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July 29, 2003 It is with baited breath that I await Monday Night and this year’s Hall of Fame game. In recent years the NFL has added games that have preceded it but in my mind the HOF game is always the official beginning to the National Football League preseason, which means the regular season is just around the corner. I became a football fan in the early eighties watching Joe Gibbs, John Riggins and the Hogs win Super Bowl XVII. I remember back then when football season rolled around I could feel that excitement and electricity in the air so much more than I can now. I remember football season was heralded in, at least to me with the sounds of the game; the signals of the quarterback, the pop of the helmets, the roar of the crowd and the way Red Cashion used to call a first down: "First Downnnnnnn!" Now it seems that it's more like the cha ching of cash registers, the slam of prison doors and the unholy clamor of big stars running their big mouths. As a Redskin fan the beginning of the season is sort of like the lady or the tiger. It seems the 'Skins always seem to make some sort of progress or improvements in the off season and when September rolls around they blow it somehow. Also I've always wondered why the Redskins can get so many players, Dana Stubblefield is one example, who did so well at the teams they were with before the Redskins and then they do well at the teams they are with after the Redskins, but while they're in Washington they seem to forget how to play. Every year the supposed experts in the Post tout the Redskins choices up until about a month or month and a half into the season. Then the supposed experts wonder what's wrong. I was on a Washington Post discussion board year before last that would be the season that "Danny Boy" Snider paid $100 million in drafting over the hill players, and someone used the term "county club mentality." That made sense. It seems that players and coaches for that matter get to Washington and get this mindset that: "We're getting paid anyway, we don't have to try hard, and we don't have to put our bodies on the line." and it shows. Even Steve "Superior" Spurrier who was supposed to be the Redskin’s savior this past year announced that he wasn't going to put in the long hours that other coaches did, even naming Saint's coach Jim Haslett as one example. Last I heard he said that he's going to put in those hours this season, well good for you Steve! It seems that this year the acquisitions that the Redskins have made are a little more level headed. Players like Trung Candidate, Laveranues Coles and Scott Hall are not stars by any stretch of the imagination but they could make the Redskins slowly start to improve rather than turn them into the next dream team overnight like Snyder always seems to want. Still I'm a little apprehensive. I guess I'm going on the "believe it when I see it” mentality. Maybe they will improve this year I hope they do, I think the fans are due, but then again so are the Bengal's fans and they're way more patient than I am. We'll see how it works out. Then maybe those crazy Indians will leave the Redskins alone, don't these people have something more to worry about than what sports teams are naming themselves?
Then there are some other questions that I'm
sure are burning a black mark on the brains of
football players everywhere: |
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