Good Lord, for the Love of All that is Good in this World, Make it Stop!

(Bill Belicheck, left, clubs Joe Gibbs, right)

Since the blog has been quiet for a while I thought about liveblogging this game, but hey, I'm lazy. That and I think if I was actually registering the beatdown that the Skins are taking I'd try and hide in a swimming pool like Dustin Hoffman in "The Graduate".

On a lighter note, as I'm writing this during halftime and listening to Terry Bradshaw "read" highlights, I found myself wondering: is he drunk or just brain damaged?

Auf Wiedersehen!

Soon, me and my blushing bride will be leaving America for a while. I will try to blog thoughtfully on the sports of Germany, but my heart will always be watching DC, the Redskins, and loser players. (B. Loyld, one completed pass in one game does not a receiver make).
Auf Wiedersehen!

1491 to now

If the sight of these two Cleveland fans in Indian-face doesn't give you pause about mascots like "Indians" or "Redskins," you're too busy rooting for laundry to see the big picture. As a teacher, I proudly displayed the big Skins mug in my classroom, until I had students who were of Native American descent... Kids always put things into perspective.
In my current hometown, legions of Braves fans do the ridiculous tomahawk chop and faux Indian war-chant not far from where the Trail of Tears started. The point is that they are just names, names we grew up with, names we're invested in; how hard would it be just to do the right thing and, out of courtesy for the past, find new ones that didn't have their root in old ignorances? Just a thought as the Dalai Lama is feted by this White House and the Armenian genocide is finally recognized by Congress. 1491 by Charles C. Mann is a worthy read.

Pwned, Baby!

It's times like these that I wish the NFL TV Distribution map didn't constantly flirt with the area I go to school in like a drunk sorority girl; there's something about watching the graph lines and play summaries on gamecast that just doesn't compare to seeing a Redskins game the way it was meant to be seen: in my den, on my coach, with the fellow Sandy bloggers and Papa Sandy, Baby.

But what domination, what defense, what punting?

"Derrick Frost is one of the league's underrated punters who hits these impossibly high, booming kicks that a return man has no choice but to fair catch."

Uh, okay Mike. The Redskins have a really good player at the least important position in football. Great. But hey, he's just excited after such a good win, as is the Boz. I'm not even going to touch this headline.

But whaddayaknow? 3-1! And if Favre plays like the drunken intramural quarterback he looked like in the second half of Chicago game tonight, that could very well be 4-1.

I can't wait until all the "Bandwagon" questions start up. Go Skins.

The Big Picture

We all get caught up in the minutia the 24-hour sports news complex generates. We are told that to be sports fans we have to be. But the truth is that who the 14th man on the Wizard's roster is, who's calling the plays for the Skins, even the postmortem on the last win or loss, means little in the long run; that's all just rooting for the laundry, a la John Feinstein.
Give me consistent contenders over multiple years over flash-in-the-pan championships. They give you more hope, more reason to invest time and interest. So with that in mind, here are some glimpses of THE BIG PICTURE:

!) Can the Skins prove that their convoluted leadership structure can identify talent without a proven GM? Nothing is going to happen if they are saddled with Brandon Lloyds and Adam Archuletas. The first round drafting has been on par, but the top organizations mine the later rounds for lineman, potential and the depth that separates contenders from pretenders over the injury-riddled NFL season. Exhibits A & B are the current state of the O-line and the wide receiving corp. Keenan McKardell was good...back when Brunell was...
If not, are the Skins the Orioles circa 1998?

2) The college basketball teams are in good shape, with Gary Williams and now JT III in the fold for another 6 years. The coaches create the culture; the Hoyas and Terps will have a culture of winning far beyond 2010.

3) The Wiz have two big questions: can this group play decent defense as constituted or will they have to blow it up to find consistent stops at the end of the game? will Agent Zero re-sign at year's end? Both will get answered simultaneously, as the team will have to be signed around Arenas before he gets his 20 million. Big Picture 1A: will Gilbert define himself not by how good his team is on NBA Live 08, but how good they are in the standings? It's great to motivate yourself by how you are perceived, but at some point ya gotta start worrying less about perception, more about reality. Or don't they teach that at New School?

4) The Nats? Wake me up in 2009.

Meanwhile, don't sweat the wins and losses.