The Lord is His Shepherd

Rick Snider passed away this week. I was a big fan of his.

I will always remember Rick as being a big reason the Washington Football Franchise didn't go the way of the Dinosaur.

All that losing. All that misbehavior. It ground you down till you couldn't stomach it anymore.

Then Rick would remind people of the tradition we had here. He worked hard at that. I'm thankful it paid off for him.

He got to report on Washington's drive to the NFC Championship game. It must have felt like the end of a long war. Like Sammy Baugh. Home from World War II.

John Keim posted a nice memorial podcast. 

Since Rick was a man of tradition, here's a traditional Bible Quote often used when people pass. 

Crooning about the Middle Screen

D.C. JazzFest is on its way.

Thought I would play a little music. Think a few thoughts. Look forward to the day.

Here's Nat King Cole singing Unforgettable.

John Riggins was unforgettable. I'm reminded of the Riggo Middle Screen they ran with the Jets and Joe Namath. Riggo was a Jet after Joe Willie's guarantee. 

Makes you think a thought. About backing off the middle of the defense. That area has recently blown up our Offensive Line in D.C.

Running that Riggo Middle Screen with a Jayden Daniels shovel pass or sidewinder or sinker to B-Robb or Ben Sinnott. Might get the hound dogs off the trail. You heard Tom Brookshier. They also called it the "inside screen". Do self-hypnosis on the rush with its own aggression. Brainwashing their attack modes with lack of trust. Creates hesitation. 

He who hesitates is lost.

Samara Joy is scheduled at JazzFest. Here's her singing Someone Like You.

Here's Billy Strayhorn and the Lester Young Trio. Back to the Land.

People have started predicting. They predict 7. They predict 10. They predict 12 wins. They predict Super Bowl. For Jayden and the Commanders.

Too early for me to predict. I just got up. 

I need a cup of that Confluencia Coffee.

It's Only a Paper Moon

It is a Barnum and Bailey World. As phony as can be. 

Wise words from Nat King Cole. 

Take the NFL Offseason with a grain of salt. Speaking of salt, here is an interview with an Old Salt, Old Whiskey, jawboning with Dick Schaap.

I thought it was interesting. Joe Whitt mentioned playing 18 guys on defense at one of the Commanders' Press Conferences. It is a bit Barnum and Bailey to back engineer that comment. But I put that together with clownish phrases like "Air Raid" and "shootout" and I start thinking high scoring games and worn out defenses. 

Plus, the Commanders are still working on their DBs and their Offensive Linemen. Meaning they're not ready. It is Circus time. Of course they're not ready. If we're still here in September it is time to worry.

Meantime, it is time, at least for me, to add to our Billy Kilmer Scrapbook.

First Saints Quarterback Ever

Buddy D When Men Were Men 

Doc Interviewed Whiskey a Few Years Ago

Teaching the Band to Play

It was twenty years ago today. Sergeant Pepper taught the band play. 

Musing about supergroups and football. 

When you draft guys and bring them together for the first time it is a bit like supergrouping. You pick guys you think would be good together. Do some riffs. See what people can do in OTAs. Figure out what signature sounds the band will have. Then after OTAs and mini-camps, start writing some music scheming up the 2024 playbook.

Put the finishing touches on the concert material right after training camp. Hopefully go on a whirlwind tour during the season.

So when you try to evaluate the Washington Commanders it is to say the least a bit premature to make judgments. I don't think it is ever appropriate to judge guys. You put an artificial ceiling over their heads. That goes for everybody not just the young guys with their fluid brains and their virtual reality tutors. Even a veteran can surprise. And surprising football teams are a joy to behold.

Remember the Sgt. Pepper film where they put the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton together. Featuring the one and only Billy Shears, the central figure in the Paul is Dead alternate reality/conspiracy theory which was really the Beatles doing a Stanley Kubrick to create buzz. 

It was okay. But it wasn't the real Billy Shears was it? Billy was a Beatles creation, their attempt at Paperback Writing. The Beatles were creative geniuses. Never underestimate the extent of their playfullness.

I guess the equivalent of creating a phony narrative to sell records in football would be selling the defense on misdirection plays. Phony screens. Phony jets. Phony horror stories about bad practices. 

The worst supergroup I can think of would be the 2000 Washington Redskins, the 1999 Redskin version of Billy Shears. Snyder thought that was a supergroup. They sounded horrible.

I think the NFL banned phony injuries which must be the least enforceable rule they have because phony injuries are the go-to gimmick play at the end of games. Nobody throws a flag. 

Nobody threw a flag on Paul McCartney's phony injury. He's made millions and he's a Knight of the Realm.

Hopefully, Kingsbury and Whitt, like Lennon and McCartney, have a few good tunes up their sleeves getting this Commander Band ready to be a smash hit in 2024.

For now, the Coaches are teaching the band to play. It is mostly experimental music right now. But there is a glut of Commander Commentary. A ton of new people jawboning about Washington. 

I recommend the people on the sidebar for your edification and enjoyment.

 

We Don't Have Time to Play Lego With Another Wonder Boy

Rumor mill's abuzz with visions of Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson dancing in the sugar plum fairies' heads. 

It would be nice to see Kirk again. Maybe he mentions D.C. as a possibility because he is looking to get a coaching gig. He'd be a good coach. Washington has some brains on staff. Maybe he's thinking I get a playoff run. Pick those self-same brains. Then see who needs a young coach.

But I think he's too banged up sad to say.

Russ has a rep as a prima donna. But he is a veteran QB. He has worked with DQ. These are two devils who know each other. His detractors say he's not a seven-footer. He's Flutie II. Too small to play QB. Won a Super Bowl and he's too small?

He produces. I don't care if he's Ant-Man.

I am all in on Veteran QBs. You saw what Jacoby did last year. They'd be smooth to start Jacoby. But pattern blindness rules in the NFL. They want Flash Gordons and the New Wonder Boys. When the Vets can get you to the Super Bowl. A.K.A., Billy Kilmer. Doug Williams. Tom Brady.

The thing that is ruinous in Washington is the idea that it is OK for whoever comes in here to LOSE. It is not OK to lose. I'm not giving these guys any slack whatsoever. The goal is to win the Super Bowl. And before that make the Playoffs. And before that win as many games as you can. 

Your deadline is today. 

People say we tanked deliberately last year so we could get the Number 2 Spot. We have to have the Wonder Boy. For what? More losing? You see your projected win total with Wonder Boy? Funny how tanking reproduces itself. 

There is always some future undisclosed time in an undisclosed location when and where the Washington Football Franchise will be victorious once again. It is stupid to want to win when contemplating the football heaven that will one day come.

Radio bull hockey. There are guys here who want to win. Let them go. Before free agency. They're too good for you. They got better things to do with their time than play Lego and Tonka Toys with your Wonder Boys.

I don't personally have time to watch yet another Boy QB struggle with the blitz. With reading defenses. Most of the QBs coming out today don't read defenses at all. They read grass. The mathematics at the line of scrimmage has been deleted in College in favor of speed and intuition.

College Coaches used to have some time to teach some of the Pro Game. Not today. Not with the transfer portal. You draw the play in the ground and go. 

I mean, I see what the Air Raid Dudes are saying. Who has time to do the NFL's job for it? It is mind pollution. Gunks up the engine. We want to win. My guys go full throttle. Everybody go long. If the middle opens up run it like Josh Allen. Otherwise heave it deep.

It's an oversimplification. But losing to develop the latest phenom is an overcomplication especially if there are Vets out there who CAN read defenses and CAN get the ball in the end zone just as quick as the grass cutters.

I can see drafting maybe Joe Milton. In the later rounds. Give him a few years to study. Then Kliff Kingsbury takes him to the Giants and they win Super Bowls. Competing mainly against Sam Howell and the Jets.

If the new staff is here to develop, it is Rivera 2.0. He was quite the development, too. I ain't gonna bother spending money on them if that is the case.

We need offensive linemen more than we need Wonder Boy Quarterbacks.

Here's some dudes to ponder.

Harris is a Lucky Guy

Josh Harris started his era off right on Monday. The parting of the ways with Ron Rivera will be a blessing for both sides. 

Rivera is ready for his next phase. He has turned his misfortune in D.C. into a pot of gold for Harris. This is easily the most opportune offseason Washington has faced since the hiring of Bobby Beathard. Rivera has put the team in position.

The Commanders have money. They have draft picks. They have transformational capacity. How they proceed will be fun to watch. 

Can they win right off the bat? Yes. Can they win right off the bat AND five years down the road? Yes. The former has mainly to do with good coaching. The latter with getting a good GM/front office in place.

There are a lot of good candidates out there for both positions. Harris has picks and money. It is a good time to have picks and money. The timing couldn't be better for Josh in that respect.

I'm personally enamored with joining the Harbaugh Football Family. Wooing Jim Harbaugh to town would save some valuable time. He just won a National Title with Michigan. He could join the rarefied air of Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carroll and win both a Natty and a Lombardi. He had the best O-Line in college ball. He is not allergic to running the ball. And his defense was a swarm of sharks.

The Commanders would be a well-coached ball club.

Harbaugh getting hired would get a jump on the rest of the field. The NFL is a horse race. Getting the post position would be excellent.

Not getting Harbaugh my second choice would be Mike Harbaugh, er, uh, Mike Macdonald (looks like the D is a d which means he's a Highlander), the young guy from the Ravens who is a frequent dinner guest of the Harbaughs.

It is good coaching that will put butts in seats in 2024. That's essential because franchises can be moved if not enough gluteal maximises show up.

Foundation repair is the business of the Front Office.

Time is of the Essence

There are structural things in place in the NFL which will retard the progress of the Washington NFL franchise as they construct a new era of football. 

The primary retardant is Time. Time is against them. I would be surprised to learn the New Owners didn't maximize their opportunities to pursue front office personnel. They have had time for research. It is not unreasonable to expect a New GM right off the bat. If not, valuable ticks off the clock will ensue.

Yes, for you clock managers out there, if the Commanders are to do well this offseason clock management will be the thing.

The NFL, at least last I heard, doesn't allow interviews of assistant coaches still in championship contention. For an organization that claims to be a proponent of equal employment opportunity, that's a disgrace. Big name assistants like Ben Johnson may find themselves bereft of opportunities even though they are sought after. 

There are people available for consideration right off the bat for coaching duties. Bill Belichick and Jim Harbaugh being two who could also double as GM. Eric Bieniemy is in the building and should be interviewed as a matter of course. David Shaw is out there. The tempo would thus be just about the same as if you had incumbents in place. Then that would clear a path for a less rushed approach to free agency and the draft.

But before we get to all that, seems like it would be expedient to see a Jacoby Brissett advertisement against Dallas. As part of research for the new era. And as part of Brissett's pay scale elevation cultivation. And if some in the new group want to pass on Brissett, a nice sign and trade may harvest some veteran leadership, offensive or defensive, for next year.

Jacoby comes in and pounds Dallas he's a jewel. 

They pound Dallas and they increase ticket sales for next year. 

They get pounded by Dallas it doesn't matter a whole hell of a lot. Except if it ends up humiliating Sam Howell once again. He doesn't need that. Sam would be eliminated from the conversation and I don't think that would be quite fair given the fact he has had, worts and all, a fairly solid first year starting in the NFL.

To a certain extent, Josh Harris and Company have had a head start in the GM department. In everything else they are pressed for time. 

The final gun in the Dallas game is the starting pistol in a race against Time.

In Theaters January 6th. Rated G for everyone.

New Team Starts Up in January

Seems like the Washington Commanders don't really do anything substantive until January when most observers believe current head coach Ron Rivera will be relieved of his duties.

That is when the fun begins. The fun ended, if we are to believe Montez Sweat, and I don't see why not, with the Chicago Bears decapitation of the Rivera Regime a while back.

There are a few games left to be played during the which I expect the Commanders to be the exhibition team otherwise known as the Washington Generals. Old timers may recall that the Generals were the team the Harlem Globetrotters always whipped in their sports entertainment exhibition games.

In basketball, the Generals were the equivalent of the Three Stooges. Some Globetrotter tricks were performed off their foreheads. Slapstick basketball.

With the Washington NFL franchise, a routine transformation takes place around this time of the football year when their pretense of being a professional football team is entirely shed in favor of becoming the league's practice dummies. 

The Football version of the Washington Generals.

I'm sure the Rams have sent Ron Rivera a honey-do list detailing the schemes they'd like to test their guys against. Maybe they have a play they want to bounce off the forehead of Casey Toohill. Maybe they want to fine tune their double moves versus Forbes.

Maybe a circus performance would be sufficient motivation for the Commanders but I doubt it. I was hoping EB had some entertaining trick plays. Maybe The Green Bay Sweep. The Statue of Liberty play. The Richard Nixon Play. The Swinging Gate.

I was thinking a return to 1966 might be fun. With Sam Howell doing his best Jurgy and McLaurin making like Bobby Mitchell.

But nothing fun is about to happen because, as Sweat pointed out, they are just waiting for the end of the season. 

There is no reason to watch them then. It is garbage yards, garbage points, and garbage games from this point forward. It brings back memories of Bill Callahan and Terry Robiskie. 

Got to find something else to occupy my time with on Sundays . . . again.

Philadelphia Eagles

Philly is playing the Buccaneers tonight. They will be trying to save the NFC East from a winless weekend. The worst case scenario for Washington is Philadelphia losing producing a nastiness inspirational to the Eagles.

On the other hand, stacking back to back losses on the Birds would put us in first place. You want to be in first at the end so right now you're just collecting acorns.

Some are characterizing the Buffalo game as a learning experience. I learned we can run the ball on the Bills and the Washington line is better than average at run blocking. The Bills ran the ball last year. Fifteen of their 16 games they were over 100 yards. They won 13 games doing that. They had 168 against us.

In 2007, EB was Running Backs Coach for the Minnesota Vikings who were the Number One rushing squad in the NFL. They had Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor. AP ran for over 1300. Taylor for over 800. That team had an historic day running the ball on Novenber 4th. Just shy of 400 yards rushing.

I find it impossible to believe EB has forgotten how to run the ball. I hope his muscle memory serves him well. Running the football is how Washington wins this year. It is how the passing game opens up. It is how sacks go down. Combined with a good screen game, nothing creates more grass for the pass than the run.

Running the football is how you beat the Eagles. I'm sure EB remembers winning the Super Bowl on the same concept. EB will be tempted by the Patriots and Vikings having success in the passing game against Philadelphia. They both lost. When we beat the Eagles last year, we ran on them.

Tampa Bay may be the first to run on them. If not, we should be.

Against the Bills, Sam Howell looked like a guy who thinks he has no help. Against the Broncos he seemed to play team offense. Against the Bills he looked like he felt he had to do it all himself. He had "vision" issues.

You can help with the run. You can also help by scheduling the off-schedule. Schedule one guy in the end zone on all scrambles. Get Sam looking downfield. In scramble drills, all the receivers come back to the QB but the one, the "bolt", who heads to the house. Look for the bolt count down to the comebacks.

I'm sure Sam will have a monster (a positive monster) game before the year is out. They have to pass block better. But they have to establish the run to create grass. Sam has to renounce the "I must do it all myself" sin. But he can't have another game like Buffalo. I know he is resilient. But the body's autonomic nervous system is beyond your control. It knows trouble when it sees it. It will start to erode your football psyche. Whether you think it is happening or not.

So Sam must sit if he repeats the Bills Game at Philly.

The critique of Stoicism in philosophy is that it looks like being in denial at times. But the Stoics also preach understanding what is in your power and what is not in your power. Understand there are things you can't do. You can't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Some things get you struck by lightning.

Let go let God.

Riggo is Back

John Riggins posted to his MegaRiggins YouTube channel. 

He spoke of current events in the Land of Burgundy and Gold. I'm one who hopes he chimes in this season. Once a week. Once a month. Take what we can get.

The Man has a good life. Doesn't need football as an enhancement. We need him more than he needs us. Just like Doc, Joey T, and Coach Gibbs. 

The Founders.

The Washington Burgundy and Gold

The team Nickname is coming up again. 

I was a Redskin fan since 1969. I started as a kid. Socialized to accept the nickname.

The Nickname though means something different to some Native Americans than it does to D.C. Football fans. We are not living in an age of free speech. Authoritarians are in charge of our country and our universities. The outrage they will post should Washington revert to the Redskin nickname would be an unnecessary distraction and a valueless political mess serving no one.

I don't mean to become an apologist for the nickname. But the word Redskin seems to have emerged in the minds of white conquistadors who were irritated by Native American resistance to White Land Use improvements. A Redskin in that light was an insurrectionist. It was good to be an insurrectionist working to retard White conquest.

The same dynamic occurs in the N-Word. White mental retardation was irritated by Black Resistance to slavery so it fulminated the N-Word. Once it emanated from mule-faced anglo saxons, Black Americans took pride in the fact they were irritating the oppressors. The N-Word used among Blacks was a celebration of the essential fact that they were existentially free and the N-Word in the mouth of a white man was an unconditional surrender to that truth. 

This is why some Native Americans are not bothered by the nickname and why the N-Word can be heard among some Black Americans.

Basing your identity on your capacity to irritate others is not universally effective because not everyone is an oppressor. Nor are insults concretized incantations that wound like boulders. Insults are a form of mental weakness. In football, as in life, it is good to be mentally tough. It is better not to speak at all if all you have to say is an insult. It is not that you aren't achieving your goal of destabilizing the person whose existence you reject. Maybe you are. But you are nakedly confessing that you are stupid and weak.

But shutting you up is your job not anyone else's. Why free speech works is it allows people to say stupid things and thereby organize themselves out of the loop. At the same time it allows for the intrusion of truth and the possibility for its acceptance. You should always allow the idiot to put his idiocy on full display and the genius to warn of the oncoming train. The idiot and the genius are intertwined. 

In the present environment, everyone is an oppressor. Ignorance is universally stipulated. Language must be politically correct. Inoffensive. Overly polite to works of fiction or fantasy realities. This is why science is in deep trouble. Facts are too oppressive to be admitted. A bodyguard of lies is necessary. It is like giving yourself a lobotomy. And apparently in this age of Authoritarian Rule one is morally obligated to stupidify oneself into a complete brain fog.

The Redskin Players and Coaches were not on the whole blazing racists and Klan Rally attendees. They weren't perfect. But they had moments of social relevance and sublime moments of competitive football. The history of those moments is worth preserving. And if Authoritarian Rule disallows the use of the word "Redskin", it ought to allow an inoffensive alternative which at the same time calls to mind the rich football history of the Washington Franchise.

That nickname to me, as well as to others, is "Burgundy and Gold". It's not my invention. The players used it themselves. It was a matter of pride to put on those colors. If you wore those colors in the Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties, you were part of something special. Three decades of it.

Not a wave of racist animosity. But years of good football. 

That is what we want to get back to in Washington. A Washington football-related nickname is my preference.

Parade Trading Post: Ding Dong Wicked Witch for Super Bowl

I'm not liking the Karmic feel of having a parade to celebrate Dan Snyder's departure as Owner of the Washington Commanders. I think it is a paradox. 

I think people who want to do that don't really want him to go. They got a lot of energy invested in Dan Snyder as a demon. They'll still be talking about him deep into the 2023 Season and Beyond, especially if they can't locate a scapegoat to take his place. Other people suspect that as well.

It's co-dependency.

Some people are dependent upon Dan for clicks. Outrage is the new mascara. Getting people riled up. Starting barfights. It works. People listen to the podcast or click on the blogpost.

All it does is raise your blood pressure. Doesn't move the chains.

So I'm thinking of going to the Football Gods Trading Post and making an energy exchange. For a Super Bowl Parade, I'm offering the Dan Snyder Parade. As a ritual sacrifice. As maybe compost to grow something different. To increase the overall level of football joy in the world and in the League. 

I'm offering the Football Gods a place in Washington Commanders football to set down roots.

And to remember them.

Rehearsing Success

Here's a documentary on George Allen that lives at HTTR's YouTube Channel:

Three Cheers for the Redskins

You may have noticed Allen feels a little like Eric Bieniemy. Specifically, getting on guys for not breaking the huddle with energy. We saw this last week EB doing pretty much the same thing.

I mean, there are hundreds of coaches who do that. I don't think it is as common anymore. But this ambience of rah rah, this penchant for enthusiasm mixed ironically with perfectionism, has a tendency to elevate play on the field. 

We are lucky in Washington to have witnessed this fact three times now. The first time was with Vince Lombardi. The second was Allen. The third now is Eric Bieniemy. 

It isn't just enthusiasm these men have in common. It struck me recently that the word "execution" seems to have been a stranger around here for years. Get it right. Do it again. Give me the twos. 

Execution was a word Allen liked to use. Lombardi was the patron saint of execution.

My take away from OTAs and Mini-Camp is EB does not like rehearsing failure. 

It stands to reason rehearsing success will lead to success on the field.

And it leads one to wonder why we weren't rehearsing success before?

The Brutal Football Mind of Chris Hanburger

I've always wondered why Chris Hanburger never became a Coach in the NFL. When you talk about "intellectual brutality" you're talking about Number 55 of the Washington Redskins Chris Hanburger.

I remember Hanburger had a nose for the ball. He was a Pick-6 Linebacker if there ever was one. Ryan Kerrigan is the only Redskin I can think of that ever came close to Hanburger's penchant for the interception. 

He wasn't very big. Six-two. Two eighteen with pads on. He was the size of today's Hybrids. But he packed a punch. His hook tackles are illegal today. He also threw a few clotheslines. Teamed up with Sam Huff on Lombardi's 1969 team, Hanburger was a painful presence for opposing offenses. If Sam didn't get you in the middle, Hanburger shoehorned you on the outside. Those two were devastating on an ethereal level.

You'd see the offense looking good on a play then out of nowhere here comes 55 like he was shot from a rocket launcher to blow it all up in the backfield. As often as not, Hanburger made plays with his Brain. Reading and reacting like it was second nature. That was probably drill work and film study. Pattern recognition, baby. Christian Hanburger had it boy. Instant diagnosis. Lightning insight.

Chris Hanburger plainly and simply knocked hell out of people. 

He was a turnover manufacturer of outrageous proportions. He had nineteen picks and seventeen fumble recoveries. No doubt some of that was due to George Allen nagging the Redskin Defense to get turnovers. "We have to get five turnovers to beat Dallas!"

If today's Washington football team on defense has any room for improvement, it is in the turnover department. If they have a good harvest of turnovers this year they could be a true horror for other teams. Commanders defenders should have a look at Hanburger's old highlights. Just watching him pick the ball off improves your olfactory glands and you can just smell the pigskin spinning in the air ripe for the picking and the sixing.

Rick Snider paid tribute to "Chris Linebacker" on a pre-draft YouTube a year ago noting Hanburger was drafted in the 18th Round. Meaning don't overlook those late round picks and undrafted free agents. 

They can become Hall-of-Famers.

Sage advice this year as well as one of the most fun Washington football offseasons in recent memory continues.

I Think Charlie Gogolak Needs to Practice

 A little history of Sam Huff from a Giants perspective:

A Giant Mini-History of Skins Great Huff

The phantom timeout. Sam Huff's beef with Allie Sherman. Sherman had chopped up one of the most legendary NFL defenses of all time, a defense Huff had helped create. 

Sam loved New York. Didn't want to leave. But Sherman traded him along with several other greats on that Giants defense including Rosey Grier.

Sherman's newly formed defense surrendered 72 points to Huff's Redskins November 27th, 1966.

I guess Sam made his point. Seventy-two of them, in fact.

Nick Giaquinto

Do you remember Nick Giaquinto?

He was according to Wikipedia the first H-Back. While at UConn, Nick once ran for 277 yards. I can't ride a bike 277 yards. For the Burgundy and Gold, he also did some halfback, special teams. And garbage detail apparently. Joe Gibbs nicknamed him the Trashman. 

Nick coached Sacred Heart University Baseball for 29 years. 

Nick's best year was 1983. He caught a couple passes in that legendary 1983 Green Bay Game. Later on, in the second St. Louis Cardinals game, Nick did a Riggo drill carrying 10 times for 44 yards. He concluded his march with a bulge for a TD.

Here's Nick Giaquinto on the 1982 Skins:

 

Nick Giaquinto