It's really all about the fans. And the money.
Tuesday 22 July 2008
WaPo training camp tracker: punter Durant Brooks, Jim Zorn's dodgeball drill, let the dancing jokes begin.
A crazy morning storm shut down the early practice and sent players, staff and fans alike scrambling for cover. Unfortunately for the fans, eligible cover did not include inside the Redskins Park building. The rain did not come early enough to prevent Clinton Portis from turning his ankle in the early practice. However, he returned in the afternoon practice and went full speed, getting creamed at one point by linebacker HB Blades.
Speaking of Clinton, in tailback grove Jim Zorn said something many coaches would not, that Clinton Portis is motivated by money (previewed by Jason LaCa here.). In the immediate aftermath of the Redskins playoff loss to the Seahawks in January, Clinton Portis let it be known that he was open to restructuring his contract which would have moved his salary cap number for the 2008 season to 8.4 million dollars.
My take at the time was that Clinton Portis, in the light of his 2007 preseason meltdown and then after the pain of Sean Taylor's death and the team healing and coming together for a four game run to make the playoffs to somehow make some football sense of Sean's death that his offer was premised on keeping the core team together, the Redskins football family. Well in just a few days and then weeks this team was blowed up with Joe Gibbs, Al Saunders, Gregg Williams and Clinton's position coach Earnest Byner all gone. Gone.
In April Clinton got his new deal, one that gave him more than 9 million dollars in signing bonus and 15 million guaranteed overall, through the 2010 season.
It is perhaps cynical for me to say that what Clinton may have lost in terms of respect for the team (all the departures in the wake of Sean's death when they came so far in such a short time, all in Sean's name) the team made up to him in cash (he's 26 with slowing production). Mike Wise thinks Clinton has grown up somewhat and that may be the case, Clinton had a lot of growing up to do so that fact may be true by default.
Many head coaches would realize admitting a player is motivated by money may have the effect of alienating that player, none of these rich guys wants to be seen as motivated primarily by money. Jim Zorn continues to exist without guile and establish himself as someone who is not as concerned about his media image and yet still not a dick like Buddy Ryan or Tom Coughlin. Maybe Jim Zorn is just a new age coach that is comfortable talking about players and money. All Clinton needs to do is stick around another two seasons to be the Redskins' all time leading rusher.
In coach county, Jason La Canfora at Redskins Insider already has seen enough to know that Jim Zorn and Joe Gibbs are going to shape up as verrruh different coaches. The words he uses for Jim Zorn are quote cool confidence unquote. We will see whether he learns to be humble in the face of early losses or if like Steve Spurrier he never loses confidence in his abilities. Steve Spurrier.
In defensive line burg Andre Carter would not give up his number 99 so Jason Taylor, a big fan of double number combinations, is taking 55 (op. cit.).
In linebacker town London Fletcher was excused from practice so he could be with his wife for the birth of his second child, they were expecting a boy (ibid.).
Jason LaCa at Redskins Insider has a good piece (op. cit.) on linebacker depth and how the Redskins need more of it. Their front line starters will not be able to contribute a lot on special teams, Rocky McIntosh is coming off a gruesome knee injury and London Fletcher and Marcus Washington are both over 30 (and Marcus has been injured the past two seasons). The next level of depth with HP Blades and Khary Campbell is primarily geared toward special teams but not as able to contribute on defense and the rest are marginal right now, expect the Redskins are looking at other teams' waiver wires.
In the quaint hamlet of offensive line, Jason La Canfora at the WaPo finally gets around to that worried piece on the offensive line, age and injuries are mounting, do they have one more good season of knock your ass down blocking left in the tank? For Curly R the offensive line has been a major concern all offseason and the age and experience and lack of young transitional players was one of my main arguments for bringing Brett Favre over to the Redskins.
In receiver estates I learned James Thrash is only 32, for some reason I thought he was older, like 40. Like Jason LaCa I was and still am worried about James, what with the Redskins adding three new pass catchers in the draft and a couple in free agency (hello Billy McMullen, Wahoowa!) it seemed to be pretty certain he was gone. However he appears to have impressed Jim Zorn and the offensive coaches, we will have to see whether the team tries to keep six receivers or three tight ends to see if there is room for James. Tips and tricks from the 2006 and 2007 Redskins: if James Thrash is on the field, 80 percent chance it is a running play.
In tight end township Chris Cooley is a preening whiner and Dan Steinberg needs to adjust his meds or find a bigger bottle of whiskey.
On the media front, Dan Dan the Sports Bog Man got dinged dinged the Dan Snyder Dinged for posting video of Redskins fans, videos he created, from Redskins Park on the Sports Bog. The WaPo made him take them down quote on advice of counsel unquote in the face of the NFL's year old rule on the prohibition of posting of video content on non NFL owned properties.* Let me tell you gentle readers that this is one of the biggest fucking bullshit policies in history and the NFL would do well to rescind it and instead work to differentiate their own video offerings. Policing this stuff is as stupid as the RIAA developing a public relations plan that was premised on suing its customers. Later in the day Dan was still lamenting.
Michael Farnham at Hog Heaven was at camp this day and has some photos and reviews.
CaptChaosSidekick at Hogs Haven noted that NFL guru Pat Kirwan thinks the Redskins are a top five NFL team coming into this training camp as far as depth.
* Dan Steinberg implies in his post that this is the policy of the team, not the league and empirically the level of restriction imposed by the team appears to be greater than that of the league. Information on the league's video posting policy from a year ago can be found here, here, here and here. I could not find anything about the Redskins' team policy on video, I did find this post from AOL Fanhouse on 2008 changes to the league's 2007 policy. lol, she compares this policy to Chinese government media policies.
Tuesday 22 July 2008
WaPo training camp tracker: punter Durant Brooks, Jim Zorn's dodgeball drill, let the dancing jokes begin.
A crazy morning storm shut down the early practice and sent players, staff and fans alike scrambling for cover. Unfortunately for the fans, eligible cover did not include inside the Redskins Park building. The rain did not come early enough to prevent Clinton Portis from turning his ankle in the early practice. However, he returned in the afternoon practice and went full speed, getting creamed at one point by linebacker HB Blades.
Speaking of Clinton, in tailback grove Jim Zorn said something many coaches would not, that Clinton Portis is motivated by money (previewed by Jason LaCa here.). In the immediate aftermath of the Redskins playoff loss to the Seahawks in January, Clinton Portis let it be known that he was open to restructuring his contract which would have moved his salary cap number for the 2008 season to 8.4 million dollars.
My take at the time was that Clinton Portis, in the light of his 2007 preseason meltdown and then after the pain of Sean Taylor's death and the team healing and coming together for a four game run to make the playoffs to somehow make some football sense of Sean's death that his offer was premised on keeping the core team together, the Redskins football family. Well in just a few days and then weeks this team was blowed up with Joe Gibbs, Al Saunders, Gregg Williams and Clinton's position coach Earnest Byner all gone. Gone.
In April Clinton got his new deal, one that gave him more than 9 million dollars in signing bonus and 15 million guaranteed overall, through the 2010 season.
It is perhaps cynical for me to say that what Clinton may have lost in terms of respect for the team (all the departures in the wake of Sean's death when they came so far in such a short time, all in Sean's name) the team made up to him in cash (he's 26 with slowing production). Mike Wise thinks Clinton has grown up somewhat and that may be the case, Clinton had a lot of growing up to do so that fact may be true by default.
Many head coaches would realize admitting a player is motivated by money may have the effect of alienating that player, none of these rich guys wants to be seen as motivated primarily by money. Jim Zorn continues to exist without guile and establish himself as someone who is not as concerned about his media image and yet still not a dick like Buddy Ryan or Tom Coughlin. Maybe Jim Zorn is just a new age coach that is comfortable talking about players and money. All Clinton needs to do is stick around another two seasons to be the Redskins' all time leading rusher.
In coach county, Jason La Canfora at Redskins Insider already has seen enough to know that Jim Zorn and Joe Gibbs are going to shape up as verrruh different coaches. The words he uses for Jim Zorn are quote cool confidence unquote. We will see whether he learns to be humble in the face of early losses or if like Steve Spurrier he never loses confidence in his abilities. Steve Spurrier.
In defensive line burg Andre Carter would not give up his number 99 so Jason Taylor, a big fan of double number combinations, is taking 55 (op. cit.).
In linebacker town London Fletcher was excused from practice so he could be with his wife for the birth of his second child, they were expecting a boy (ibid.).
Jason LaCa at Redskins Insider has a good piece (op. cit.) on linebacker depth and how the Redskins need more of it. Their front line starters will not be able to contribute a lot on special teams, Rocky McIntosh is coming off a gruesome knee injury and London Fletcher and Marcus Washington are both over 30 (and Marcus has been injured the past two seasons). The next level of depth with HP Blades and Khary Campbell is primarily geared toward special teams but not as able to contribute on defense and the rest are marginal right now, expect the Redskins are looking at other teams' waiver wires.
In the quaint hamlet of offensive line, Jason La Canfora at the WaPo finally gets around to that worried piece on the offensive line, age and injuries are mounting, do they have one more good season of knock your ass down blocking left in the tank? For Curly R the offensive line has been a major concern all offseason and the age and experience and lack of young transitional players was one of my main arguments for bringing Brett Favre over to the Redskins.
In receiver estates I learned James Thrash is only 32, for some reason I thought he was older, like 40. Like Jason LaCa I was and still am worried about James, what with the Redskins adding three new pass catchers in the draft and a couple in free agency (hello Billy McMullen, Wahoowa!) it seemed to be pretty certain he was gone. However he appears to have impressed Jim Zorn and the offensive coaches, we will have to see whether the team tries to keep six receivers or three tight ends to see if there is room for James. Tips and tricks from the 2006 and 2007 Redskins: if James Thrash is on the field, 80 percent chance it is a running play.
In tight end township Chris Cooley is a preening whiner and Dan Steinberg needs to adjust his meds or find a bigger bottle of whiskey.
On the media front, Dan Dan the Sports Bog Man got dinged dinged the Dan Snyder Dinged for posting video of Redskins fans, videos he created, from Redskins Park on the Sports Bog. The WaPo made him take them down quote on advice of counsel unquote in the face of the NFL's year old rule on the prohibition of posting of video content on non NFL owned properties.* Let me tell you gentle readers that this is one of the biggest fucking bullshit policies in history and the NFL would do well to rescind it and instead work to differentiate their own video offerings. Policing this stuff is as stupid as the RIAA developing a public relations plan that was premised on suing its customers. Later in the day Dan was still lamenting.
Michael Farnham at Hog Heaven was at camp this day and has some photos and reviews.
CaptChaosSidekick at Hogs Haven noted that NFL guru Pat Kirwan thinks the Redskins are a top five NFL team coming into this training camp as far as depth.
* Dan Steinberg implies in his post that this is the policy of the team, not the league and empirically the level of restriction imposed by the team appears to be greater than that of the league. Information on the league's video posting policy from a year ago can be found here, here, here and here. I could not find anything about the Redskins' team policy on video, I did find this post from AOL Fanhouse on 2008 changes to the league's 2007 policy. lol, she compares this policy to Chinese government media policies.
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