Open Letter to Daniel Snyder

Redskins Park
Landover, MD 28902

Dear Mr. Snyder,

I know we've never had the best relationship. I've derided you as The Danny, the owner who pays too much for over-the-hill players like Bruce Smith, fired Norv Turner in the middle of the season, and only seeks coaches who make you giggle like a school girl during a Brad Pitt movie.

But I've always known you're a passionate Redskins fan and I praised you when you raised Joe Gibbs from NASCAR purgatory. I thought such an act washed you clean of your previous sins.

Now with the decision to bypass Gregg Williams as head coach let me be absolutely clear with where I stand: f#!k you.

Never in a thousand years should you have passed over Gregg Williams for the top job. Never. The team is still recovering from a roller-coaster season, needs stability, and Gregg is the man. You apparently did not even heed the advice of your idol Joe Gibbs. I know technically Gregg departed on his own, but only after you treated him poorly.

Who knows what the future holds. Perhaps you'll find a great coach (not Fassel!). Perhaps we'll do well next season. But from here, it seems you have destroyed the team chemistry built under Gibbs and have made the team a mockery in the league.

If I'm wrong, I'll admit it here. But I am tired of you and what you have done to my hometown team.

Sincerely,

Lil Bro

PLEASE GOD NO

Back for More Links

Your faithful blogmaster is back with some linkage, but first I'd like to commemorate our 100th posting (which happened last month) with this special behind the scenes insight into the Sandy, Baby blogging process:




Now back to a regular post:



(from BlackSportsOnline (obviously) via Deadspin).

I'm praying that image isn't doctored, I think Chad Johnson can talk a little bit too much but he seems to be far from a Terrell Owens or as bad as Randy Moss can be. The Skins biggest need probably is wide receiver as well, as Santana and Randle El are good but were inconsistent and injury prone this past season. That and a solid young defensive back would be nice (but who doesn't need that?). Why not trade a first rounder for a sure thing? Wish there was some more reporting on this.

This is about the funniest thing you'll read for a while.

"Yes, yes! Cry your tasty tears of overreaction UNC fans!"



UPDATE: Here's an important and breathtaking video somehow taken from Hitler's last days in power. Amazing video quality for such an important piece of history.

(via Kissing Suzy Kolber).

Choking Points

• Tony Romo and Yoko Romo: I love it! A local radiohead observed that current high school seniors have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game during their entire school careers. America's team is back! On the couch, watching the playoffs on TV. Of course the Skins have mustered, cough, TWO playoff wins in that timeframe, so let's not be bragging too hard. But let's revel just a bit in the worst choke job by the Cowboys since, well, last year. Any reason to think the Skins, with an upgrade, can't take these guys next year?

• Speaking of the Skins, I think I'm off my Saer Sene-like infatuation with Bill Cowher as the next head coach. Let's bring in Double-G and see what he can cook up in 3 years, say. Always a chance to change it up then.
  
• Pros: constancy, tough guy, great D, player support, the annointed one(?)
• Cons: offense change imminent(?), poor communicator (freezing players out w/o explanation), not so hot run in Buffalo
• Would love to see an in-dpeth look at Double-G's time in Buffalo -- what he did right, what he did wrong. That could tell us a lot.

• How bout them Wizards? Just as the Celtics seem like the second coming of the 72-10 Chicago Bulls, Caron and the guys hit them in the mouth not once, but twice. Suddenly Boston finds itself 30-6, and I don't see them going 43-3 to break the record. Almost time for the '96 Bulls to pop some champagne... And this just when it seemed like the absence of Arenas's finishing ability was catching up to them. It will be interesting to see them blend Gil into their newfound team concept. As I told Ollie before the season started: this team will be at its best with Arenas averaging 23 points a night and getting others involved more often. Clearly DeShawn, Mason and Haywood are ready to pitch in regularly, with Nick Young needing just a bit more maturity before he can be relied on night-in and night-out.
  

• Farewell to one of the funniest, well-written blogs around: The Coach Is Killing Me.

• A story that has flown largely under the radar of major media has been the controversy surrounding sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who moved up from the 100 and 200 meters to race the 400 as a paralympic athlete. The "blade runner" raced 46.9 this past summer to come within shouting distance of times that would qualify him for the Olympics. To be competitive at the world level a runner must be able to break 45 seconds, and American Jeremy Wariner is on track to make a go of trying to break Michael Johnson's 43.18 world record. The point of contention is Pistorius's prosthetic limbs, his "blades" and how much advantage they give him. Selena Roberts of the New York Times wrote this editorial this summer in support of Pistorius competing against an open field, decrying the IAAF's concern about possible advantages he might have.
  

• They uttered the preface of false sensitivity — “with all due respect” — as the sport’s officials launched into an insolent logic that ended with a warped depiction of a disabled athlete as the lucky one:
  
  Your technology is such a gift that it cheats our human triumphs. Our image of courage is undermined by your annoying persistence. Now, if you could kindly retreat to the Island of Misfit Toys so our vision of an athlete will remain unthreatened...

• Well, research done at the bequest of the IAAF, by Professor Peter Brüggemann at the German Sport University in Cologne (perhaps Lil Bro can get a Sandy, Baby exclusive interview?), had determined that Pistorius has great advantages conferred by his Cheetah prosthetics. The excellent analysis by blogspot neighbors The Science of Sports breaks this down.
  

• Analyzing Pistorius's advantage or disadvantage is complex stuff. Equipped with the Cheetahs, he has some disadvantages (like a very slow start) that must be figured into the equation. But even to a novice track aficianado like myself, it was apparent from early on that his races were run like no other 400 meter runners. Typically Pistorius would start slow, then gain on competitors over the final 100 meters. While so many other 400 meter runners were fighting to slow down the least, Pistorius was still going strong. Brüggemann's research showed that the carbon-fibre prosthetics convey a number of different advantages that leave Pistorius with more gas at the end of the race (The Science of Sports estimates possibly an advantage of 5-10 seconds). While supporters of the blade runner's bid to compete in the Olympics, like Roberts, want him able to participate because of the great, heart-warming, inclusive story it would make, the implications of the impact of technology on fair competition clearly have been shown to be severe. The best analogy, that no one I've read has brought up, is that of wheelchair racers. They compete on the track, on the roads, in marathons, but the advantages their wheels give them would make it patently unfair to throw them in a race against runners. Pistorius's prosthetics throw him into the same class. This, surely, not the last time new technology will raise complex questions about sport.
  
• The sad truth is that we will never know how fast Oscar Pistorius would run with legs; it all ends in conjecture and guesswork. We know how fast he can go on his Cheetahs, and it is a marvel. But the playing field must remain level, or it's unfair to everyone. No matter how good the story.
  

We all go down together

This was a tough one. I don't think I've been this defeated since Super Bowl XVIII.
I watched the game in a bar with a pack of Seattle fans in front of me. One had this whistle-holler yell he let out each time his team put Collins on his back or scored. I got so sick of it.
So in those glorious few minutes in the second half, when the Redskins did seem to have a charmed life -- or at least a guardian angel looking out for them -- I was thrilled to have silenced the Seahawk fans. When we appeared to score our third touchdown on the kickoff, I was out of my seat, high-fiving other 'Skins fans, Hail to the Redskins started to come out ... and then it was called back ... and then Suisham missed a gimmie field goal ... and Landry's second interception didn't do anything ... and then the whiny joy of that Seattle booster returned.
At this time we usually start the What-the-Team-Needs-in-the-Future chat -- should Gibbs stay, how do we improve the O-line, do we keep Collins?
But instead, for now I'll just marvel that the team got this far. And honored their friend so well.