshadowed by chicanery. You reap what you sow.

Philly Sports' Claim to Fame

For some reason it seems like Philly fans are incredulous recently when people suggest that their sports fan base are out of control animals who actually know very little about the sports they follow. I've heard it in the papers, talk radio, and with the people who seem quite enthralled with the fact that the Philly fans gave McNabb a brief ovation on his first trip back after leading the Eagles to their best era of football ever before they booed him right out of town. Maybe you didn't see how great they were when Holliday threw his no hitter? (Not perfect but close and the strike zone was way too disputable for a playoff game.) These "fans" suggest that of course there are a few bad apples, the media blows these cases out of proportion, the whole booing Santa thing was so long ago, and for the most part Philly fans are really great.

So I decided to compile a list of 25 specific instances where people from Philly have demonstrated they are the most vile, idiotic, repugnant collective sports fan base in the nation, not just in a few instances, but over a sustained period of time. This is not to say that there aren't a few good ones, just as I'm sure there were a few decent people living in Germany during Hitler's time. Needless to say, I think most people wish they could erase that era of history, just as most sports fans wish they could wash the entire Philadelphia fandom off the map. Some of these pertain to specific individual acts, many to the collective fan base as a whole, all are published incidents. I have not included countless stories that I am sure all have heard from people that have been to Philly to witness their brutishness first-hand. These are not in any particular order, because I do not want to quantify morally what is worse; beating a man to death or vomiting on 11 year old girls, but here is Philly's reminder for why they are so hated.

1.Philadelphia riots after Phillies win World Series (as pictured above.)

2. JD Drew: Drafted by Philly, for some reason did not want to play for those fine people, was pelted with batteries his first time in Philly when playing with the Cards.

3.Eagles Court/700 level at the Vet- they had to put video surveillance in Philly stadiums when even that was not enough.

4. Vomiting Incident- The girl was 11

5. Tasered Fan- Typical Philly idiot, and the very next night some idiot Philly DJ does the same thing again, ruining a great game for Cole Hamels.

6. Flyers fan jumps into penalty box, tries to fight Tie Domi. (That guy was one of the toughest enforcers of the last decade, pretty dumb.)

7. Near riot starts, several people are hospitalized when Eagles fans beat up their own after 2003 NFC Championship Game loss to the Bucs.

8. A woman named Finklestein prostituted herself on Craig's List for tickets to a Phillies game. Was caught by the police, jailed, and promptly given free tickets by a local Philly radio station and car dealer.

9. Toddler swigs beer on national television, adult Philly fans in frame all laugh about it.

10. Another Phillie fan charges field, gets too close to players, specifically Matt Diaz, who knocks him down.

11. Fans throw batteries at Dick Allen, the town's first prominent black athlete, so often he is forced to wear a batting helmet in the field. This was in the 60s, 20 years after Jackie Robinson integrated the Dodgers.

12. Flyers fans attack and overwhelm St. Louis Blues coach and fans in a game in 1973. (I put these two side by side because many Philly fans claim they got their "rough edge" from the Broadstreet Bullies, and took it from the ice to stands everywhere. This was before the Flyers had won a Cup, and in fact this has been going on since.........)

13. 1949- Phillies game is called when fans won't stop pelting umpire Rich Ashburn with batteries.

14. Santa booed- 1968. Given a chance to redeem themselves in this overplayed story, the same Santa is brought to a 76ers game in 2003. He is booed again.

15. Phillies fans booed Adam Eaton in his first game back from winning the World Series. They continue by brawling as the World Series pennant is hoisted for the first time.

16. Cheering Michael Irvin's career ending injury- Ok to be honest its not the worst thing ever, the guy was a horse's ass his entire career, but they could have at least waited until they screwed his facemask off and made sure he wasn't paralyzed before doing it.

17. "Bounty Game"- Eagles fans, including the future Pennsylvania governor, pelted Cowboys with snowballs, as no snow is cleared away in the Vet before the game that was highly publicized to be nasty. Buddy Ryan put a bounty out on the Dallas kicker. Wow, that is pretty tough.

18. Phillie Phanatic's head stolen at a charity event at Wachovia Center.

19.Chief Zee thrown down concrete stairs, has eyeball dangling from his shattered orbital bone, and is confined to a wheelchair for a year.

20. Booed McNabb in draft. Booed Kolb as well. Should have booed Cunningham a lot more than they did.

21. Clinton Portis' mom assaulted, soaked in beer at the Linc.

22. Phillie fan points laser pointer in Albert Pujols eyes repeatedly. The fine people of Philadelphia hide the fan from authorities, keeping the nationally televised game delayed for over ten minutes. Then they mock the entire state of Missouri for being "backwards."

23. Same game, a 22 year old named David Sale is beaten to death by "multiple hits and kicks to the head" in a bar connected to Citizen's Bank Park.

24. Philly fan launches a green flare across the stands during a Monday Night Football game at the Vet.

25.Phillies fans boo the gentleman who received the first full hand transplant as he throws out the first pitch.

26. MNF again, so many Philly fans need to be subdued by mace at Fedex that the mist is caught in the player's fans and shot out onto the field, delaying the game and giving the players a brief scare a year after 9/11.

27......


I said I was going to only do 25, but the point is, the stories are endless. In general, the trash that emanates from that city speaks for itself. The fans that are actually reasonable should either stop their counterparts or hang their heads in collective shame. Just don't complain that the facts are unfair. Go five years without an incident and we can review the issue.

Headscratchers

Last week was on Shanahan. We knew people were going to freak out around here if the game was even a close win for the Skins, and the people who have already lost confidence in Shanahan are crazy. These are the same people who thought the Skins were going to be 12-4. Shanahan will work out here (if Snyder gives him time) but he clearly dropped the ball against the Rams. We have learned thus far this season that when the Skins are at their best they can beat "Super Bowl favorites" like the Cowboys. Even when they just play three solid quarters, they are almost good enough to beat playoff teams like the Texans. But the Skins are bad enough that when they only show up for half a game, they can't even beat the Rams. Its not the end of the world, its good to know, and games like that should never happen again.


The fact of the matter is that it is pro ball and it is not the head coach's job to get his players up for a game that they are getting paid for. However, these are not Shanahan's players. He picked a few and is molding them, but the bulk of the team are left-overs from the Cerrato/Snyder era who are either going to be Shanahan players or gone by next year. He has to find more guys like Fletcher who never take a game off. But in the meantime I thought he would be all over them, because they are not good enough to spot anyone other than the Buffalo Bills 14 points right off the bat, and even that would be a gamble. More frustrating is coming back for the lead, and then giving up all over again.


The Rams are going to be good one day, but they are rebuilding. Part of the frustration is if Snyder had taken 2 years out of his 11 year reign of terror to rebuild instead of "winning now" to drive up revenue to fund his flailing movie aspirations and crippled ego, we could have a future at one time as well. Since the Snyder era began, the Rams have stunk, rebuilt their team into a Super Bowl Champion with multiple appearances, slid downhill, and are now reloading again. Their coach wasn't fired for a 1-15 rebuilding season. We will never have that patience. Their biggest player of the last decade used to bag groceries, he would never sold enough jerseys when we signed him, so we never would. The greatest coach in their history was a retread who came back this millennium and won a Super Bowl, ours didn't. I couldn't tell you who owns the Rams without Google (Kroenke.)But he has a Super Bowl ring unlike our ubiquitous Papa Johns-hawking friend.


Could you imagine what Shanahan could do with a team stocked with young talented guys like Chris Long, Stephen Jackson, and Chris Long instead of Haynesworth, Colt Brennan, and Portis? And then adding guys like McNabb and another key free agent to the team to put them over the top and truly "win now?" For non-Skins fans, that is why Skins fans seem bipolar at times. For 11 years "this has been the year," we always believe that Snyder is telling the truth instead of whispering more sweet nothings into our wallets, and we always lose to a team that is rebuilding right.


For the time being this team can beat anyone and lose to anyone. The one constant was supposed to be Shanahan, who would always have them at their best. He let us down for the first time as a Skins coach; its ok, Skins fans are used to it. He won't let that happen two weeks in a row, and the veterans he kept around won't let it happen. The ESPN saturated coverage of the game all week may have turned your stomach even more than it already was but watch anyways, the Skins are going to win. There is just too much veteran pride on this team to let their coach down again, let their locker room leader McNabb down on his revenge game, and maybe one or two of them will care about not letting down their tortured fans once more. If not it will be a long month or two while Shanahan tries to begin righting a decade of wrongs. At least there is a team overflowing with superstars built from within in town. And their road to the Cup begins on Friday in Atlanta.

Close Calls and Hard Knocks

Trent Williams going down was the worst moment of last week's loss to the Texans. Giving up a 17 point lead was pretty bad, but losing Williams for any extended period of time would be a disaster. So far he has been the MVP of the offense, and the drop off between he and Heyer is more severe than the drop off between McNabb and Grossman. Neither of the latter two would have an opportunity to stay upright and throw the ball without Williams, as evidenced by Heyer's holding call as soon as he came in the game.

The unfortunate loss of the 17 point lead could be attributed to the the lack of athleticism in the Skins secondary. While Sean Taylor will always be missed, it hurt a little more on Sunday when Johnson came down with the ball in the endzone on 4th and ten. That would never have happened with 21 back there, and you have to credit to Shanahan and Haslett for keeping the Texans offense in check as long as they did. Shanahan plain out-coached Kubiak for most of the game, and Kubiak only won once he let his team's superior athleticism shine. For the fans that are mad about Kubiak calling the timeout, its part of the game. We would have loved it if that move had worked in our favor. There will never be a rule put in place to stop it; if there was coaches would just trot out 10 guys on defense as an excuse and still call timeout if they think that it would still work. Shanahan did not do the same on Rackers because I think he was trying reverse psychology. Rackers was expecting a timeout nad could have half-kicked it; he made his kick anyways. Sometimes kickers will have to make the same kick twice, its how the game is played.

Some fans are negative on Shanahan cutting Johnson. Some wondered if there was a little bit of chaos within the organization as Johnson was cut for not "fitting in the scheme." I think it is a great move. Its a pretty simple scheme and he didn't throw a wrench in it just once. The scheme is Shanahan prefers veteran players who make smart, veteran plays. When Johnson stepped out of bounds against Dallas when we were running out the clock, he should have considered himself on the bubble. When he ran 10 yards backwards in a similar situation against the Texans, his fate was sealed. That ten yard loss all the way back to the ten yard line was as good as a forty yard interception or getting an unnecessary roughness. Its a mistake that would have gotten a so-so QB benched, a borderline defensive player cut, and as it turned out, a borderline RB cut no matter how many yards he rushed for four years ago cut as well. Keiland Williams can make dumb mistakes like that and get some experience for the future in relief of Portis.


Finally, Skins fans should not panic over the lack of a running game. The Cowboys, even with all of their faults and the probability that they are going to go 0-3 this week, have a great defensive front seven. The Texans were stacking 8 or 9 in the box all game long and wanted to see what McNabb and the Skins line would do. I don't think many teams will try that out the rest of the year if the line stays healthy. The team will run this week to try to pipe down a domed crowd. And play another close game. The Skins are a good team, but not an elite team. While we played neck and neck with an elite team last week, we overachieved. All of the Skins games save two will be within 14 points. Shanahan has this team in position to compete with anyone, but dominate no one. Maybe we will steamroll one team along the way, like we will get our butt kicked in at least one game, but we are still a year removed from a Cerrato-lead team. Bradford is the real deal if his exploitable line can keep him upright, and I would trade Portis for Jackson at the drop of a hat. The Skins will establish a running game, but don't expect another 400 yard passing game. And don't panic at a 20-13 win Skins fans. Its always better than a 30-27 loss, no matter who you may be playing.


(And Caps fans: don't buy into this co-team Hard Knocks for the NHL. Its another league promotional vehicle for the league's favorite special guy Crosby. They'll portray Crosby as the "go-to-work Canadian player" with his Russian (Robin/Malkin) sidekick, while OV will be the fast car-driving, reckless Russian with his misfit joker cronies. Just bet your fellow Caps fans on what tries to portray the best player in the NHL worse; the "tell all" book on OV coming out by the Canadian author who hates the Caps, or the chop job that will take place on film if the league office that hates the Caps gets its hands on the footage. The poster for the show is in black and gold. Enough said.)

Lone Star Laments

Its good to see the Dallas fans are still as dumb as ever. Those who hadn't walked away dejected after the Skins were driving down the field late in the fourth even turned around to taunt Skins fans after their illegitimate touchdown. Others still had to have explained to them on Thursday why a game can end on an offensive penalty and not a defensive penalty. What makes Dallas fans so infuriating is that they love to taunt real football fans when the Cowboys win a 7-6 squeaker over a Zorn-coached team, but just don't care when they lose a game in which they get dominated. When the Eagles and Giants fans lose, they are dejected and honestly hurt by their teams defeat and that fills me with glee. Dallas fans just don't have anything invested in their team; they just like the big star and shiny colors with the overrated QB and cheesy owner. LeBron is the quintessential front-running Dallas fan. You already see a lot less Dallas gear around town this week. If they drop to 0-2 against the Bears, those Romo jerseys will be packed away for a while.

It wasn't pretty, but it didn't have to be. The Skins dominated both sides of the line and the best team won in typical NFC East fashion. We don't even have to go into Orakpo's dominance over the Dallas line. Trent Williams pounded DeMarcus Ware so hard he was afraid to go out in the fourth quarter, when Dallas needed their best player most to try to send the game into overtime. Dallas fans who think the game was just an MMA-style hold away from a win for them are mistaken; Carlos Rodgers dropped the game-sealing interception on a typical Romo throw when the game is on the line.

The Redkskin who had the worst game was Casey Rabach. The Cowboys blitzed McNabb constantly down the middle and it seemed like Rabach could not stop any of it. The Skins MVP was Portis, who stuffed the Cowboys blitz down the middle keeping McNabb's new gold pants clean. The Cowboys MVP was their kicker. Yes he missed a kick that would have given them a chance to get another to go to overtime, but he was the leading special teams tackler for the Cowboys too. Make no mistake about it; the Skins dominated that game in several facets. The Cowboys racked up the yards just like they did last year, but could not score enough points. They are well on their way to repeating last year's performance of being 2cnd in the NFL in yards, and 14th in points. A great fantasy team for their fantasy fans.

This week the Skins go into a better barometer game playing the best team in Texas. The Texans defense isn't as stout, but their offense can't be expected to bumble like the Cowboys. I'm interested to see how the Mario vs. Trent matchup will go, just to ensure that we made the right pick, and to approximate how many games McNabb should be playing this year. A win and this town will start its typical over-reaction. A loss is not the end of the world; I would have taken 1-1 to start the year. Our offense obviously needs to keep up with Houston's, we can't expect to only hold them to just a touchdown off of a 34 yard drive. With all the talk about locker room access this week, it seems the people with the access neglected to ask the most important question; how much of the offense does McNabb know and run? Was it 50% against Dallas, and that is why we ran mostly follow routes and McNabb looked uncomfortable on some of his throws?


Why wasn't Fred Davis used at all, and either he, Cooley, or both split out to maximize a weak receiving corps? Will Devin Thomas be used at all on offense? I trust the Shanahans, but if Thomas was in instead of Armstrong on those end zone fades it would have been a 20-7 game. Will Trent win the Williams battle and put himself in the conversation as one of the best OTs in the game in his first year? Is Landry that good when Cerrato does not have him playing a position he was not drafted for? Is Orakpo on a level with Mario Williams? Can this team do what it needs to win what could be a down game coming off a beat-down of a division rival? (Houston is in the same boat, Indy is their version of the Cowboys, except Manning deserves the hype.) I don't think Arian Foster is Riggo just yet, just watch him struggle to approach 100 yards this week. What Skins fans want is to get to the bye at 4-4 or 5-3 with a healthy team. At that point they will know the offense and know the personnel that they have to best execute it, and then try to make a run. In the end, hard-nosed NFC East football will always beat hype, and then you never know what can happen.

D-Day in DC

Dallas Week is dead, but the game itself will be as charged as it always is. "Honk if you hate Dallas" is not something Skins fans do because ownership thinks it would be a fun way to sell more t-shirts that say "Beat Dallas" for $30. (Especially when ownership is doing pizza ads with that Grateful Dead album cover prop Jerry Jones the same week.) Skins fans honk their horn and give the finger to the guy with a Cowboys bumpersticker on his car in March without prompting. The game itself is for the fans, and it should be a good one Sunday.

It will be close, but they always are. Even with Zorn, the offensive genius who blew Snyder away in the interview process, the Cowboys were losing to the Redskins until the last few minutes in Dallas last year. Zorn's highest winning percentage against any team he had time to coach against at least twice before he was fired was against the Cowboys. I don't think they have improved too much in the past year. Dez Bryant is another headcase who doesn't do enough blow to be as effective as Michael Irvin was. With all the talk of the Redskins age, the media is too busy fawning over Romo beating the Eagles in the playoffs to notice the Cowboys have the oldest O-line in the league. And they are already falling apart at a rate faster than the Skins line was last year.


McNabb is obviously a great pickup, but Shanahan is the biggest. A healthy McNabb should give us two more wins than last year; Shanahan alone should account for three. He is one of three coaches to ever win two Super Bowls in his first four years. Only Shula and Bellichick have done so as well. He only needs to win one in his first four years here to solidify his bust in Canton, and make him a legend in DC. Time will tell, but the Skins are closer now than they ever have been since Snyder took over. But being in the company of Bellichick (who cheated) and Shula is not his biggest accomplishment. His biggest accomplishment is that in over 15 years of being a head coach, he has only finished in last place in his division once. Once.

Give or take a two game swing based on intangibles, the Skins go 9-7 this year. Given the difficulty of the schedule they could lose two more than they should. Or they could get hot, believe in themselves, and win two more than they should. But they won't finish last. The team that will finish last in the NFC East will be similar to the team that finished last in the NFC East last year. They will have a good defense, with a decrepit offensive line, underachieving WRs, a QB that is only as good as the team in front of him, and an overrated backfield. Only this year the Cowboys will be the cellar dwellers. And that makes this a must-win for the Skins. A close game that would have gone the other way last year, but with a competent winning coach, should start the Skins on their way to a decent season.

15 Games?

DC does not get too many suspensions, but when they do, they are ridiculous. The last one was Ovechkin for checking a guy next to the goal mouth. The Blackhawk's owner wanted him suspended for the rest of the year. I wonder if that might have had something to do with the Caps being favored to play in the finals against his team before the ice crew at Bell Center sabotaged the Caps' skates? Now Nyjer Morgan is set to serve a 15 game suspension for several "incidents" which have taken place over the last week or so. The MLB never fails to completely drop the ball when it comes to DC baseball.


First off the MLB cannot look at all of the incidents as a whole. Something is awry with Morgan, but that is a Rizzo/Riggleman issue, not a MLB problem. Morgan has been acting erratically all year, not hitting anywhere near lead-off hitter standards, constantly getting picked off, and of course there was the glove-tossing incident when he thought Adam Jone's ball hopped the fence. If he is swearing at the fans, that is inexcusable and certainly fineable, but not suspension-worthy for a first time deal. The bottom line is you can not have players swearing at fans, no matter how obnoxious they may be at times.


Running into Cards catcher Bryan Anderson was stupid, and missing the plate added insult to injury. However, it did not violate the rules of the game. It was a blatant breach of baseball etiquette if he meant to hit him, but not illegal by any means. Furthermore, Pujols pump-faked home. Morgan claims he thought the ball was coming, and from a guy who thought that the Jones ball was a homer when it was sitting right in front of him, you might believe him. Either way, next year when he plays the Cards, he will get thrown at and the incident will be closed. It can be handled by the players and moved past because the Nats and the Cards are professionals. The Marlins professionalism is what comes into question for me.


When Morgan bowled over Fins catcher Brett Hayes he may have been safe if he slid. Or he may have been out, we don't know. Either way I trust Morgan's judgement on that play. He is one of the best baserunners in the league. (Discount the pickoffs this year, and for exhibit A I would present the Braves game where Strasburg was scratched. Morgan promptly got on first to lead off, and made it home before the second batter Guzman was called safe or out. Say what you will about the guy but his judgement on the bases is usually spot on.) There was nothing illegal about running towards the plate that Hayes was blocking. The Marlins got mad at Morgan and threw at him his second time up. If they were so upset about the illegal play, why didn't they throw at him the first time when they thought it was still a game?

Instead, they throw at him when they feel the game is over in the 4th, Morgan takes his base without arguing, and the incident is over, play ball. Morgan steals and the Marlins feel they are entitled to not hold him, playing deep in the infield to gobble up singles in a game that saw 26 runs. 26! Who said the game was over and Nyjer was not allowed to steal while his team was down? If the game was so out of hand why did the Marlins use their closer and not a mop-up bull pen guy? Nyjer had a head full of steam and manufactured a run as a result, I would have sent him. And that is exactly the type of never give-up attitude that I want on my baseball team and that has been lacking for the Nats since their inaugural season. "Put me on base and I'll make you pay."

So the Marlins beaned two more Nationals, then tried to bean Morgan once more before all hell broke loose. How many times were the Nationals supposed to get beaned before someone did something? Were they going to stop at four, or would five or six have sufficed? It is an automatic suspension for charging the mound, and Morgan should be suspended the two or three games for that. But just as throwing at Morgan the first time was within the code, the next three beanballs were clearly outside of it, and a brawl ensued. That is the umpires fault for letting the game spin out of control with a young, immature Marlins organization. Not Nyjer's for defending himself and his team. Sanchez was the guy who should have gotten the heavy suspension for his cheap-shot clothesline. I really hope he gets a ball buried in his ribcage when the Marlins show up to Nats Park on the 10th.


Finally, Morgan yelling as he left the pile-up was not unreasonable. He took the best of what the cheap-shot Marlins could throw when he was outnumbered 9 to 1 and probably got the best of it. Volstad was bruised after the game, Nyjjer wasn't even swollen. He is an ex-hockey player, I expect him to be excited coming out of a fight he got the best of. Unfortunately, he got suspended like a Cap. Most of the commentators who have chimed in on this issue know very little about these facts, they only stop in if the Nats brawl or misspell their uniforms. Take the instances one by one, and Morgan was only in the wrong if he swore at the fans. He gets an automatic suspension for charging the mound; that is it. I only hope these uninformed detractors do not take this into account on appeal for the eight game suspension for throwing the ball to the fan; the fan himself said there was no harm intended, it was a good-natured player giving a fan a souvenir.


If there is one positive to take out of the incident that was unnecessarily escalated from a hurt player to an all-out brawl, it is Adam Dunn. How is he not re-signed yet? He was one of the first Nattos tossing Marlins off Morgan, despite the fact that he is in a contract year and a rolled ankle could cost him millions. Guys like Dunn who that stick up for the other guys wearing Washington across their chest with no regard for personal interest to themselves are the guys we need here. Morgan is questionable for next year; not because he fought back for himself and his teammates from multiple unprovoked attacks, but because we need a lead-off hitter who is better than hovering around .250. His average, not his temper is the problem. In other words, its a Nationals problem, not a MLB problem and it should have stayed that way.

Bad Ideas

I just wanted to say congratulations to the Washington Mystics for closing out the season as the number one seed in their conference this year for the first time in their history. I know and care very little about basketball, especially women's basketball, and could not name one player on the Mystics. However, I can definatively tell you exactly how they won the President's Cup of their conference in the WNBA. Ted Leonsis finally took down those idiotic WNBA attendance banners that had plagued MCI/Verizon Center for way too long. For years Caps fans took crap from visiting fans for having those stupid banners waving around flaunting the malaise that has plagued the sports in this town of late. Fortunately, all of the bandwagon visiting fans no longer come down to see their teams lose to the overtalented Caps anymore, and as long as Leonsis is the owner, no one will ever see those banners again.


So I was thinking of other things that could dispel the bad voodoo that has befallen the sports teams in the area. Sticking with Verizon, lets get rid of the Capstronaut. He is as new as he is irrelevant, and the logistics of sitting behind him infuriate me even when I am sitting across the arena from him. Furthermore, I think he is the definative symbol of an unnecesary schism that now exists between Caps fans. There is this attitude that now prevails around Caps circles where anyone who has not followed the Caps past a few years ago is somehow not a Caps fan. For years Caps fans have screamed that no one pays attention to their sport, and now that all eyes are on OV and company and tickets are a little harder to come by and people are upset. This needs to stop immediately, starting with the Capstronaut. Also in Verizon; the players introduction before the home playoffs this year with Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" and pictures of the Stanley Cup needs not be played until we win the Stanley Cup. This was as bad as Crosby handling the Wales trophy; the league doesn't hand out Cups for bad taste and dumb moves here like they do for Pittsburgh. Speaking of which, the final thing needed to be shed from Verizon is the biased refs.


Moving onto Nats Park I think there is one thing we can all agree on getting rid of and thats Rob Dibble. Going after Strasburg's manhood is career suicide. I have never berated the guy like most Nationals blogs have but the guy's time has come. I am pretty sure Lou Pinella is not doing anything next year, and I think he would make a great addition to MASN.


I'll even help other town's ballparks. The statue of Selig just went up today at Miller Park and I hope somone tears it right back down. Maybe you can ignore that he has presided over the steroids age, helped put MLB through the worst labor stoppage in the league's history, and let salaries and ticket prices spiral out of control across the country. But you can never forget how hard he tried to keep baseball out of DC. Blocking other teams from moving here, never awarding us an expansion team, considering putting a team in Vegas first (some pro team will be there one day but baseball should definately not lead the pack,) and trying to retract teams until finally having nowhere to dump the Expos but here. There is a tradition involving the statue of Civil War General Phillip Henry Sheridan and his horse on Sheridan and Belmont in Chicago. The horse's testicles are quite prominent, and all National League rookies have to paint them their team's colors the first time they visit Cubs. Well with the Selig statue we can put a big red X over that part of his anatomy to represent the steroid era, big green dollar signs in his eyeballs to represent the league's greed under his watch, and put a Nattos hat on his head just to rub it in.


Finally, what could we change at Fedex? Thats like asking what would you change about the Taliban's views on women. We could start with Snyder and end it there, but that guy is going to be one long nightmare. I don't buy the new act, it is temporary, the guy let it be known within Redskin circles that he wanted to draft Clausen, Allen wanted Berry, and Shanahan wanted Williams. Shanahan won and is in charge for the time being, but the ghost of the big oversized Snyder ego still haunts Fedex and will strike again in the future. We could get rid of the phony ticket wait list. I appreciate that young Snyder wants to keep up the appearance that the place is sold out in that 90,000 plus seat monstrosity because none of the Skins games are blacked out. But Boise State and VA Tech are two top ten teams, one of whom will compete for the National Title, and they have only sold 67,000 seats thus far for their matchup that is less than two weeks away. The fact of the matter is that the Skins could liquidate their entire "waiting list" for season ticket holders, but Snyder prefers to be the owner of the club with the line around the block even when the club is half full. Maybe its the traffic. Or the prices. Or the Tom Cruise. Maybe just scrap the place and start over.

Boss Hog, et. all

Congratulations to Russ Grimm, he did great last night. Overall it was a pretty good job by the NFL as well. Grimm and Randle gave the best speeches by far, Jerry Rice is clearly a better receiver than public speaker, Rickey Jackson loves his home town, and its good to see that Michael Irvin is still a great person for parents to point to and explain to their children that this is why we do not do drugs. I'm still fairly certain the only Montana that overrated Cowboy is hanging out with up in Canton is Tony. The only low points were as always, Chris Berman, the over-done Cowboys coverage, and Emmit Smith crying so much that he made Dick Vermeil look like John Wayne.


But it was good to see the "captain" of the Hogs, the greatest unit in football since the four horseman of Notre Dame, inducted. I think the NFL dropped the ball and should have put all of them in. If you wanted to further set the sport apart from other team sports, a big bust of a pig with a Joe Bugel head should have been put in one of the wings of Canton. You can put Jacoby, Lachey, and Bostic in separately, but guys like McKenzie, Stark, and Warren will be overlooked. They were the key component to the Skins dynasty of the 80s, and should not be overlooked. Skins fans will never overlook them, but they will never be the over-hyped unit that seems to come to every over-rated player that happened to wear a star on the side of his helmet.


Case in point is Randy White. How this guy made it into the Hall of Fame 16 years before Grimm is beyond me. Yes, like the triplets in Dallas he was bound to make it in at one point or another, but before a great player like Grimm and his cronies is a crime. Grimm thoroughly dominated the guy, as was highlighted numerous times over the weekend in recountings of the 1983 championship game. (Someone needs to get that story right. People say we ran 50 Gut anywhere from nine to eleven times in a row, and either Grimm, Gibbs, Bugel, or Theismann called the play and told the Cowboys where it was going every time. All that matters is the Skins won the game and thus the championship and the "Doomsday Defense" ended up on their butts every time the play was called. But does anyone still have the full tape of the game?)


Its just insulting it took a guy like Grimm so long to get in, and Emmitt Smith was a first ballot guy. He is the most overrated running back of all-time. He broke Payton's records, but he could not hold a candle to Sweetness. Barry Sanders could have run backwards through Wayne Fontes' run and shoot offense and still be considered head and shoulders above the guy. Russ Grimm belongs in the great wing of the Hall of Fame, Smith only belongs in the good wing with his buddy Leon Lett.


Good, as in Priest Holmes good. Lets take Emmitt Smith's best four years, 1992-1995. 1401 att., 6,456 yds, 73 TDs, 4.65 yds/att. Priest Holmes in '01-'04: 1156 att., 5532 yds, 70 TD and 4.71 yds/att. with twice as many receiving TDs in these two spans. You can put those two busts side by side, except for some reason, Priest Holmes is not in the Hall of Fame, because he is not an over hyped Cowboy. I understand there were Super Bowls involved. The Cowboys had a great, not good team, assembled through draft picks obtained by the worst trade in the history of sports. (The Redskins were not allowed to make trades like this. For example, when Paul Tagliabue said that the Houston Oilers traded too many picks for Wilbur Marshall, he cancelled the deal outright.) The Cowboys had many good players that made up a great team that some call a dynasty.


Most call it the weakest dynasty ever. They beat the Bills in two of those Super Bowls. That is like beating your wife and saying you are a boxer. The 90s Cowboys can't hold a candle to the 60s Packers, 70s Steelers, 80s 49ers or Skins, and the new millennium's cheating Pats. (I have always argued that the 49ers and Skins dynasties were the best, as they had to co-exist simultaneously.) In reality, Troy Aikman was an over-hyped Danny White, Emmitt Smith was a poor man's Priest Holmes, Irvin was a coked-up Willie Gault, Leon Lett was just a dumbed-down Daryl Grant, Jimmy Johnson never did anything without a disproportionate glut of draft picks, and Jerry Jones was an opportune huckster who now looks like Bruce Jenner. It was a great sum with good parts, but not great ones put together in the typical Cowboys packaging designed by "Mad Men" type guys at Nike.


I know Cowboys fans will be upset that I say these guys are over-rated, but isn't that the reason you jumped on that bandwagon? I can already see you at sports bars across the country, sauntering up in your Cowboy's jersey, Yankees hat and Kobe Nikes like some John Goodman King Ralph retread. Or the sports world's version of the women who joined the ya-ya sisterhood with their funny straw hats who everyone looks at quizzically, you pick. We will laugh at you for a moment, then go back to enjoying real sports, with real men like Russ Grimm. Guys that got Madden and Summerall so drunk at the five o clock club one time, that Tom Landry would not let them do any pre-interviews with the Cowboys. Great football players, playing for a great organization, celebrated by great fans. Hail to the Skins! God I can't wait for September 12th.

Is The World Cup Over Yet?

Its over now right, the soccer thing? There hasn't been a whole lot going on in DC lately. The Caps drafted more Russians. (What is funny is that this too increases OV's status as MVP of the league. McPhee said they draft so many Russians that are gambles for other teams to sign because of the Great 8. They look at his successes here and his ability to retain his "Russian-ness" back home and sign with the Caps. Kuznetsov was talented enough to be picked 10 to 15 slots higher and the Caps were looking to move up to pick him then, but instead fell to the DC Red anyways. The Caps have no such issues with OV on the team. Even when he isn't on the ice he is still better than the rest.) But I digress.


There isn't too much to say about the Redskins right now; The Jammal Brown trade was great, and I would put him at left tackle and wait a year to put Williams there. The LT will be facing guys who went to at least two Pro Bowls in 10 games this year. I heard a rumor Vince Jackson may be headed here; I wouldn't give more than a third or fourth round draft pick, but it would be nice to have a deep threat like that. And the Nats look terrible. Riggleman has made a slew of mistakes recently, and his fixation with Nyjer Morgan needs to be resolved. Either the guy need to start getting on base and look as bright as when we got him last year, or he needs to sit for a while. I don't think the guy will be ruined by some time on the pine, and someone needs to get on base so Zim, Dunn, and the Hammer have someone to drive home. Ian Desmond might as well change his name to Ean right now, but he is a rookie and will be a cornerstone here for at least half a decade. I can't say the same about Morgan while he works things out.



And then there was all this soccer. I don't get it. I've honestly tried, but all it really does is make me sympathize with the rare person you come along who says they don't like sports. Its dumbfounding to hear someone say that, but if all sports look like soccer to this anomaly of a person I understand. I would root for a guy in a belching contest if the guy had on a USA t-shirt, but ow that the US is knocked out, at least we won't have to hear about it again for four years. I am not going to critique soccer, but if I were I'd of course go after the refs, which mirror the totalitarianism rampant in some of the countries in the tournament, the flopping, which looks like Crosby on grass, and the love of ties and breaking even. I did not even go after the low scoring, because that isn't why America hates it. A hypothetical 2-1 Nolan Ryan-Sandy Koufax matchup would give ESPN some of its highest ratings ever. Tickets to a 1985 Bears versus 2000 Ravens game would fetch thousands of dollars. There is nothing more intense than a 1-1 playoff game in the NHL (because there is an overtime and no ties if it stays that way for a little bit.)


Americans did with sports what they do to everything else; make it better. Baseball is our Declaration of Independence. We looked at cricket and we did not like it. There were probably high taxes involved, so we went out and invented a game that has not needed to be fixed in 150 years. No matter how big and fast athletes become, the bases are always 90 feet apart, the pitching mound a tad over 60, and the sun always sets behind home plate. Football brings together our conflicting ideals of togetherness and individuality together. We as Americans do things together, but we also celebrate great individual achievements as well. Football encapsulates the politically incorrect notion of Manifest Destiny, where the whole concept of the game is to make gains to bring the promised land to all. And failure is never tolerated. (In the CFL, you get a point for punting and a missed field goal. Its called a rouge, look it up. We don't put up with that kind of stuff here.)



And hockey is the perfect example of our adaptation in making things better. Ice skating is tolerable in grade school when you do it because its a good way to meet girls and try to steal a kiss. But what if we hit each other every once in a while, put goals in so there is some purpose to the whole thing, and if someone is acting a little out of line, they have to fight? Skill takes over and it is almost too fast to watch on television, and the toughest guys in the world all flock to play it. When the NHL Americanized it even more to appeal to non-traditional hockey markets in Nashville, Florida, and Phoenix at the turn of the millennium, they took out the ties. A challenge that is embraced head-on involving exceptional individuals who work as a unit to promote a noble cause is as American as it gets in my world. soccer fans will say that those who don't like it are uncultured and don't understand the "great gentleman's game." My head can take the game in fine, but my soul falls asleep every time.


It is not that soccer is bad, it just does not have any of these aspects. While there is clearly a higher degree of talent, the game does not change that much from when the players are ten to when they are pros. You can not say the same for baseball, football, and hockey. I don't understand why it is a "gentleman's game" when people get killed around these matches. I don't understand why you would continue to play soccer as a kid other than to prevent getting hurt and not have to face a pressure situation like a three-point shot, full count, or perfect pass spiraling toward your hands. I don't understand vu-vu-zillas. I don't understand why 14 million Americans watching the US-Ghana game was a big deal. 34 million watched the US-Canada match in February with a whole lot more going on, and hockey is still a fourth-tier sport here, but hockey fans don't go nuts about it.


I was going to go on and on, but Matt Taibbi said it so much better than I can in his article that I will post at the end. I hope soccer fans will continue to enjoy their game, just leave us alone about it. With a plate full of American sports that satisfy the soul from youth until death, soccer is just the elevator music that Americans push through on the way to the rock concert. Someone must appreciate it, but it gets pretty annoying when someone turns it up.




http://www.mensjournal.com/taibbi-world-cup