The guy's just a douche...

I played 5 seasons of College Football. Two years of club ball at George Mason, and three seasons in Division III at Hampden-Sydney. When I was first being recruited to HSC, they told me about their quarterback. He was a senior starter who was going have all the passing records by the time he was done. Seemed perfect right? Not so much. Admittedly we didn't have the best talent, but you'd think that a record setting QB would lift us up; didn't happen that way. If you were looking for all the bad qualities in a quarterback, this guy had them. He REALLY didn't like to get hit, he didn't like to work out, and he'd claim injuries bad enough to keep him from practicing, while never managing to get into the training room to get them worked on (which called his injuries into question). Add all of that to the fact that he really wasn't too friendly with most of the guys on the team and the whole situation wasn't good for morale.

Fast forward to the next year. We bring in a Quarterback who hadn't played in three years, but at one point had been a successful high school QB. He was also kinda goofy and deaf in one ear. But the guy played his ass off, was fearless, talked to everybody and played with injuries (separated shoulder in his first game). Despite the fact the guy wasn't the biggest fan of working out, we still loved him and played hard alongside our quarterback.

That story isn't exactly analagous to the Skins fight in the Georgia Dome with Falcons, but it’s pretty darn close. Earlier in the week on his radio show, Lavar Arrington was incredulous about how slow DeAngelo Hall's Redskins teammates were to come to his aid after he was surrounded by Falcons on their sideline (remember, that's after Hall ran over there, to extract late hitting LaRon Landry from the situation - though it looked like Hall was more interested in jawing than peacemaking)

From Dan Steinberg's DC Sports Bog

"You want to know what type of team you're cheering for, pull that clip up. Pull that up.... You had no heart. I don't care, you hearing me say it? Good. I don't need to be afraid, I don't need to be nervous. I see y'all don't get down like that. Y'all don't get down like no true riders....
"They're swarming DeAngelo, and nobody's helping him. I would have been up in that pile, oh, I'm telling you, it would have been WWF up in there.....I could have counted on one hand how many dudes was standing there, watching it. Watching it. That's why we can't win. You want to know why we can't win? It's clear and simple. That's why we can't win....
"I don't even know that I would rampage the way that I'm rampaging right now if it was the offense, because I know they're soft. I know you've got a bunch of soft dudes on the offensive side. This is the wrong side of the ball to see the behavior that we saw on Sunday. I'm sorry. Bodies should have been flying....
"There's gonna be a head count when I get finished, or you're gonna be picking me up off of the ground, whichever one comes first. I am all in. I would have ran into that crowd 100 miles an hour, smoking. Call me stupid, call me dumb, call me boneheaded, call me undisciplined, call me what you want to call me. That's a coach grabbing on my teammate, that's the head coach pushing on my teammate, saying I'm gonna kick your [behind]. I am running in that pileup head on, 100 miles an hour, let's go, CHOO CHOO! I don't care if I've got to walk in the locker room after that. I don't care. That's heart. We're playing with heart. I saw no heart. I saw no heart. I saw no dedication, no accountability for my fellow man out there on that field, and it came from the side of the ball that I would have never thought it would have came from."

Ok...in most situations I agree with LaVar. You have to stand up for your teammates, especially if the other team is intimidation mode. You have to show they aren't going to push you around.

But, this is a special case. Notice a few things from the fight; it seemed like the whole Falcon team was ready to kill DeAngelo Hall. Maybe that's because he was about to get in a fight with their head coach, maybe not. Maybe it’s the fact that the folks left over from Hall's time in Atlanta think he's selfish, overrated and was a bad teammate. Over on the other side of the ball, maybe the Skins didn’t rush to his aid because they’re all soft and have no heart. Maybe the Skins Defense didn’t defend him because they’re tired of DeAngelo getting paid much more than most everyone else, while not making textbook NFL tackles (Carolina game - Jake Delhomme, Atlanta game - Michael Turner, Giants game - Mario Manningham) due to a lack of effort or guts. I know, I know, DeAngelo gets paid to intercept passes, not tackle. Well, he's not Deion (thank goodness, I couldn't go through that again) and I've got 10 and 11 year olds on my B-League team that can make interceptions on tipped balls. Ain't that big of a deal and don’t get me started on how this guy points the finger every week, while never changing the way he plays.

I could be wrong on all of this; it’s possible. But put it this way; if it had been London Fletcher, or Cornelius Griffin or Rocky MacIntosh or LaRon Landry (and remember Landry was on the sideline before he calmly walked back on the field with the man he hit, Matt Ryan) or any other RESPECTED member of the team, would the Skins have sat idly by and let their teammate get roughed up?

The latest story illustrating why the Skins will never win big again...

From Deadspin.com by Drew Magary http://deadspin.com/5401513/if-dan-snyder-sees-bugs-you-better-well-see-them-too

I heard this story on LaVar Arrington's 106.7 FM radio show here in DC last week. A fan called in to tell Arrington and co-host Chad Dukes about an exterminator he knew. The exterminator was called to Snyder's house to spray for pests. When the exterminator arrived, the housekeeper instructed him where to go spray. But the exterminator found no signs of pests in the space. He came down to tell the housekeeper there was no need to spray, and he didn't want to take Snyder's money for a service the Redskins owner didn't need performed (clearly, this man was honest to a fault).

The housekeeper insisted the exterminator spray the area anyway, telling the man that Snyder hated to be told he was wrong, and that it would be better for everyone if he simply sprayed the area, took his money, and went about his business. But, he explained, there's nothing there. There's no need to spray. She insisted. Apparently, you REALLY do not want to tell Dan Snyder there are no pests in his house if he believes otherwise. So the man sprayed the area for no reason, took Snyder's money, and left.

And now you know why the Redskins are considering signing Larry Johnson.

God help us here in DC.

27 makes me think of '97...

Didn't watch a bit of the Yankees take home championship #27 tonight; just couldn't bring myself to do it. Kind of reminded me of the time the Cowboys beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl during my junior year of high school. By that point the Cowboys were established as a super team (even though ironically it would be the final time they would even come close to winning a Super Bowl) and I knew the Steelers - who due to Pennsylvania family ties, I had a rooting interest in - had no shot of beating Dallas. So, I hardly watched the game because I couldn't bring myself to watch the Cowboys celebrate. Pretty much like this series. Once the Yanks won two in Philly, I knew the Phills were done and I didn't want to watch New York be happy.

But when I see the Yankees do well, I can't help but think about my favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles. As a long suffering O's fan, it truly hurts to watch postseason baseball, because you know your team has no shot of making it. Between the fact that our organization is bad, and that we can't compete with the huge payrolls of the Yanks and Sox, no postseason ball is coming to Charm City anytime soon.

There was a time though, when the O's could stand toe to toe with the Yankees and actually compete. In 1996 Baltimore pulled off the upset of upsets, knocking off the defending AL Champion Indians before falling to the Yanks in the ALCS (if you'll remember that was the game where that little bastard Jeffrey Maier reached over the railing and kept Tarasco from catching the Jeter homer...Yankees take the lead and win the next four). Then in 1997 the O's were the team to beat. Knocked off New York for the division and then stomped Seattle in the wild card. We were going to the World Series! And then Armando Benitez blew a couple games and we pissed another one away on a crazy play and the Indians went on to the Series.

And that would be pretty much be it for Baltimore baseball fans. Peter Angelos would fire the manager the day he won the Manager of the Year award (because he had a rift with Robbie Alomar - the same one who spit on the ump and the same one who would play exactly one more year in B-more) and we haven't had a winning season since.

So pardon me if I can't bear to watch the Yankees win another World Series. It hurts too much. But, it could be worse...I could live in Pittsburgh. Sigh.