Redskins Return
For those who have been waiting for a return to Skins commentary, and I know how many you are, after tonight's game I can only assure you that gloom and misery has swallowed whole the entire city of Washington. I refer to the real people, us, who lived here before the current interlopers.
The Skins teach moral lessons. Like when your owner has the wacky Tom Cruise in his box, your team plays like they just showed up from Mars. Like when your coaches outnumber your players, some of the fine points -- like hitting harder and not grabbing face masks on national TV -- tend to get overcomplicated in the discussions. Like when your quarterback still doesn't have time to throw deep cause your overpaid line isn't any good, you got a problem.
Oh sigh it's going to be a long, long season, and my precious few who care to track it on this blog we shall hang together even while the rest scorn us......
Jesus, Reed, we can't even agree on football.
I'm a Vikings fan and am thrilled by the hard fought, deserving victory that Minnesota took against the forever mediocre Redskins.
September 11, 2006 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about an even trade - the Redskins for the 49ers? Maybe even throw in the Raiders as a loss leader?
Sometimes we just don't recognize our good fortune.
Hoppy in Sacramento
September 11, 2006 8:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a lifelong Giants' fan I, too, am familiar with the feeling one has when one's team blows a game it should win--going all the way back to Sunday night.
In that division, the Skins, Giants and Cowboys all plagued themselves with lots of costly and stupid mistakes. If the first game is any indication, Philly appears to be back.
I count my blessings. If I were a Lions' fan I don't know if I could bear to watch year after year.
September 12, 2006 6:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Gawd the secondary was awful. Can't wait to see how they stack up against receivers people have actually heard of.
September 12, 2006 6:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Philly is most certainly back. The defensive line is patched, Stallworth is in, TO is out, and most importantly McNabb is healthy. We'd like to thank all of the brain-dead pundits who picked the 'Skins and 'Boys to win the division. Reed, look forward to two very painful losses against the Birds this year.
September 12, 2006 7:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you can't beat the Vikings you're in trouble.
We Viking fans are immune to optimism.
September 12, 2006 8:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice job on the commentary...can't tell who the Skins played, or who won (just that the Skins lost).
Excuses, excuses...any chance that the Skins lost because the Vikings played better?
Oh, and Brad Johnson leaving the stadium in a Redskins jersey was priceless.
September 12, 2006 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
You could switch to commenting on the Cowboys. That too looks to be a long, long season, but you wouldn't feel the pain as badly...
September 12, 2006 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Holy crap I agree with Gettysburg--Brad Johnson played a really good game and I thought Brunell played reasonably well, esp since it was game 1 of the seasonand almost none of these plays were run in preseason (not to mention that Saunders' playbook is (as the announcers could not help but repeat) 700 pages long. Could it be that the vikings are just better than they were last year?
September 12, 2006 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, but Danny Boy has made them a team that America loves to hate: His hubris, control-freak personality, and 'fantasy football' approach seems to have put this team on permanent 'broken record' status (same story, different year). What was that stat last night, they've signed 21 Pro Bowlers, none of whom made the Pro Bowl after signing with the 'skins? Also, having Tom Cruise sharing his box made this an extra special defeat...
Finally, their refusal to change their racist name may also be having some sort of negative karmic effect. I know this is a controversial subject, yet they have the most blatantly denigrating name of any Indian-related sports team (making the Chiefs look innocuous by comparison). Maybe there's been a curse placed on them by a vengeful makaka, er, Native American!
September 12, 2006 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Being the MNPundit, I tend to be a titular Vikings fan... though football isn't very important to me (baseball burns in my veins) and I mostly wait to laugh as the Vikings screw it up.
September 12, 2006 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Special teams anyone? Reed, where do you sit? We're camped out in the Club level but, if they continue fielding mediocre teams, we're not renewing.
Larry Johnson
September 12, 2006 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Hundt,
If you think that your in for a long season as Washington Redskins fan, try being a fan of the Oakland Raiders - also known as "America's Team."
Yes, last night's "shell shocking" (pardon the pun) by the San Diego Chargers was an absolute disaster of epic proportions. It was like watching a train wreck...a 60 minute long train wreck. Mr. Hundt, you complain that the Redskins' line is overpaid. Just be thankful that you HAVE a line. The Raiders' line was practically non-existant. It was a theoretical offensive line. I mean, the San Diego Chargers are not know for their defense, but last night they looked like Steel Curtain, the Monsters of the Midway, or the Purple People Eaters of old. You Redskins fans complain about Brad Johnson or Mark Brunell. Well, try having your entire season rest on Aaron Brooks' shoulders. Well, we at least we can call up Jeff George (and I know both Minnesota Vikings fans and Washington Redskins' fans can both agree on how great Jeff George is). You complain about the Redskins' defense? Well everybody and their Aunt Mary know what the Chargers are going to do - run Ladanian Tomlinson all day long. Which is what they did to the Raiders, and we still could not stop them. You complain about YOUR coaches. I mean, what team, other than the Raiders, could make Marty Schottenheimer look like a genius?
No, it looks to be a long, hard season for the good guys. Shed a tear, America. Because whenever the Raiders have a good season, America is prosperous and strong. Everyone has a little pep in their step, and are just a little bit nicer to one another. A losing Raider season finds a conflicted and divided America, one where anger, cynicism, and incompetence rule the day.
September 12, 2006 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you Hoppy. Being a Bay Area sports fan is a commitment to a life of heartbreak, pessimism, and despair. For those of us who regularly support the San Francisco 49ers (believe me, the "Team of the '80's is LONG GONE), Oakland Raiders, San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, San Jose Sharks, Golden State Warriors, and the University of California Golden Bears, we know what it feels like to repeatedly have defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
Supporting the San Francisco Bay Area teams is like being a Democrat, except that instead of losing every 2-4 years, we just lose every year.
September 12, 2006 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
In addition, I would also like to state that Governor Schwartenegger, in addition to not knowing much about anything, knows diddly squat about American Football.
Governor Schwartzenegger, Art Shell has not worked "a miracle" in Oakland. And the NFL is NOT going to bring two franchises into the Los Angeles area.
For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, they interviewed Governor Schwartzenegger during the third quarter of the Raiders/Chargers game. While the game was going on!!!
September 12, 2006 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Being a Cowboy fan, I never liked the Skins anyway, but during the Geo. Allen era I had to wonder how anyone could stand a team with a coach who looked like Nixon.
September 12, 2006 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Purple People Eaters. We DO have a decent Defensive Front. And Wiley Old Opie for QB. Brad Johnson started out with us in MN and he is going to go out a Viking. He and the new coach are going to bring respectability back to The Love Boaters.
I always had a soft spot in my heart for the Redskins, Reed. And I like your writing. My soft spot hardened, however, when the Redskins went on the Super Bowl. It was either the NFC championship or one rung lower. Redskins and Vikings. Redskins were going to lose it until they skipped a pass into Clint Didier, the TE, down to about the 8 yard line. The ball bounced about 5 feet in front of him and was ruled a catch. Vikes lose their shot at the SB. ALmost as bad as the 76 cowboys Hail Mary Shove Shot that Staubach made to D. Pearson. Shameful.
I live in WI now, and being amongst the cheeseheads is cruel. I always liked the Packers 2nd best, living in MN. Then you get to WI and find out what a bunch of Slaves and low thinking fools that make up the Packer fans. This whole state is In Thrall. It leans lefty, but you can see the mob mentality that can take over the uneducated if you are not vigilant! Alabama rednecks cozying up to the party of The Man? Unthinkable, you say, until it happened before our eyes.
Well, the average mentality here in WI that is required to swear undying loyalty to one Team/Party and can lead to Fascist Rule is found in abundance here. Save Me! Sometimes you find a great thinker who admits to undying love of jesus and the blood of the lamb...blah blah...and you wonder how could such a discerning mind believe in this other Tripe. Well, how could such fine people as Wisconsinites have such an ugly, fatal side to them? Just proof we all have to walk the tightrope, lest we fall into redneck chaos. Much of humanity never spent time pondering anything higher than their boot-tops. Beware of such! For all our learning and understanding is nothing to them. Centuries of toil and exactitude are wasted on them! They would fall to their knees and worship a #4 jersey or a neocon messiah.
Think Regionally. Act Regionally
September 13, 2006 7:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perfect place to trot out one of my pet theories. Daniel Snyder`s shortcomings as an NFL owner have profoundly affected American politics. Stick with me here.
Daniel Snyder was only able to buy the Redskins franchise because the Cook family was forced to sell it. Beloved owner Jack Kent Cook had left the business poorly structured at the time of his death with no cash reserves or assets which could easily be severed from the whole. Apparently good old Jack actually believed all that George Allen "The future is now!" crap because he left his heirs completely unable to pay, say it with me now, kiddies, THE ESTATE TAX!
Enter Dan Snyder, who hires Shottenhiemer, who turns around the team around, only to be dumped after one year. Why? Because by now Snyder has become facinated by the next bright shiny object in his field of vision; Steve Spurrier. (Full Disclosure: Being from North Carolina and a Wake Forest fan, I have had the luxury of detesting Spurrier since he was at Duke. Most people didn`t find out what a smug smarmy bastard he was til he got to Florida.)
Snyder pays Spurrier millions of dollars to destroy his team. With every loss the drum beat in Congress to end this cruel tax that has brought low their beloved Redskins grows louder. Gone~native Washingtonians like Liddy Dole and Trent Lott lead the cries of "NEVER AGAIN!".
And that, kiddies, is how Dan Snyder changed US history.
September 13, 2006 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink