Enjoy Your

HALLOWEEN

Distractions, Distractions

Thursday, October 30, 2008 - By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Among Ben Roethlisberger's stated concerns about playing the Washington Redskins is their cheerleaders.

That's what he said, anyway.

"I'm not a big fan of playing there because it is loud, they're really good at home and they try to make their cheerleaders stretch in our tunnel before we come out of the locker room. That's just not good," Roethlisberger said yesterday.

The practice by the Redskins cheerleaders was so legendary around the league that when commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a memo to all teams last year banning the practice some dubbed the "Redskins Rule."

"The couple of preseason games I've played down there, we've seen it," Roethlisberger said.
And it's a distraction?

"It can be, let's be truthful. They've done it before. I've heard a rumor that they're not allowed to do it anymore."

Philadelphia Gets a Championship

Conversations Over?

How To Get Jail Time For A Speeding Ticket - Watch more free videos

Two In a Row

Maryland Wins Homecoming in a Monsoon, Nail Biter

A Look at this Weeks Opposing Field General in Detroit

Go Skins!

Harrison Ford Voted Best Movie President: Poll

The top 10 movie Presidents who Americans would vote into office in real life according to the poll are;

1. Harrison Ford - "Air Force One" (1997)
2. Morgan Freeman - "Deep Impact" (1998)
3. Michael Douglas - "The American President (1995)
4. Bill Pullman - "Independence Day" (1996)
5. Kevin Kline - "Dave" (1993)
6. Dennis Quaid - "American Dreamz" (2006)
7. Bruce Greenwood - "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" (2003).
8. James Cromwell - "The Sum of All Fears (2002).
9. Jack Nicholson - "Mars Attacks" (1996)
10. Jeff Bridges - "The Contender" (2000).


I think they all forgot about one special actor. What do you think?

Remembering the 90's

Weekend Update: How You Feel Eskimos?

ICE COLD

Live from that Blue State it's

Sarah Night Live

In the Great State of Maryland We Had...

Yeah Terps!

What the hell happened against VA?

You can beat 3 top 25 ranked teams in one season and come up with a goose egg against UVA!

What are Cleveland Sports Writers Writing About?

Browns returner/receiver/running back/quarterback Josh Cribbs doesn't care if runs for a TD, passes for a TD or just has a good game -- as long as shows the Redskins what they missed when they didn't draft him.

Redskins' snub has Josh Cribbs jacked up for the game

by mcabot@plaind.com
Friday October 17, 2008, 11:43 PM

Josh Cribbs heads home to Washington, D.C., Sunday with an axe to grind against his beloved Redskins.
"I have a huge chip on my shoulder because they didn't draft me coming out of college," said Cribbs. "It's an honor for me to go back and show what I can do and basically put it in their face."


On Chris Cooley's site - Braylon Edwards said:
“We didn’t deserve it, but the Titans in the playoffs?” “Tampa Bay? The Redskins! You can’t tell me we couldn’t beat the damn Redskins.”

Get well soon...

...Nancy Reagan

Your Seattle Washington Redskins...

The Redskins are moving away from the New York Jets Human Resources system brought in several years ago by, then coach Steve Spurrier, and are now going forward with the West Coast Seattle Seahawks Human Resources system.

The new plan was really introduced early in the year when team owner, Dan Snyder, hired Seattle Quarterbacks Coach Jim Zorn. The plan was then tried on a trial basis to see how Washington would like it.

Proving the new system to be successful, so far, the Redskins hired 3 former Seahawks yesterday; RB, Shaun Alexander, S, Mike Green and K, Ryan Plackemeier.

The St. Louis Rams Biggest Threat

Punter; Donnie James

On STLtoday.com:

Redskins big favorite as Haslett makes Rams debut

LANDOVER, Md. (AP)

The St. Louis Rams roll into the nation's capital Sunday with a winless record, a new coach and a team that is struggling in every statistical category - except punting.
Donnie Jones is booming away, probably because he's getting so many chances. He's leading the NFL with an impressive 52.7 average.
And the Washington Redskins? Sure, they're one of the hottest teams in the league, but their rookie punter, Durant Brooks, is at the absolute bottom of the pile with a mere average of 39.3.

Dallas Tri-fecta Watch

With dumb ass Cowboys Terrell Owens and Adam "Pacman" Jones reverting back to their old ways for the last two weeks in a row, It's just a matter of time before Tank Johnson closes the tri-fecta.

One of Adam Scheins 5 Goats in week 5 of the NFL

Refs in Ravens-Titans Game

A roughing the passer call on Terrell Suggs keeping Tennessee's game-winning drive alive? Have we all gone soft? Let's play ball. That was awful.

Donovan McNabb's thoughts, after the game

I'm Embarrassed

submitted by Donovan McNabb to Yard Barker

I made a comment after the game [Sunday] that's worth repeating - I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed with the way we played the past two weeks. I believe that we lost to teams we should have beaten. Not because I think they are not good - they are. But I still believe we are better; we just didn't show it.

I'm embarrassed with the way I played. I didn't do enough to win the game for my team. I take that to heart. I want the ball in my hand when the game is on the line and, if I have it, I have to make a play. I'll take that responsibility. All three of our losses were within a score so one play could have made a difference - a fumble, an interception, calling an audible, not calling an audible.

I am a proud person and I work hard to prepare to win each and every week. Certainly there have been times where we have been beaten. Take nothing away from other teams who also prepare hard and have a high-skill level. You can't win every week. But losing in the fashion that we have just doesn't sit well with me.

I've made mistakes and I've owned up to them. I'm sure that some of my teammates and coaches might feel that they also could have done better. But a play here and a play there is costing us precious division and conference games that can bite us down the stretch. We didn't start playing well last year until it was too late. It's not too late to turn it around now. But to do so, we have to be embarrassed enough as a team to do something about it.

I'm better than this and I'll prove it. I know my team is too. Now we have to prove it.

Hunting Party Bags a Bird

What are Philadelphia Writers Writing About This Week?

Similar Paths for Jim Zorn, Andy Reid

By Ray Parrillo - Staff Writer, The Philadelphia Inquirer
October 2, 2008

The career path for an NFL head coach usually includes one of three stops: You've either been an offensive or defensive coordinator for a successful team, a successful college coach, or you've been fired as a head coach by another team but look good enough to recycle.

Andy Reid traveled none of those routes.

Neither did Jim Zorn.

Both graduated from the Mike Holmgren School of Coaching after majoring in the West Coast offense. It's a crowded class, but only Reid and Zorn assumed top jobs directly after serving under Holmgren as quarterbacks coach - Reid with Green Bay and Zorn with Seattle.

Reid and Zorn will match wits Sunday when the Eagles play Washington in an important division game at Lincoln Financial Field. Zorn and the Redskins made their presence felt in the NFC East on Sunday by defeating the Cowboys in Dallas, 26-24. It was their third consecutive win after an opening-day loss to the Giants.

After his news conference yesterday, Reid said he thought he was well-prepared to become a head coach in 1999 even though he hadn't been a college head coach or coordinator in the league, because you can learn most of what you need to know as a quarterbacks coach.

"It [being a QB coach] gives you an opportunity to see everything and evaluate everything," Reid said. "You've got to know every phase of the offensive game and then at the same time, you have to be very well-schooled on what defenses are doing. The part that gets left out is the special teams. I was lucky enough to coach special teams.

"And then Jim played in the NFL for a number of years, so he got to see a few different people do their thing and he learned from that."

Unlike Reid, an offensive lineman in college, Zorn, 55, was a successful NFL quarterback during nine seasons (1976-84) with the Seahawks. But like Reid and most other Holmgren disciples, Zorn has an obsession with details, a passion for play-calling, and an instinct for developing quarterbacks. The difference, aside from experience, is that Reid and Donovan McNabb have been together for a decade. Zorn is in his first season with Jason Campbell.

In his fourth year, Campbell is learning a new offensive system for the fourth straight season. Yet his transformation into an accurate, reliable passer is apparent.

Campbell is second in the NFC with a 102.2 passer rating and is the only quarterback in the NFL who has started a game without throwing an interception. He had a career 77.3 rating coming into the season. Campbell has completed 65.3 percent of his throws, nearly 8 percentage points higher than what he had entering the season.

"It looks like he and Jim have a good relationship," Reid said. "He has great command of that offense right now."

It sounds as if Zorn, in developing Campbell, has more emotion than than Reid, which is not difficult. Laughing, Campbell called Zorn "a wild man" yesterday during a teleconference.

"It's a great relationship," Campbell said. "He's a pretty emotional guy. I call him the wild man. You never know what you're going to get out of him during quarterback drills."

Zorn understands Campbell's reference to him as a wild man.

"I'm very competitive. I love to win and I demand a lot," he said. "I'm very hands-on. I try to pay attention to the details. I don't miss much with Jason. Partly because I played and partly because I care and I know what I'm looking for - I'm just trying to get him to play freed up and play with the same kind of intensity."

As they study the videotape of one another's offense, Reid and Zorn see a lot of similarities. They have built their offenses on the principles they learned from Holmgren.

"In this system, everybody's got the basics, the foundations that made this offensive system so difficult to defend," Zorn said. "So I'm sure we have the basics. We may have a little bit different terminology, but the concepts are the same. Then we branch out a little bit. We try different things. This offense is quite flexible. It allows for some creativeness."

Zorn originally was hired to be the Redskins' offensive coordinator. Two weeks after his interview, they offered him the head coaching job, succeeding Joe Gibbs. The step up in positions was fine with him, as long as he maintained control of the offense and the play-calling.

"I didn't want to give that up," Zorn said. "I felt very strongly about what Mike did in Seattle and even what Andy's doing in Philadelphia, and it can be done. Yeah, I definitely wanted to stay with that tack, if you will, and it's working so far."

Reid and Zorn may have taken similar paths to their first NFL head coaching jobs, but Reid had to build the Eagles from the bottom up, while Zorn inherited a team that made the playoffs last season.

"He took over a team that I think was very well-coached," Reid said. "It's very easy for a new head coach to come in and goof it up. I think the thing Jim has done is come in and challenge the players to take it to another level. They've responded. I'm not in his locker room or his meetings, but however he is delivering it, they're listening and performing."

Go Chicago!

You may have read or if you gander at the art work on either column of this blog that I am a Baltimore Orioles fan. If you follow this Blog you may have also notice that I did not write much, with the exception of 'Opening Day', about my beloved Orioles. That's because I am a frustrated Orioles fan.

The Orioles are owned by an attorney, Peter Angelos, who made his fortune as an ambulance chaser who scooped up every victim of asbestos related illnesses and earned them money in a class action lawsuit. He, of course, made out like bandit financially; typical of most attorneys in his type of practice lucky enough to find a cluster of unfortunate victims of some man made epidemic.

I often wonder which attorney will pick up the baton and run with a class action case for Oriole fans who want to sue Peter Angelos for making us sick year in and year out about the downward spiral of a once great franchise. There has to be some kind of mental health related illness we all have. We can call it it Baseball Stress Disorder or BSD, for short. Maybe we could persuade John Grisham to take up our cause or at least write about us in one of his novels so everyone could be aware of the symptoms.

All that being said there couldn't be a place with more victims of BSD than the city of Chicago. The White Sox had gone a stretch of 88 years without a World Series win until they won it all in 2005. The Cubs, however, have gone a complete 100 years since their last title. I don't give a rat's ass about Boston and their situation so I won't give you their experience with the cursed BSD.

Being a baseball fan in the 21st century isn't at all what it was like in 20th century. I miss those non-steroids days. Or at least not knowing about it.

If I can't rout for the O's, for yet another post season, let me just say:

GO CUBS!

A Democrats Understanding of Bipartisan

Reid Speaks with Forked Tongue

The Examiner - September 28, 2008

The Details: Early last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid demanded that John McCain get involved in bailout negotiations. But as soon as McCain announced he would return to Washington to help the negotiations, Reid accused McCain of Grandstanding.

Here is a little Republican understanding: