No short-term fixes for the Redskins, and no surprises either

Written by Scott Hirsch on .

Redskins fans have mood swings that make PMS seem stable in comparison.  One day, we are ready to fire everyone for this mess.  The next day "really, if we beat the Eagles and the Cowboys over the next 2 weeks we could be in it again?"

I have to admit, the lure of this thought is like a giant suction valve for me too trying to pull me under the bus.
 
The reality is that the Redskins still aint fixed.   Leonard Hankerson is still going to be dropping balls (especially the long passes), Polumbus is still going to let defensive tackles hammer RG3, the secondary is still going to give up big plays and tons of small ones, Fletcher still is too short to cover today's giant tight ends, there still will be no pass rush, Shanahan is still going to run stupid 3rd down plays, and the coaches will still be way too slow to react and properly adjust.
 
Brandon Banks, Redskins
I mean the fact that Banks is still on the team given his horrific performance this year just shows how slow the coaches react.  On the other hand, rookies and second year players will get better - over the next 2 years.  NOT over the bye week.  And they wont get better with this coaching staff that is enamored by fancy play calls and formations over developing players in the fundamentals of catching, running routes, blocking, tackling, and covering receivers.
 
The Redskins need to drop the football nerd coaching staff and find a staff that can train a team in the fundamentals day in and day out, execute basic plays well over exotic plays executed poorly and fire them up with motivational impassioned speech.  They need 3-4 years to get past the dual salary cap/no first round draft pick cap.
 
Now they we have that out of our system, let's hope they do kick the stuffing out of the Eagles and the Cowboys.  But let's not be surprised if they don't.
 
Image: November 12, 2011 - Source: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images North America via zimbio.com.
 
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Football players going broke, 5 big names, 5 bad investors

Written by Anthony Brown on .

I look at football players, all pro athletes really, and just shake my heads. Didn't these guys go to college, or attend classes? Has no one told them that U.S. Savings Bonds are better for their money than some of the investments that impoverished them?

The talents behind AccountingDegree.com tells the story of five famous, well-paid NFL stars who could not handle their success. Our old friends Lawrence Taylor, Terrell Owens and Michael Vick are on this list. Take a look.

Please Include Attribution to AccountingDegree.com With This Graphic
Benched and Broke Infographic

Smart investing is boring – real boring. Maybe too slow for a mindset geared for aggression and quick results. I wonder if that's why I never read these stories about baseball players. Just sayin'.

I take issue with one of the conclusions. The graphic advises athletes to be sure their advisor is someone they  trust. OF COURSE they trusted their advisors. You think they dumped a shirtload of money on a guy on the corner?

The better advice is to trust advisors who've proven they've invested with success before. You know the type – an advisor who has trained as hard in their field as the player does in his (or hers). That, and don't put every cent in some dream scheme. That's what savings bonds are for. 

 

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Did the Redskins get the Redskins Rule wrong?

Written by Anthony Brown on .

I could say – purely as a joke – that the Washington Redskins couldn't even get the Redskins Rule right. Voters reelected Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency. That was supposed to happen only if the Redskins won their home game against the Carolina Panthers. And they should have beaten a one-win team at home, but I digress.

Time to add a Massachusetts Corollary to the Redskins Rule. It does not apply when the challenger is from the Bay State. Hat/tip to my friends at DC Pro Sports Report for pointing that out to me.

Hog Heaven is mildly surprised by the outcome, given the Redskins Rule, but very surprised by how quickly the results were known. I was prepared for an all-nighter. The networks called the election before Midnight Eastern Time.

The election wasn't nearly as close as the media suggested. It was pretty much an Electoral College landslide – Obama 332, Romney 206. The Obama/Biden ticket won 278 Electoral College votes in 2008. 

News people cover these things like sporting events. 

The consensus of responses to my tweet is that the NFL Network would do the better job covering politics as a sporting event. I don't know. We are speaking of Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin whose thoughts go no deeper than the most recent play.

God blesses America. May He continue to do so. This is a good time to remind everyone – voters, Republicans, Democrats, and especially Redskins players – that we set our own destinies. Now, go do it.

Can we all just get along?" ~ Rodney King
 

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The culture change the Redskins need now, advice from Josey Wales

Written by Anthony Brown on .

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Republican Redskins elect Romney

Written by Anthony Brown on .

 

Truth is, Hog Heaven needs recovery time after the Redskins pulled that stinker against the Panthers yesterday. So do you. So does head coach Mike Shanahan who, for the past three weeks, looked as if his every orifice were tightly clinched.

Mitt Romney welcomed Washington's 21-13 loss. According to urban legend and Wikipedia, Republicans, the borrow and spend crowd, will sweep their way into the White House. (Hey, tax cuts aren't free, people.) It's as if the 'Skins were trying to lose. 

I know that's not true. Football games don't actually influence elections any more than voters influence football games. Go vote tomorrow. Voters, like the Redskins, must create their own destinies.  

Another typical Redskins November when a player says now is the time we find out who is serious about winning and who is here just for the money. Cliche's aside, adversity teaches something about ourselves.

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Redskins must be Presidential against Panthers

Written by Anthony Brown on .

I am worried. The Redskins are universally favored to beat the Panthers today. When, in the Snyder-Cerrato era, have the Redskins beaten a beatable team?

Sportsbook Bovada.lv set Washington as 3½-point favorites over Carolina.


To say the Redskins will win today is to predict an election day win for Barack Obama, by the Redskins Rule

"If the Redskins win their last home game before the election, the party that won the previous election wins the next election. If the Redskins lose, the challenging party's candidate wins." ~ Wikipedia (You can always trust Wikipedia.)

The Redskins Rule is a trend, not a prediction. The outcome of Washington's last home game before a presidential election has foreshadowed the outcome in 17 of the last 18 national elections. Correlation is not necessarily causative as my old statistics professor would say.

Voters have made up their minds by this point. To judge by the number of new cars I've seen on the streets since Spring, I believe the outcome has already been decided – until the president whiffed that field goal in the first debate, anyhow. The game itself has no more influence on the election than voters have on the game. The gods of football may be trying to tell us something today.

This would be a good time to quote the late Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory 

"Baseball is what we were. Football is what we have become." 

ESPN's Accuscore Countdown projects the Redskins as 58 percent favorites based, oddly, on which quarterback has the best day running.

Predictionmachine.com had Washington winning 58 percent of the simulations it ran preseason when everyone was healthy.

What are the odds Redskins receivers hang on to the ball? Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and a legion of Redskins fans want to know. 
 

Redskins throwback knit cap

Hog Heaven will be rocking his throwback Redskins knit cap for Washington's Homecoming Game.

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Redskins bring the burgundy back to Burgundy and Gold this weekend against Panthers

Written by Anthony Brown on .

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles showed us hot not to do throwback uniforms – convincing evidence that Pennsylvanians are color blind. Those uniforms are invariably called ugly by everyone but homers.

Washington Redskins uniforms, 1930s
The Washington Redskins uniforms are improvements on two counts. It does not recall a uniform that should never be seen again. It commemorates a period when the team actually won something.

The Steelers were a stinker 2-10-0 franchise in 1934, the year they unveiled those colors. The Redskins won it's first NFL championship in 1937. It's 80th-Anniversary unis are based on that period – sorta. 

The new throwbacks are not replicas of the 1930's colors. They are a blend of  the 1930s through 1960s colors should pop better on HDTV than the originals. 

Sports Illustrated, 2002
I went to my first live Redskins game in 1962 (please ... don't do the math), before Sonny Jurgensen joined the team. Those old wine-colored jerseys were the flashiest in the NFL that has yet to be accurately captured in any of the throwbacks. Those colors were acceptable on black & white TV, in days when fortunate families had a TV set, and only one at that. They were drab after Disney and Bonanza drove demand for color television.

(Actual quote: "No, son. The TV isn't broken. That movie is supposed to be black & white.

"Well, who wants to see a movie that's not in color." Goes back to video game.)

Washington went to the Spearhead logo in 1965. Younger readers have an impression that the Redskins copied the design from the Florida State Seminoles rather than the accurate other way around. 

Sonny Jurgensen, Vince Lombardi, Sports Illustrated, 1969
Vince Lombardi's effort (as I recall, don't quote me) to restore a winning mindset to the moribund franchise led to brightening the jersey from wine to red and the pants from gold to yellow. Lombardi called it Championship Gold. No photograph i've seen did justice to those legacy wine-colored jerseys.

A season later, Lombardi changed that scheme imitation Packers with yellow helmets and a Circle-R logo. Lombardi did not live to see that uniform in a live game. Fortunately, it was short-lived.

Washington moved to its familiar uniform with the Buffalo Nickel helmet logo in the 1972 season.

Redskins 80th Anniversary throwback jersey
Washington will wear its homecoming, 80th Anniversary throwbacks this Sunday, November 4, at home against the Carolina Panthers. Redskins tickets are still available.

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