Curly R: The Year In Exile

Outside looking in

*Sigh* I've been downgraded.

At first I thought it was just one level, from superfan to fan.

Later though I realized I have no idea what is happening with the 2011 Redskins and who plays for them. Barry Cofield is the last addition I remember.

Tim Hightower? You mean the guy from Arizona with the fumbling problem? Donte Stallworth? Isn't he the guy that ran a guy over in Florida?

Nope, don't know any of them, not the draft picks, not the post lockout pickups. That is when I realized my downgrade was a two level demotion, from superfan through fan straight to casual fan. There is only one level left below me now, observer, before sweet football oblivion.

And I do not even care. I was already mad at the team for botching the post Joe Gibbs transition, sandbagging Gregg Williams from the job by trumping up some bullshit story about betraying coach Gibbs over the Missing Man Formation after Sean Taylor's death, note carefully here that Gregg Williams IS NOT the guy I thought should have the job.

Dan Snyder then promptly turned the team over to the one guy everyone knew could not manage his way out of a paper bag, shadow general manager Vinny Cerrato, they wait around for a top shelf candidate that was never coming and promote Jim Zorn, the coordinator they had stupidly hired before a head coach, as the candidate of last resort.

The team then spent two years eating itself as Vinny tried the old dodge where he was responsible for hiring coach Zorn but not for his results, those two stopped speaking, then Dan soured and fired Vinny then fired Zorn on the plane ride home from the last game.

In come these two football professionals, general manager Bruce Allen and head coach Mike Shanahan, both of whom have great football pedigrees, their first move? To trade two picks to a Division rival for a perennial Pro Bowl quarterback they can count on for a couple of seasons until they get the offense where they want it.

But they don't do that. Instead they nitpick Donovan McNabb's footwork and practice ethic after the guy had only been to six Pro Bowls, won five Division titles, been to five Conference Championships and one Super Bowl, while not giving him any new targets to throw at and utterly failing to plan at the tailback position.

And in so doing squander an opportunity to install and stabilize a new offense and develop young players by focusing like a laser beam on how this guy that has been successful his whole career is just not perfect for us. Wah fucking wah.

Donovan had to be sacrificed because the Shanahans can do no wrong, that is axiomatic.

Meanwhile over on the other side of the ball Jim Haslett was busy destroying a perennial top ten defense, one with experienced players and a history of savvy coaches that could flex with talent, forcing the switch from an historical 4-3 to the more trendy 3-4. Players were moved into new positions and out of places where they had performed well for years.

And in so doing squander an opportunity to maintain some continuity in what is historically the best part of the team while a new offense can be installed and stabilized.

Too many variables in play, too many plates in the air.

And so the result of that 2010 season was an unmitigated disaster, one in which those two picks for Donovan were squandered to the Eagles, Donovan was benched and dragged under the bus, those Eagles, Donovan's former team, went for 59 on Monday Night Football, the night the team announced Donovan's quote contract extension unquote. Three games later Donovan was benched for the rest of the year.

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That's just the stuff in the game. Off the field the team was busy pushing fans away as well.

The owner is suing newspapers. All these years and the guy cannot just sit back and let the football do the talking.

They ripped out ten thousand seats from Redskins Stadium, the somewhat absurd plan announced at the time was to create standing room only party decks, yet now that the seats have been ripped out along with supporting sections of upper deck concrete, and construction on no decks has begun, it seems transparently obvious to me that the team has no intention of building decks, that removing seats was all about reducing capacity because people are not renewing tickets and no one is there to buy them in replacement. As anyone that has read this blog or listened to me over the past decade will tell you, the million mile long season ticket waiting list simply does not exist.

Sure ticket prices did not go up, thank you Mr. Snyder sir, a beer bought at your seat is now nine bucks.

And I did not even mention Albert Haynesworth. Until just now.

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The season then ended and the lockout began, two greedy camps, owners and players, arguing nakedly right in front of you over who should have more of your money, in all the negotiations, the recriminations and pontifications, which party was not at the negotiating table for those six months? You. And then the lockout, after a summer of grim warnings of ZOMG NO FOTOBALL IN 2011!!!1!! just COINCIDENTALLY happens to end right as training camps were to open, the only game that was lost to the whole drama? Yep, the Hall of Fame Game, the one played in a neutral stadium where no one gets guaranteed ticket revenues.

So now, after the players did not work out all summer while coaches could still meet and overthink their gameplans, after a hurried free agent period of extreme player movement, do you really think we are set to see quality football in the NFL before Thanksgiving?

Going to be a sloppy season.

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And so I went poof and that was it, I have not had the energy to put pen to paper for this blog since February 2011, and that was for a 2008 story. In the offseason I found other things to occupy my time:

I coached my sons' lacrosse team, the under-nine Fort Hunt Purple Pelicans, we went 2-5-1 with nine rookies on a thirteen man roster, we peaked at the end of the season and I expect we will improve heading into the 2012 season.

I also watched a crapload of college lacrosse including my alma mater the University of Virginia winning their fifth national championship.

I bought a decent bicycle and recommitted to bike commuting, my ride is twelve miles each way each day, I logged 1242 miles on the road from the start of the lockout to the end. My wife also bought a road bike and now we go on vacations based on where and how far we can ride. I have not lost any weight but all my dimensions have changed and I look a hell of a lot better.

I also spent another crapload of time watching Grand Tour bicycle racing, the Tour de France and currently the Vuelta a Espana, I missed the Giro d'Italia because it was during lacrosse season.

I bought a bunch of bicycle tools and taught myself bicycle maintenance, many summer nights I would have spent writing about football, instead I spent in the shed with Tony Almeida refurbing old bikes, I have tuned up all five operating bikes we own, rebuilt two others from the hubs up and have three in queue for complete refurb. Just last night I FINALLY finished my first bartape job. Ever try wrapping bartape on a drop handlebar? To do it right is a fucking bitch.

Now I am working on a public policy slash advocacy project to increase bicycling's profile in the nation's capital. Maybe someday I can ride my bike to a Redskins game.

So yeah, while football was forgetting about me, I was forgetting about it.

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And then when it came back, I was not one of those guys in a forgiving mood. All the league apparatus cared and care about was getting back to status quo AND FAST! Do you read the papers or listen to sports talk radio or even the league owned Sirius NFL Radio? Do you ever hear about the lockout and what it meant and means to football this season? Of course not, it is not in anyone's interest to dwell, have you seen the NFL commercial that's all like, It's Back to Football?

So that brings us to the 2011 Redskins season, I did not follow the post lockout frenzy of signings or training camp, I watched some of the Colts preseason game and also one other one that was on in the background at a party, I think they won that one too, I missed final cuts and read with a yawn that Rex Grossman was the guy over John Beck, the shrieking ExtremeSkins fanboys will be calling for Becks within four games. I may even be at a preschool open house when the Redskins kick off against the Giants on Sunday afternoon.

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So here is where I say thank you for all the emails, comments and text messages wondering where Curly R has been all offseason, to everyone reading this, I am not signing off. Curly R is not gone, it is, has been and forever will be, my creation and my outlet, all I ever wanted out of Curly R was to be a part of the discussion, to help make the Redskins a better football team. Over the past five years I have learned a lot about football and I am grateful for every pageview, every comment and every email.

Five years and I do not think the team really wants to get better. Maybe they do and this Bruce Allen slash Mike Shanahan regime will hit an upswing, it will not happen this year, I am looking at a 5-11 to 8-8 record AT BEST this season, another season with temporary players in key positions.

Curly R is not gone, it just has nothing to say right now, superfans have blogs, casual fans do not. As any Redskins fan over the past two decades can tell you, winning is not the only thing that draws fans to a team, what draws fans to a team is the feeling that their emotional investment is rewarded with smart football people making good decisions for both the short term and long term health and success of the team. We all know Dan Snyder does not own the team, we do, Dan is just the steward.

When the Redskins and football win me back, you will see Curly R back to daily posting. Do you hear that guys?

Win me back.



Photo by me.

Why Does this Keep Happening?

Is he stupid? Or just mean.

Every so often in Washington we hear about how the Redskins and owner Dan Snyder are lashing out at the media, or creating their own internet to give unfiltered or grinding axes by firing people or lamenting media coverage of the team by people that just don't know shit. Hell, even I have gotten email from the team challenging my coverage.

There is another spasm, and it is a good one and happening right now.

Background: Back in November 2010, just two and a half months ago, The Washington City Paper's excellent Dave McKenna, something of a bete noire to Dan Snyder, see here, here, here, here, here and here if you still are not sure, published an enterprise piece called The Cranky Redskins Fan's Guide to Dan Snyder, complete with an embellished photo of the owner with a unibrow, drooping mustache, pointed goatse and best of all, devil horns.

It is long and mad and beautiful, go and read it (op. cit.) right now before you go any further.


Present Day: Dan Snyder's legal apparatus, featuring the onmipresent David Donovan and newcomer Hollywood attorney Patty Glaser, have threatened legal action against the City Paper and or its ownership hierarchy, it did not go unnoticed by me or Huffington Post's / DCist's Jason Linkins that the lawyer letters did not go to the writer, nor to the editor, nor to the publisher of the City Paper, nor to the holding company that owns the paper, but in fact went to the hedge fund that owns the company that owns the paper.

Not only is Dan Snyder threatening legal action, he wants the City Paper to fire the piece's author, Dave McKenna (op. cit.), though I cannot find that reference in the legal letters being exchanged amongst the parties (links below).

Today Amy Austin, Publisher of The Washington City Paper, posted an open letter to readers summarizing the story, the paper is standing by the reporting and does not properly acknowledge Dan Snyder's arguments because, frankly, the paper has not formally heard of them, what with the legalese being directed at organizations above the paper that have no direct involvement in the production or vetting of the paper's content. As of this moment, Dan Snyder nor his representatives have accepted the paper's invitation to write a response or meet with editors.


What It All Means: Let me give you the tl;dr up front here for a change: DO NOT PICK A FIGHT WITH THE GUY THAT OWNS THE INK BARREL.

I really do not understand what the possible benefit could be from this action by the team. Why spend so much time and energy to squash one ant, or one anthill? Surely Dan Snyder understands it is not Dave McKenna per se, it is the suckitude. As long as the Redskins keep looking incompetent year after year all those Dan Snyder missteps and fuckups cannot get into the rearview and we can never really joke about those bad old days, a notion Dave himself motivates more eloquently in the introduction to his November piece (op. cit.)

And reading through the first of the three legal exchanges posted in their entirety on Amy's post today (op. cit.) reveals a very interesting tidbit: Dan Snyder is essentially accusing Atalaya Capital Management, the hedge fund that owns the holding company that owns the City Paper, of manipulating coverage of the Redskins to harm Dan Snyder's Red Zone Capital Equity investment operation, which competes against Atalaya in restaurant and media operations.

Returning to the content of Dave McKenna's piece, it is pretty damning, most of it recognizable by me, some I had never heard of, like Dan Snyder leaving cartons of vanilla ice cream to melt in former defensive coordinator Mike Nolan's office to protest his schemes, and all of it backed by links.

Kevin Ewoldt at Hogs Haven, a Redskins insider since he landed top level interviews during the ticket fiasco of 2009, posts up the crux of the biscuit, that while Dan Snyder may pretend to be mad about contrived attacks on his cancer survivor wife and blatantly laughable charges of Antisemitism in the devil image of the owner, the main issue appears to be a reference to a legal settlement by Snyder Communications for large scale forgery of customer signatures, thousands of them, effectively switching the victim's telephone provider without his or her knowledge, the settlement was in the millions.

Kevin actually spoke to Redskins attack dog David Donovan, who pointed out that Dan Snyder had sold Snyder Communications more than a year before the settlement, leading Kevin to wonder if a rewording or fact check on that one line of the piece and all this might have been avoided.

There is some question and some wiggle room here, the Hogs Haven provided link to the legal settlement dates it in April 2001, and does not mention Dan Snyder by name, so every reference in this legal news brief to quote Snyder unquote is referring to Snyder Communications, not Dan Snyder, and this would include payments, they do not appear from the wording of the piece to be coming from Dan Snyder personally.

The other Hogs Haven provided link is to the sale of Snyder Communications to a French firm, dated February 2000, yep, fourteen months before the settlement. Of note in this piece is a reference to Dan Snyder's planned departure... after the transition to new ownership. That date is unknown by me.

Therefore it does leave some question as to Dan's involvement with the operation while the thousands of slamming offenses were taking place, it is established in law that leaving a concern does not absolve you of malfeasance undertaken prior to your departure, and the fourteen months between the sale of Snyder Communications and the legal settlement minus the transition time before Dan actually left, well he may have been there and still had an executive position when the bad stuff was happening. That would make him a party to the case.

If so, that would make David Donovan's statements to Kevin Ewoldt on the matter misleading at best and inaccurate at worst. The only way to know is to know exactly when the transgressions in the lawsuit occurred and when Dan Snyder left the company, something we likely will only find out if it goes to court.

Which it will not.

And The Washington City Paper will not fire Dave McKenna.

As expensive as the Dan Snyder legal machine want to position litigation to be, the courts do not look favorably upon free speech cases replete with factual evidence to the public figure subject's incompetence, simply because the subject got all butthurt when he read it.


Dan, stop attacking the media, stop trying to build your own media fortress, just run the frigging team and give us a winner on the field. All the attacking will stop if the team wins, just look at the trainwreck that was Jack Kent Cooke's family and no one gave a shit. Just give us a winner and it all goes away.



Dan Snyder: Getty Images from here.

You Stay Classy Brandon Lloyd

Back at you dude

Thanks to lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery for the tip: As current Broncos and former Redskins receiver Brandon Lloyd heads off to the Pro Bowl, his team's lone representative, he has a message for his three old clubs, the 49ers, Redskins and Bears:

Fuck you.

Gee who could ever have seen that coming.



Brandon Lloyd: Getty Images from here.

Talk About Rapid Response

Ouch

Go Skins dot Org, the great abstract cartoonist of the Redskins, already has artistic reaction up, Albert Haynesworth and Donovan McNabb just chilling together on the bench. Go check the rest out here.

The Benching is now a national news story, not sure what Mike Shanahan was going for here, he sure looks like an asshole right about now.



Albert Haynesworth and Donovan McNabb on the bench together: A GoSkins.org cartoon from here via here.

I Hope this Guy Is Still Around

Bringing down the wrath of Redskins fans

If you are the guy running the Fire Mike Shanahan blog and you have not posted since September and you are still there and want some traffic, I would suggest you check the headlines.

http://fireshanahan.blogspot.com/



Mike Shanahan: AP Photo from here.

Let Me Be Clear

I'll speak slowly for the trolls and nitwits and the head coach

There are three reasons putting Rex Grossman in the game, even for a play, is a bad idea:

1. There is a better quarterback on the roster. His name is Donovan McNabb.

2. The better quarterback is healthy.

3. The better quarterback is under contract for 2011.

These reasons notably do not include any discussion of Rex Grossman's ability or standing, nor of the price paid in trade for Donovan McNabb, because both are moot. Mike Shanahan has officially turned a segment of Redskins fans to rooting against their team just to be sure he gets the point. Nice work genius.



Donovan McNabb: Reuters Pictures from here.

BULL FUCKING SHIT

Are you fucking kidding me

What the fuck is this fucking shit, I sit here minding my own business eating my lunch when I see a headline pop into Redskins Insider:

Rex Grossman to start over Donovan McNabb Sunday

That would be this Sunday, at Dallas, bitter NFC Beast Division rival Dallas, a team the Redskins can still sweep in the season series.

And Mike Shanahan is going to bench Donovan in favor of Rex Grossman.

This is really over the line, I have watched how coach Shanahan has handled himself this season and I am very disappointed, cutting Ladell Betts then Willie Parker and Larry Johnson left the team with no experienced tailback backing up the injury prone Clinton Portis and Ryan Torain, the Albert Haynesworth standoff in training camp went too long into the season and hurt the defense. Benching Donovan in the Lions game then spinning bullshit about it. Cutting the holder after the kicker missed two in a winnable game then making up a bullshit excuse.

Maybe that year out of football did nothing to shrink his ego, maybe he is mad with the power Dan Snyder has given him, maybe he is showing off for his son, maybe he just wants to piss Redskins fans off, maybe he really needs to see the place burnt down before he can rebuild it in his own image.

Whatever the deal, this is wrong.

And it is not just wrong because I support Donovan and want to see him play and get some return on that investment. It is wrong because the team will net nothing by playing Rex Grossman.

Washington may win Sunday with Rex, sure, even Danny Wuerffel won games as a starter, that is not the point. The point is that we already know everything we need to know about Rex. He has had his shot, he was in Chicago for six years and could not hold the starting job the year after he took his team to the Super Bowl. His success came largely from the scheme the Bears employed at the time and he is a turnover machine. Years of future success in Washington will not be achieved with Rex Grossman under center.

You only sit a healthy established starter at the end of a season when you have no postseason to play for, and when that starter may not be there next season. But Dono is under contract so it is the team's option, not the player's to have him back.

If Mike Shanahan was serious about seeing what is in the kitty for 2011 he would be starting John Beck, the darling of Kyle Shanahan, my guess is that head coach Shanahan would not start John Beck on a dare meaning this is not about Rex or the future, it is about putting Donovan in his place.

And all the bullshit about lowest rated passer and worst season of his career, that is all bullshit. This is just wrong and win or lose Sunday Redskins fans just lost some more faith in their team.

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Some quick reaction I have received in person, by phone, email and text since 11:30 am when the story broke:

Lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery, via email: Talk about a place in total chaos at this point. I thought Shanny would prevent this sort of shit from happening. Didn't DMac have an over 100 passer rating last week?

The wife, Mrs. Curly R, via phone: They have no idea what they are doing, didn't they cut the holder after the kicker messed up?

Former co-worker Rob, via phone: Dude our team is sooooooooo dysfunctional.

Eagles fan and former roommate James, via text message: Sexy Rexy to start? McNabb out of gas or out of favor?


Post your quick reaction in comments.



Donovan McNabb: Getty Images from here.

Come On Washington Post, Get It Together

Like the Redskins: Great idea, poor execution

Back in September, just a couple of games into the 2010 season, the Washington Post launched an iPhone app called Football Insider, a brilliant play designed to bolster the flow of eyeballs to what is already consistently the most popular topic of coverage for the paper, the Washington Redskins.

A great appliance app in concept and basic design, Football Insider pipes Redskins related content in three categories: stories, game coverage and photos. Stories are subdivided into blogs, featuring Redskins Insider, DC Sports Bog and Hard Hits with LaVar Arrington, articles from the print edition and columns; game coverage includes play by play, box score and general info like weather and for home games traffic and stadium transit; the photos are the same galleries as the paper publishes with game recaps.

Considering how much of my time is spent F5ing Redskins Insider I downloaded it immediately then with the use of a handy black app called Rename, relabeled it simply Redskins.

The 1.0 version was terrible, it kept crashing from the game menu and I stopped using it. Version 1.0.1 came out a few weeks later and not only featured the spiffy image of Donovan McNabb as you see above, the 1.0 version simply had a generic burgundy helmet with no Redskins logo, the app also... started working. No problems, no crashes, could access all menus and all content would refresh as expected.

About three weeks ago version 1.0.3 appeared and I upgraded, immediately problems came back, new annoying problems.

It crashes, most notably when I move from the stories section to the games section, though not as often as the 1.0 version. The most annoying thing is the app's inability to refresh itself. Under versions 1.0 and 1.0.1, when you switch away from the app and come back, it respawns, you see the splash image of Donovan as the menus are refreshing content.

Now, once you open it and then switch away and come back, the app takes you straight back to the content menus, not the splash page, which would be fine if the content updated automatically, BUT IT DOES NOT. In order to get the menus to refresh, I either have to go through the annoying process to shut down a rogue app, or restart the whole phone. Occasionally after a crash it will respawn and not be able to reestablish its data connection, hence the image above, in these cases I hit the Home button then go back to the app and oh yep everything is just fine again.

Cannot get much in the way of support either, the Support link on the iTunes online page for Football Insider links back to generic Washington Post help page, if there is a thread or a topic on the Football Insider app then I am not able to find it easily.

Maybe I should not bother expecting a decent app until I get a decent team.



Screencap of aborted app load by me.

A Picture of Dorian McNabb

Less than a year and look how much it has aged

Right now I am a depressed and confused Redskins fan, depressed because we are hurtling toward yet another postseason in which I watch lots of football yet none of it includes my beloved team and confused because I am getting lots of mixed signals about quarterback Donovan McNabb:

Donovan McNabb having his worst season since his rookie year in 1999? Donovan was a rookie out of Syracuse that year, coming from the college ranks where he made his living on his legs at least as much as his arm. In his rookie season he split time in Philadelphia with Doug Pederson, appearing in twelve games and starting only six. He finished the year with 948 yards passing and a 60.1 passer rating. The next season he assumed the starter role and had it every year barring injury for the next ten seasons.

Looking at Donovan's numbers over the years though, I do not see a guy that is dropping off the cliff, in fact if Donovan can pull his passer rating up seven tenths of one point, the whole story goes away and god forbid he could get it two and a half points up, with another game or two like the Tampa Bay game and a 100.7 rating, then not only is 2010 not his worst as a starter, it is not even next to worst. Plus I think the strict measure of a guy by his passer rating is lazy.

Let us walk some of the other stats. Games: Averaging 13.4 per season over career, if we remove the first season when he was part time then it is virtually unchanged at 13.5 games per season. Donovan has already played thirteen games this season, one more and he busts over his career average.

Completion percentage: A career average of 58.9 percent, 2010 number is 58.3 percent, still well within reach to bust over with three games left and if not is teetering right the average at sixth tenths of a point less. I count four seasons with a lower completion rate and one a virtual tie.

Attempts per game are nearly four per game over career average, not a surprise considering the Redskins have had an unsettled tailback position all season. He can still sling it and the coaches are not compensating for some perceived dropoff, they are telling him to GET THE HELL OUT THERE AND THROW IT.

Passing yards / passing yards per game: In terms of his per game average, Donovan is nearly 35 yards per game over his average and if the season ended now 2010 would be the third highest per game passing yards in his career. Looking at total passing yards, Donovan already has more total passing yards in 2010 than in four of the seven years he has played thirteen games or more.

It is not all rosy though, Donovan's touchdown passes are dangerously near a career low, he will need to throw two more to tie his non rookie career low, oddly enough those career lows came in one season where Donovan played only nine games and in another where he played all sixteen.

Interceptions are already at a career high by two, one of the great statistics on Donovan coming into Washington was that he was one of the least intercepted passers in league history, even though Donovan is having his worst INT year ever, check the big board for quarterbacks: seven guys, including two named Manning, have as many or more than Donovan.

Sacks are also dangerously near career highs, 2010 is already Donovan's second worst year for sacks, two more and he ties it. Of all the stats that we can apply other players' performance to, this is the one that I place the most on others, the crappy offensive line the Redskins have in 2010.

The last stat to look at is long passes, Donovan has thrilled Redskins fans with the ability to connect on long passes, Jason Campbell had the arm but not the time, chemistry or accuracy to make them like Donovan has this year, then you look at his stats and 2010 is just middling in his late year performance, since 2004 Donovan has tossed eleven or more passes of forty yards or more five time in seven years. The guy can still sling it.

So let us dial back the Donovan is having teh worst yaer of his lief bit, I am not buying it.


Donovan McNabb is on pace to set Redskins franchise and personal records for passing yards? Wait I thought he was having his worst year evar as a starter? Then how can that headline be true? Well let us look at the numbers: At his current pace, Donovan should throw for 4156 yards in 2010 if he plays all sixteen games. That would be more than he has ever tossed in his career, he has never been a 4000 yard passer ever.

This number would also place Donovan ahead of 1986 Jay Schroeder and 1999 Brad Johnson for the most passingest Redskin of all time, for a franchise that has been in continuous operation since 1932.

Worst year ever = best year ever.


Wait, Donovan McNabb might get benched down the stretch? The latest ginned up story, principally credited to FOX's Jay Glazer, is that backup quarterback slash fumbler Rex Grossman is being prepped possibly to start or replace Donovan. For his part, Donovan was dismissive (op. cit.), and head coach Mike Shanahan was as you might expect evasive in talking about it.

This is of course bloody ridiculous. You only sit a veteran like Donovan at the end of the season if he is hurt or if he may be gone the next season and you really need to see what you have on the bench. And we all know, Super Bowl and NFL credentials or otherwise, that Rex Grossman is not an unknown quantity. Hell he may be starting caliber for all I know any more, alls I am saying is that we know everything we need to know about Rex and John Beck is certainly no option when you have a healthy Donovan McNabb. There is your fast path to cascading boos right there.


Stay with him and play with him, whatever ails the Redskins in 2010 it is not Donovan McNabb.




Photo by me of my still new Donovan McNabb number five jersey, I have only had it since 27 September 2010 and the numbering is already coming off the nylon, compare to my Santana Moss number 89 jersey I have had since the 2005 postseason, I wore that jersey for every game until this season and washed it at least twice a year and the numbering on it still looks great. Is that some sort of metaphor? With apologies to Oscar Wilde for the title.

Shattered

2011 offseason starts now

A complete humilation today against the Giants, I am embarrassed right now to be a Redskins fan.

We knew there would be growing pains, we knew Mike Shanahan and his system would not turn the Redskins into a Super Bowl team in one season. We knew all this and expected to see the team struggle at times.

What we did not expect was an organization unable to field a basic NFL team. The struggles we imagined were oh man that was a close loss and damn that one play, not hey shit guys that was six turnovers today and why can't Chris Cooley catch the ball.

8-8 looks really optimistic at this point.



Metaphor as photo by me of the three year old Redskins Christmas tree ornament my eight year old son accidentally dropped today.

The Folsom Point 11/30/2010: Beginning of the End

It's a blog. NOT FUCKING TWITTER!

Wherein we discuss the end of meaningful Redskins football in 2010.



Image by me with apologies to Advice Dog.

GOD DAMMIT

Was it us?

Do you have any idea how fucking pissed off I am? Check that stat line in the image above, that is Brandon Lloyd, Broncos receiver, leading the league in receiving yards with 1046 yards in ten games, TEN GAMES THE DUDE HAS CAUGHT 54 PASSES FOR ALMOST A TWENTY YARD AVERAGE IN TEN FREAKING GAMES!


Brandon was traded to Washington from San Francisco in the 2006 offseason on the first day of free agency, the Redskins gave up two picks, a 2006 third round pick and a 2007 fourth rounder, to acquire Brandon, then turned around and gave him a seven year, 31 million dollar contract with ten million guaranteed. He was supposed to bolster a 2005 receiving corps that principally consisted of Santana Moss, Chris Cooley and Clinton Portis. Antwaan Randle El also arrived that offseason as a free agent, the Redskins had their bunch of sparkplug wideouts, no one over six feet tall.

I knew what Brandon could do, I had followed him in San Francisco and even seen him in person in the Redskins 52-17 circus in 2005, I was all about this signing, my recidivist take on Washington pushing TWO MORE Santana Moss clones in favor of pursuing a receiver free agent with size, height or physical credentials was simple: If Mark Brunell wants little guys that can get separation, who am I to disagree?

Pretty quickly though it got rough, the early returns on Brandon were indicative of how he would perform overall in his two troubled seasons in Washington. Through a miserable 2006 season that saw Mark Brunell give way to Jason Campbell at quarterback and the team win only five games, Brandon caught 23 passes for 365 yards in fifteen games, barely third receiver quality numbers, Brandon was supposed to be a solid number two that could push the number one.

In game seven that season against the Colts Brandon argued with Antwaan Randle El, the two had to be separated. Brandon did it again in game twelve against the Falcons, throwing his helmet on the field in the fourth quarter, earning the Redskins a fifteen yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. This second egregious loss of control earned Brandon a closed door sit down with head coach Joe Gibbs who you remember was supposed to be the guy ultimately behind the Redskins player acquisition decisions.

Brandon's reaction to being singled out on the team and in the media for detrimental behavior, and of being hauled behind closed doors for a verbal whipping by a Hall of Fame head coach? Not so much.

Still, coach Gibbs said he was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting and indicated Brandon would play in game thirteen against the Eagles, Brandon did not start and had one catch, off an option pass from Antwaan Randle El.

Three games later coach Gibbs had had enough, Brandon was inactive for the season finale against the Giants, the injury report indicated Brandon had bronchitis, no one believed it, Brandon's first season in a contract with ten million dollars guaranteed was a disaster.


Heading into 2007 it was not feasible to cut Brandon, Joe Gibbs and the team clearly was going to give Brandon another shot.

It did not start well. After bragging about how the 2007 offseason was the first time he had ever engaged in significant offseason workouts, Brandon gave himself shin splints and was unable to practice at full speed for the first three weeks THREE WEEKS of training camp. Still, he made the 2007 team.

And things did not get any better for Brandon. Two weeks into the season he did not have a catch. In the third week, Redskins fans were treated to one of the all time great displays of tone deafness, Brandon was featured in the Washington Post Business section as a compensated spokesman for Microsoft and their upcoming video game Halo III. In the article, Brandon named all the free gear and the advance look at the game experience the number one perk he had ever received as an NFL player, and then went on to talk about what a huge part of his life playing video games is. It would still be two more weeks, into October until Brandon got his first catch in 2007.

In November Brandon missed a team meeting and was barred from accompanying the team on the road to game eight against the Jets, and once again Joe Gibbs insisted Brandon was still important to the team and viable as a receiving option. Little did we know at that time that with seven games still left in the 2007 season that Brandon had already produced everything he would produce: two catches for fourteen yards.

One more game and no more catches later, on the last play of practice on Wednesday 14 November 2007, Brandon broke his collarbone, the team put him on injured reserve, ending a season that never really happened for Brandon. In all he missed nine games between healthy scratch, bronchitis and the clavicle injury, and produced 25 catches for 378 yards and no touchdowns. In February of 2008 the team cut Brandon, two years into thirty million dollar contract with ten million dollars guaranteed. Washington barely noticed.

Brandon played with Chicago in 2008, holding close to Washington form with 26 catches for 364 yards in eleven games. In 2009 he signed with Denver and produced only eight catches in two games.

Coming into 2010 no one expected Brandon Lloyd to do what he is doing now, Josh McDaniel has Brandon and quarterback Kyle Orton really working on the same page, Brandon has already set a career number for catches, with six games still remaining in the schedule, and is nearly four yards per catch ahead of his highest yards per catch season ever.

Something has happened, hell has frozen over, Brandon Lloyd has turned into a franchise receiver. I'm pretty pissed about it.



Image screencap detail of this page.

The Folsom Point 11/23/2010: Dono Darko

Got a mean comment? HAHAHA I LOL'ED!

Wherein we discuss a breach in the Primary Football Universe.



Image by me with apologies to Advice Dog.

Twenty-five Years Ago

Their paths diverged from here

Thursday night was an important night for former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann. It was his second game as color analyst for the NFL Network's Thursday games, Joe had been out of the game game since getting shitcanned by ESPN after the 2006 season in favor of Ron Jaworski on Monday Night Football. Up to that moment Joe Theismann had been a color commentator for NFL games dating back to 1988, an eighteen year streak that ESPN had to end because Tony Kornheiser is a whiny brat that does not get along with anybody and whom the network mistakenly thought was carrying the broadcast.

How ESPN later canned Tony for another football guy in Jon Gruden tells you all you need to know about how wrong the network was to stick with that loser for so long.

Frankly though Ron and Jon does not work for me either, it is one hardcore football mind in that booth too many and with Jon trying to keep his options open for another coaching gig someday the posturing by that guy in the booth is enough to make me sugar vomit.

But I digress, that is not really the point, nor is Joe Theismann getting back in the booth for live games really the occasion of importance in Joe's life.

Twenty-five years ago Thursday night, 18 November 1985, was the night Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theismann's leg live on Monday Night Football in one of the most gruesome career ending injuries that has ever been witnessed in football.

Joe's football career was ended that night, Lawrence went on to make the Pro Bowl that season, and every year for the next five seasons, he would win two Super Bowls, be named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team and to the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team. A first ballot Hall of Famer, Lawrence's number is one of only eleven retired by the Giants, a team that has been in existence since 1925.

Three years after his injury, Joe Theismann resumed his football career in broadcasting, becoming ubiquitous in the sport for better or for worse. Lawrence Taylor turned to partying and drugs and a hard lifestyle, while a player he tested positive twice for cocaine, legend has it only the threat of a lifetime ban for a third positive forced him to quit.

After retiring he did lots of drugs and became the shady character that goes with the lifestyle, he was arrested twice for trying to buy from undercover officers and went through rehab at least twice in the 1990s. He lost lots of money in bad investments and became a caricature of himself in pop culture. Last year he was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident then this year it got worse, he was arrested for statutory rape of a sixteen year old admitted prostitute, he is facing trial on these charges. In a sign times are tough for Lawrence, he went to court, or rather technically did not go to court, to try and get child support payments for his twelve year old daughter by his first wife reduced.

Kind of seems like Joe Theismann got the better of that whole deal from 1985. Not judging, just saying.



The immediate aftermath of Lawrence Taylor's career ending hit on Joe Theismann: George Gojkovich / Getty Images from here.

The Folsom Point 11/16/2010: No Air

Wife excusing me from inlaws to blog? VICTORY IS MINE!

Wherein we discuss a trainwreck game of epic proportions.



Image by me with apologies to Advice Dog.

Wade Phillips: Buh-Bye

Don't worry Wade, it wasn't you

Something that has never happened since Jerral W. Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989 happened yesterday, Jerry fired his head coach midseason, terminating Wade Phillips after an embarrassing 45-7 loss to the Packers on Sunday, dropping the Cowboys to an awesome 1-7 in the 2010 NFL season. Offensive coordinator and one time head coach in waiting Jason Garrett assumes the reins for the rest of the season.

I am sure all of Redskinsland joins me when I say in all sincerity

HAW HAW

=====

More than simply dropping the Cowboys with finality out of the playoff race, this move makes clear how far the Cowboys have fallen, at the start of the season America's Team (lol) had high expectations of being the first team to play on its home field in the Super Bowl, number 45 of which will be played at the Taj Mahal of the NFL, the new Cowboys Stadium in February. The Cowboys are a complete mess with discipline and execution problems all up and down the team. As a Redskins fan this warms my heart like a cup of hot chocolate on a snowy day.

It did not take an advanced degree to see this coming, and now begins the apocrypha that EVERYone saw this coming, I watched the horrific showing Dallas put up against Houston in an August preseason game then went over to Hogs Haven to write about it, later that week a coworker told me was willing to bet the Rams would end 2010 with a better record than the Cowboys, it was not exactly a bold call to look at that team and think there was an overconfidence problem.

I bear Wade Phillips no ill will, I think he is a good coach, he just has an expiration date, he is an aw shucks players coach who basically ignores the offense, in addition to being the head coach Wade was also the defensive coordinator. Wade is not a fire breather so he is not going to motivate his players with his you come on you guys are professionals post game speeches, one thing I have learned from watching so much football at all levels is that player need coaching all their careers, they need to be reminded constantly to keep focus, to forget the last play because the success you earn in the NFL always starts with the next play.

Jessica Simpson, Kardashians, reality shows, a stadium with cage dancers I mean WHAT THE FUCK GUYS.

They loved being Dallas Cowboys so much the past few years they got complacent and it is simply not Wade Phillips' gig to get a stray team back on point.

=====

I wrote extensively about the Cowboys coaching search and options following the departure of Bill Parcells in January 2007, the first thing Jerry Jones did was hire Jason Garrett, as either head coach or offensive coordinator with a big to be determined hanging out there while Jerry looked at other candidates. With the Jim Zorn hiring debacle still more than a year in the future, the notion that a team would hire a guy and then determine where he fit in the organization was ludicrous and damaging, well paid players with contracts can smell uncertainty in the wind and loyalty is as much about who is in charge as who is not. Hiring a guy and then telling the organization ok he may be the guy let's wait and see was a mistake from the beginning.

So with a possible head coach in the fold Jerry went out and surveyed the landscape, coming up with Mike Singletary who had been in coaching all of four seasons at the time of his interview and who is sure to be fired from the 49ers at the end of the season, pairing Mike up with Jason who had all of two seasons coaching experience was an idea so bad that even Jerry Jones did not bite.

Norval Turner was the only other real candidate and the 49ers gave him a raise to stay, so Jerry settled on Wade Phillips, while no team can ever publicly say a guy has a shelf life, at the time I looked at the plan as this: Wade coaches for a couple three seasons then moves on, either under contract expiration or honorable resignation, the idea that it could end with a firing is a bad PR move because it would call into question the competence of the coaching and management staffs, so if Jerry really wanted to marinate Jason Garrett and then promote him in the near to middle term, it was going to have to be a joyous transition, not in the midst of a storm.

For those of you into the palace intrigue, what kind of relationship do you think Jason Garrett had with Wade Phillips with this knowledge? Have Jason and the owner had a lot of um meetings over the years?

Fast forward to 13-3 and a playoff loss on a Tony Romo snap bobble in 2007, 9-7 and no playoffs in 2008 and you get to 2009. Dallas made the playoffs at 11-5 season, capping the regular season with a 24-0 shutout of the Eagles, then an emphatic 34-14 beating of the same Eagles team in the same stadium in the playoffs.

Even though Dallas lost the next game to the Vikings, the Cowboys had achieved a milestone: Their first playoff victory since 1996. A month earlier Jerry Jones had come right out and said it, if the Cowboys did not get into the playoffs, Wade would be fired, the strong implication was also that Dallas had to win a playoff game, again what would have been their first since 1996.

So when they did and then did, Jerry was stuck, he could fire Wade after a win any more than the Giants could fire Tom Coughlin after winning the Super Bowl.

And now we have this season, soft, undisciplined players arguing on the sidelines, the quarterback out for what will be the season because a fullback did not pick up a blocking assignment, culminating in a humiliating loss to the Packers and the inevitable decision to fire Wade.

So now Jason Garrett becomes head coach in a time when the quality of his offense is strongly in question, in the midst of a storm, the guy in waiting from 2007 now has become just a guy, the seasoning he was supposed to get may actually turn out to have been dry rot, the Curly R prediction is Jason Garrett is out at the end of the season, having never been considered a serious candidate for the full time job.

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For the record, lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery discussed this at length on the way home from the Colts at Eagles game Sunday, while listening to the Sunday night debacle on Sirius NFL Radio, his call is for John Fox in Dallas next season, I think this makes sense, with John's contract expiring at the end of the year and the Panthers in need of a change, the Carolina job is wired to Bill Cowher whose home is in the Charlotte area, Jerry Jones will strike out with Cowher and settle on John Fox.



Wade Phillips coaching his last game with the Cowboys: AP Photo from here.

The Folsom Point 10/26/2010: Remember the Good Parts

A player reads the blog? OH GOD WHAT DID I WRITE?

Wherein we discuss the Redskins awesome awful defense.



Image by me with apologies to Advice Dog.

The Folsom Point 10/20/2010: The Surgeon

Something happened? YEAH I HAVE AN OPINION ON THAT.

Wherein we discuss the precision of Peyton Manning.



Image by me with apologies to Advice Dog.

Yeah I Am Totally Sure It Was Because the Redskins Did Not Want a Big Play Receiver that Can Do Everything

Doesn't think he got a fair shot

While go back over stories from last week I was struck by something I read in the Washington Post last Saturday, it was in the print edition on Sunday, Packers gameday. Receiver Devin Thomas on his release from the Redskins:

Maybe they just don't want a big-play receiver that can do everything.

No Devin I do not think that was it. I think it was more along the lines of maybe they just want a guy that can run a reliable route, catch the ball when it hits his hands and that does not play smaller than his size.

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Devin Thomas was former shadow general manager Vinny Cerrato's first draft pick as senior VP of Shit Disturbations in 2008, upon the retirement of Joe Gibbs owner Dan Snyder having fully elevated Vinny to the highest post any executive would prior to the 2009 meltdown and the begging and pleading for new real actual general manager Bruce Allen.

Going into the 2008 draft the Redskins needed, what else? Offensive line and defensive line help, they were old and hurt. Instead they used all three second round picks, two garnered in a big day of trades, on pass catchers, Michigan State receiver Devin Thomas, USC tight end Fred Davis and Oklahoma receiver Malcolm Kelly, the theory here obviously being that with new head coach Jim Zorn's brand of west coast offense that despite the age and lack of talent in other key positions that with all these pass catchers the Redskins could just play their way out of structural weakness.

Devin showed up to his rookie training camp out of shape, could not pass the receiver conditioning test then pulled a hamstring. Better (preseason) receivers were released on Cut Day that year in anticipation of some future performance Devin would be able to achieve.

His rookie year in 2008 with a pass happy new coach looking for a receiver to hang his offensive hat on, Devin started one game and missed six games due to injury, he finished 2008 with a modest fifteen catches for 120 yards and no touchdowns, Devin did find the end zone once in 2008, on a reverse run against the Giants in game twelve, a 23-7 Giants rout in the freezing rain.

Going into 2009 the expectations machine was on high for Devin, so high that I got the sense that team was saying it to make themselves feel it like, looking at that sad piece of trash you married and telling her MAYBE IF WE HAD ANOTHER BABY THAT'D BRING US CLOSER. IN 2009 Devin finished with 25 catches for 325 yards, he started ten games and had three touchdown catches, his notable game, the one that the Devin Thomas apologists latched onto was game twelve against the Super Bowl bound Saints, in a 33-30 loss Devin had seven catches for 100 yards and there was a tiny contingent in Washington that was shouting in little voices HE'S FINALLY ARRIVED.

Arriving in 2010 with a new coach and new general manager Devin had to start all over. All those things that were forgiven about Devin in favor of the upside were brought front and center and Devin was told, like everyone else, that he would have to win his job, that it did not matter where he was drafted or what his potential was, he was going to have to deliver.

They never saw it in Devin, giving 38 year old Joey Galloway and undrafted Anthony Armstrong depth spots ahead of Devin, his last gasp was in the return game and when head coach Mike Shanahan finally decided to take Brandon Banks out of the garage there was no need for a decent kick returner that the team did not trust to run a correct route or catch a ball that hit him in the hands.

In the end Devin lived in Washington for two seasons on potential and exited when he was not able to deliver in real life. I wish it had worked out with Devin, it did not and sadly the Redskins lose nothing without him. I wish Devin the best in Carolina and hope he comes back here with them in 2012 and proves me wrong by having a strong game in a Panthers loss.

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It is said in that January meeting for Vinny's promotion that Vinny told Dan he could lead the team, that Dan told Vinny he believed in Vinny but was going to hold Vinny to his pledge to rebuild the team, and he did by firing Vinny in December of 2009. That 2008 draft was already in tatters before the team finally decided to part ways with Devin Thomas.



Devin Thomas: Getty Images from here.

The Folsom Point 10/13/2010: Do We Actually Want This?

Set own posting schedule. CAN'T MEET OWN POSTING SCHEDULE!

Wherein we discuss the merits of Clinton Portis as the greatest Redskins ball carrier of them all.



Image by me with apologies to Advice Dog.