THIS IS A SUMMER of hope at Redskins Park.
Washington is banking on Jason Campbell's living up to his billing as the quarterback of the future, just as the team is relying on three second-round picks who excelled as college receivers to hit the ground running in the NFL.
And most of all, the Redskins are trusting that Jim Zorn is up to the task as head coach — even though he already muffed the team's color scheme once.
Optimism shouldn't be unfounded. The team made the playoffs last year, after all. You'd think Greg Blatche should fill in nicely for Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator. Plus, Zorn's enthusiasm is infectious.
But here's the reality check.
Continue Reading "Swengali: Question Marks Abound at Redskins Camp" »
THERE WAS A time not long ago when Brett Favre's circus would almost certainly have landed in Washington.
Mercifully, Dan Snyder's taste seems to have soured on ancient stars after Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders and — look away before reading this name — Jeff George.
When the Green Bay soap opera finally ends, at least D.C. won't resemble "Jurassic Park" yet again.
As much as Favre has meant to the NFL, the city of Green Bay and even the cheesy state of Wisconsin, I take the Packers' side in this ongoing saga.
Favre may be 38, but he's acting like a petulant teenager who can't make up his mind.
For the past several years, he's cried wolf about retiring — baiting the Packers to beg him to come back. The team got sick of it, so when "There's Something About Mary's" old boyfriend called it quits, they let him.
Since that fateful day in March, Favre's toyed with returning to the point where he demanded his release last week. The Packers have rightly moved on to a new chapter (Aaron Rodgers) but won't cut Favre so he can sign with division rival Minnesota.
How sick are Packers fans of Favre's childish act? A mere 200 people rallied for his return Sunday at Lambeau Field. That's less people than the number who watch the Nationals' games on TV.
Favre's a great player, but he's a worse prima donna than any movie star.
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
DAN SNYDER BUYING SportsTalk 980 should be a great thing for Redskins fans on Sundays.
For the first time since Snyder moved his team's games under the umbrella of Red Zebra, Washington fans will be able to listen to the action anywhere inside the Beltway.
The big question surrounding this week's purchase, though, is what will happen to D.C.'s original sports talk station Monday through Saturday.
Whether you like the station's entire lineup or not, WTEM presents a group of hosts who have built reputations by delivering objective and sometimes provocative analysis.
What will Snyder do if Steve Czaban or Andy Pollin call out Jim Zorn if the first-year coach looks as in-over-his-head as he did during his introductory press conference?
Czaban was already let go from Comcast SportsNet's postgame TV show for being too critical, and Snyder has no monetary control of that station.
NOT TOO LONG AGO, D.C. had a few contenders who could be crowned King of the Local Advertisers.
No more.
While Matthew Lesko and the Senate Insurance "Kiss My Bumper!" guy are faint, annoying memories, the Eastern Motors jingle, with its surprisingly infectious mix of mariachi instrumentation and rap vocals, has achieved a kind of earworm immortality. Plus, the advertisements feature motley crews of superstar athletes from the Redskins, Ravens, Wizards and more along with regular peeps — sometimes even mouthing the words to the jam and bouncing to the Eastern beat.
After watching these commercials, it would take a lobotomy to dislodge the "Your job is your credit" slogan from your brain. Still, some are better than others, which is why we've ranked the Top 10 Eastern Motors ads.
Nurse, get me a scalpel and drill bit, stat!
Continue Reading "The Ads Are Their Credit: Eastern Motors" »
HAVING GROWN UP in an era when you had to drive to the old Capital Center to see most of Washington's sports teams play, I find the idea of keeping the locals inside city limits appealing.
I hope D.C. United gets its new stadium in Southeast, and I suspect it will, given the backing of former mayor Marion Barry and current Mayor Adrian Fenty. (Remember when Fenty was very against using public funds for sports venues?)
More than that, though, here is what I wish for: I dare to dream that someone will come into a huge stash of TNT and use it to blow FedEx Field to Timbuktu.
It seems so backward that the Wizards, Capitals, Nationals and United are playing in D.C., when the one team that enthralls the nation's capital more than any other is stuck in Prince George's County. And not only that, but the Redskins' stadium stinks — more than Heath Shuler ever did as a quarterback.
Lacking any atmosphere, and being not the most accessible of venues, FedEx Field is a monstrosity. I know Jack Kent Cooke tried to get a new home in Washington, but city officials balked at paying for better roads and infrastructure.
Now we are stuck paying for that mistake, as in that $35 parking fee Dan Snyder charges at the decrepit house Cooke built.
Perhaps D.C. has learned from losing the Redskins, which is why new stadiums keep cropping up. Now let's hope Fenty can save enough cash to lure back the one that got away.
Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post
GIVE THE REDSKINS credit.
At least they drafted like a team that doesn’t consider Jim Zorn a one-year experiment between Joe Gibbs and Bill Cowher.
Wide receiver was an area of need for a group switching to the West Coast offense. Sure, they went a little hog wild taking two wideouts and a tight end with their top three choices. Maybe they were hedging their bets.
The Redskins know better than most teams just how difficult it is to translate a receiver’s success in college to the pros.
Since 1992, Washington has selected a receiver in the first round three times: Desmond Howard (1992), Michael Westbrook (1995) and Rod Gardner (2001). "D'oh" best describes those picks.
Perhaps a more apt comparison may be the selection of Taylor Jacobs, who was deemed a first-round talent by Mel Kiper but slipped to the Redskins in the second round in 2003. He’s since fallen out of the league.
Devin Thomas appears to be a steal with the 34th pick, and Malcolm Kelly once thought he’d be a first-rounder. Maybe both will turn out great, but recent history is against it.
A strong defensive line is really overrated, anyway. It’s not like the Giants won a Super Bowl due to a great pass rush.
Sarcasm aside, choosing the best player available is a sound strategy. Safety wasn’t a need last year when the Redskins took LaRon Landry.
Imagine where they’d be without him now.
Photo by Joel Richardson/The Washington Post
THE NFL DRAFT is just one day away, and Redskins fans are wondering what the team's going to do with its whopping 10 picks. Will new coach Jim Zorn stay conservative or try to swing a draft-day trade? Will owner Dan Snyder redeem his unusually quiet off-season with a splashy draft?
Join Express' Matt Swenson and Ian Herbert at 11 a.m. to share your opinions on the Redskins' war-room tactics.
ON THIS DAY before one of our sports holidays, the NFL draft, let us give thanks to a few axioms that shall be true for all time.
There will always be room for another criminal in the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room, the New England Patriots will scour the New York Jets’ war room video trying to steal signals, and the Cincinnati Bengals can’t help but bungle things up.
The last item is of the most importance to Redskins fans.
As we all know, Washington, which heretofore has portended to finally believe in the draft, appears to be desperate to take disgruntled wide receiver Chad Johnson off Cincinnati’s hands.
In Dan Snyder’s typical style, the Redskins have no interest in fleecing the Bengals in a trade. They’d rather overpay — and drastically at that — to get a poison pill.
A first-rounder and a third-rounder who could turn into a second No. 1 choice were offered to Marvin Lewis and company, who, for some reason, rejected the proposal.
Lewis essentially saved the Redskins from themselves.
Johnson is a fine player — I’d trade a second-round pick for him — yet, let’s put this in perspective. Randy Moss cost the Patriots a fourth-round pick one year ago, and he’s far better than Ocho Cinco.
The scary part is that, knowing Snyder, the Redskins won’t give up. They may well offer all of their first-round picks for the rest of the decade to get the loud-mouthed talent.
At least we can always count on Cincinnati to make the wrong decision.
Photo by Doug Pensigner/Getty Images
THE LAST FEW WEEKS have been a blast for former Oklahoma wide receiver Malcolm Kelly. Like many NFL prospects, Kelly has been flying around the country talking to teams in preparation for Saturday's draft. Express caught up with Kelly shortly after he visited the Redskins to discuss what his life has been like leading up to the draft.
» EXPRESS: What have the last couple weeks been like for you?
» KELLY: I guess I went to about seven teams: Buffalo, Cincinnati, the Vikings, the Steelers. Then I went the next week from Washington to Dallas to San Francisco. I just got back from San Francisco early Saturday morning.
» EXPRESS: What has it been like?
» KELLY: It's been good being able to meet the coaches and stuff, but you're probably in the air more than you are on the ground. But it's been cool, like I said, to get a chance to meet the coaches and stuff. It's been worthwhile.
» EXPRESS: Tell me a little bit about your talk with the Redskins?
» KELLY: I talked to all of them, the head coach, the owner — I talked to all of them. They were real cool and down to earth. We just talked about football really and what I can bring to the table and stuff like that. It went real well. They showed me around the facilities and stuff like that. I sat down and met with [Santana] Moss for a little bit. It was cool. It was a real good trip.
Continue Reading "Off the Field: Former Oklahoma WR Malcolm Kelly" »
Express sports columnist Matt Swenson calls 'em as he sees 'em.
TO BE HONEST, I DON'T KNOW a whole lot about Jim Zorn, but here are two observations related to his hiring: Matt Hasselbeck did not leave Boston College as a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback, and the West Coast offense has never been run effectively in Washington.
To start on a positive note, Hasselbeck's progress in Seattle should give Redskins fans hope that Jason Campbell's future is in the right hands. Of course, no one here really knows how much credit goes to Zorn or to Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who has coached Hasselbeck and Brett Favre — before he was a legend — to the Super Bowl.
Addison Road
