Are Baseball and Hockey the Only Hope in DC

If you are a DC sports fan of my generation, you have been subjected to a pretty painful few decades. DC has not won a professional sports championship since Mark Rypien, Art Monk and co. took us to the promised land in 1992’s Superbowl XXVI. I was nine at the time and my parents took me down to the parade in downtown DC to celebrate. I’ll never forget it. It’s the type of celebration that everyone should get to be a part of in their lifetime.

It’s not too clear when we’ll have another world championship parade in DC. Clearly the Redskins won’t be the team. We turned the ball over 6 times today in a devastating 31-7 loss to our divisional rival New York Giants. It was embarrassing and emblematic of the types of losses we have seen from this team since Dan Snyder took ownership in 1999. I hate to say it but we will not win another NFL championship so long as he owns the team. It pains me to say it but its true.

The Washington Wizards won’t be the ticket either. Sure we’ve got John Wall but who else? Nick Young? Andre Blatch? Andre had a good season last year but is not the type of player I would invest my NBA championship aspirations in. I won’t even mention Agent Zero or whatever the hell name he goes by nowadays. I never thought he was a winner but after gungate and his actions since then, it’s clear that we will not be winning anything big with this guy on our team.

This leaves us with Hockey and Baseball. The Nationals made a huge move today signing Jayson Werth to a 7 year 127 million dollar contract. Werth brings World Series and heavy playoff experience to a young Nationals squad that hasn’t played in those big games. We lost Adam Dunn but kept the rest of our roster intact and will have Strasburg and Bryce Harper at our disposal. Combining guys like Werth with this stable of young talent could take this franchise to the next level.

We also have a lot of hope on the ice. With the best player in hockey as their star, the Washington Capitals were supposed to win the Stanley cup last season but had an incredibly disappointing loss in the first round of the NHL playoffs. It was the first time a one seed lost to an eight in hockey. The Capitals have the same team on the ice this season and should threaten for the Cup if they are able to pull things together at the right time.

Even though our basketball and football teams have no shot, its still exciting to be a DC sports fan. I can’t wait for the next parade however it comes.

Related Articles

• The 10 greatest sports dynasties that never happened (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• Jayson Werth Agrees To Seven-Year $126 Million Deal With Washington Nationals (bleacherreport.com)

Hail to the Redskins!

Drop the hammer Laron

The Redskins are 1-0! The Redskins are 1-0 and they just beat the Cowboys! They just beat the Cowboys!!!! I just had to get that out. A lot of people have been saying that the Redskins got lucky last night and only won the game because of the call. It is true that if the call wasn’t made, we would have lost but that call was made because Orakpo made a hell of a play coming off the edge on the final play of the game and was held! Without that hold Orakpo would have made a late night snack out of Romo. He got a great jump on the play and capitalized on the fact that the Cowboys’ offensive tackle was vulnerable and made him commit the hold.

It’s easy to point to the Cowboys’ mistakes because there were tons of them but we have to point to what the Skins did to win this game too. The Cowboy’s should have taken a knee before halftime but they didn’t. The Redskins’ defense capitalized on this mistake took the ball from them and ran it into the endzone to go into the locker room. Our defense stepped up and made a huge play when they had the opportunity and did so throughout critical points in the game.

Albert Paynesworth

You want me to work hard? That's not in my contract.

Sally Jenkins wrote a great column in the Post this weekend comparing the track records of the highest paid tween of all time (Haynesworth has consistently displayed the maturity of a 14 year old) and the Skins’ new coach Mike Shanahan. Here are some excerpts:

Who do you think is going to win the contest of wills between Albert Haynesworth and Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan? The guy who once played a football game with a ruptured kidney and didn’t go to the hospital until he filled a sink with vomit three times and urinated bright red blood – or the guy who felt a little faint and headachy and spit up when he got out of the hot tub?

I think I’m taking the guy with the ruptured kidney. Players who have bought in to Shanahan’s system have done very well for themselves and have gone to great lengths to make sure they are there for their teams:

Haynesworth should take the trouble to read in Shanahan’s book about his conflict with Pryce, his star defensive tackle in Denver. Pryce, a first-round draft choice for the Broncos in 1997, drew Shanahan’s ire when he was continually late, which Shanahan considered “completely disrespectful.” Shanahan fined him to the tune of about $15,000, but Pryce continued to be a problem. Then Pryce missed a team flight in a snowstorm one Saturday in October of ’97 for a road game with the Buffalo Bills. Denver was socked with about 22 inches of snow. Other players managed to fight their way to the team facility through the storm. Shanahan watched them come in the doors crusted in ice. Some guys even rode on snowmobiles to get there. Everyone made it except for Pryce, who didn’t answer his phone, and missed the flight.

It will be interesting to see how this story plays out but Haynesworth should do himself a huge favor and get on board. The train’s leaving with or without him. Read the full article here.

On another note, I have decided not to cover any more preseason football games because of Saturday night’s performance at FedEx Field.

Hail to the Redskins

I have been a Skins fans since before I can remember. There are baby pictures of me dressed up in skins gear before I could even walk. Growing up, one of my best friends and his family were huge Cowboys fans. I’m not really sure how we got along. Every Sunday one of our families would receive a call from the other mocking the loser’s team. As a Skins fan in the 90s, this was a pretty even exchange because we had some great teams during the twilight years of Jack Kent Cook’s ownership of the team. When the skins would win, we would call our friends and sing the Redskins fight song into their voicemail. They never answered the phone when the Cowboys lost. I have not felt the need to sing Hail to the Redskins in years but after Friday’s mollywhopping of the Buffalo Bills I’m hoping I’ll have a few opportunities this season.

Everyone says, you can’t take too much from preseason games especially when that game is against the worst team in the league. There’s a lot of truth to that but you have to look at the way the Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills on Friday to really gauge their preparedness for this season. Unfortunately I had to listen to the game on the radio while I drove out to BWI but I was able to feel the excitement of the game through Sonny Jergunson’s voice.

Weekend Wrap Up

This was a huge weekend in sports. The World Cup started on Friday and we’ve had games every morning and afternoon since. The USA tied England on Saturday 1-1 with the England goalkeeper letting in one of the softest goals in the history of the World Cup and maybe the sport. Ghana beat Serbia 1-0 and Germany pummeled Australia 4-0 on Sunday. If you want to catch some of the action at work ESPN3.com is by far your best bet if you’re on the right ISP or at least have an account with one of them.

Fail.

I might start watching the games on Univision… Some of ESPN’s broadcasts have literally put me to sleep.

In the NBA finals Boston took a big W at home and has taken a 3-2 lead in the series. In order to close it out, Boston will have to win one of the last two games which will both be played in LA. On the other hand, LA will have to win back to back games at home which has not happened yet during this series in order to win the NBA Championship. The refs actually held their whistles for much of the game last night and were finally able to let the players get out there and give us a show.

More McNabb Criticism

It feels like Donovan McNabb has been thrown under the bus a lot during his 11 year career in the NFL. He has arguably faced more criticism than any other QB in the league during his time with the Eagles. Judging by the amount of heat he takes, one would think that he has done a lousy job in Philly but this isn’t the case. He consistently leads the Eagles deep into the playoffs and he took them to the Super Bowl during the 2004-2005 season. The latest hater is Desean Jackson and his comments were pretty outlandish.

First of all this kid has only been in the league for two seasons. He’s put up decent numbers but he didn’t do this on his own! Donovan was throwing to him and put him in positions to make big plays. Second of all, Jackson looks like he’s about 180 soaking wet and is simply unable to make plays across the middle of the field.  Sure he’s got tremendous speed but he doesn’t have the ability to use it across the middle. Most importantly, this is the same jackass that threw the ball away before getting into the end zone a couple seasons ago on Monday Night Football! He could have cost his team the game on what is one of the dumbest plays I have ever seen in pro sports.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the Eagles next season. Good luck to Desean and Kevin. I cannot wait to see McNabb in burgundy and gold settle his score with the Eagles. We’ll see what this kid has to say then.

McNabb to the Skins

Welcome to DC

What type of strange parallel universe are we in right now. After years and years of watching this guy light us up, Donovan McNabb is going to sport the burgundy and gold this season. No Lie!

I was watching T.V.  when “Donovan McNabb traded to the Washington Redskins” flashed across the bottom of the screen. I almost fell off of the couch. I couldn’t believe what I saw. The first thing this told me was that Allen and Shanahan have a clear direction and some balls. Allen found a way to bring in an arguable future hall of fame guy from our division rival. Oh, he’s also got some serious juice left in the tank (let’s hope). And for the first time in the new millennium, we have a proven quarterback who has shown over and over again that he can win. He has led the Eagles to five NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl. He does not have a super bowl ring and this will probably be the last team that he gets the opportunity to do this with.

This guy will be hungry. Based on reports coming out it seems like he’ll have a bone to pick with Philly. Read Here. Apparently he never felt respected or appreciated by their fans. That won’t be the case in D.C. Skins fans are some of the most loyal fans in sports period. We have suffered through a decade of disappointing seasons but we haven’t gone anywhere. I’m trying not to get too excited because we do have a history of signing veterans who come here and just fall off the face of the earth. Hopefully this won’t be the case with #5.

Prior to this trade, it was pretty clear that the skins would have to address their quarterback deficiencies in the draft. This trade allows Allen and Co. to build their team around a proven player and leader in Donovan. You see that picture. It was taken at the pro bowl. Who was the last Redskins QB to dawn that jersey??? Damned if I know.

Jason Campbell has had it rough, playing for what has probably felt like 3 million coaches and as many systems in the past 10 years. That sucks. Especially in his business. That said, what are we supposed to do, hold his hand and pray that he gets to play for the same coach and system for a few years while we suffer through embarrassing losses to EVERYONE in the league. Nope! That’s not how pro sports work. After a decade of disappointment I was ready for a change. This trade is it. Welcome to D.C. Donovan. Let’s work on getting some guys around him who can block and catch. There is no DeSean Jackson or offensive line in D.C. McNabb is able to buy himself some extra time but this cannot be our game plan.

With this trade, we have ushered in the McNabb, Shanahan and Allen era in Washington, D.C. Welcome.