Art Monk

Number 81 will be retired tonight during halftime in the Seahawks Game.

NFL X-Files 

A Knock at the Door 

Art Monk-Hall of Fame Induction Speech

The Posse (Washington Redskins) NFL Legends

Theismann to Monk 

Every Art Monk Playoff TD

Art Monk Reflects on Jersey Retirement

If JD5 had Art Monk, the Super Bowl would be ours.

It's OK If Marcus Starts

Marcus Mariota is an NFL Starter.

Maybe not the best starter. But he is starter level. He could start for several NFL teams.

Especially Chip Kelly, Kliff Kingsbury, and Kyle Shanahan space-based offenses.

His signing was one of the best moves Adam Peters made. 

Relax.

I was actually surprised Adam Peters and Tom Brady didn't do a deal to send Marcus to the Raiders.

Chip Kelly is offensive coordinator there. 

In other news, Preston Smith is back in D.C. Good move. He can help.

Is Jayden's brain fog related to absence of running game? I understand critiquing the offensive line. But the running game (and the screen game, a Washington forte) creates space for the QB in play action activity. And lightens the load of the O-Line.

Reduces the cognitive flood. Doesn't mean the QB or O-Line can't play better. They can and demonstrably have. 

Washington has good running backs. Croskey-Merritt. Rodriquez. McNichols. 

And I think Donovan Edwards could be a surge element later in the year. Like Ricky Ervins was for the 91 Skins. Here's one of Ricky's best performances.

Edwards can help now. Kickoff returns. Run only plays. Big in big games. Explosive take it to the house plays.  He could back off a defense in a hurry. If Washington can keep him on the roster, keep an eye out for Edwards emerging as a breath of fresh air come Playoff time.

Of course one of the best teams at platooning backs was the 17-0 Miami Dolphins, who defeated the Skins in that year's Super Bowl. 

They had two 1,000 yard rushers. And one 500 plus yard rusher. In order, they were Mercury Morris, Larry Csonka, and Jim Kiick. 

I think I'd take Terry McLaurin in fantasy football this weekend. Especially if Marcus starts. 

Conversely, Ashton Jeanty might be the fantasy pick on the Raiders side. He is due to break out. 

Unless the Commanders Run D resurfaces. 

Some Picks 

NFL Game Preview Picks offers a 6-4 Supreme NFL Court Decision for Washington. 

PFF Picks Commanders behaving as if Jayden Plays.

Green Bay versus Washington Notes and Picks

Here are a few notes as to the Thursday Night Football matchup between the two Lombardi Franchises, Green Bay and Washington. 

Pete Prisco picks the Packers.

Nine of 10 Game Preview Analysts pick Green Bay.

Packers versus Skins 1983. MVP Joe Theismann versus Lynn Dickey. First one to 50 wins. Boxscore.  

Skins Packers 1972 Playoffs. Boxscore.

Commanders 2-3 Last 5 Games versus the Pack 

Seems like an uphill climb. Green Bay at Lambeau. If the Commanders win, how they did it on the short week should be fascinating to find out. 

Like Lombardi, Curly Lambeau also coached in Washington. Green Bay under Lambeau was the League's first threepeater.

Coach Lombardi's year in D.C. The 69 Season Results.

Coy Bacon

With people trying to talk the Commanders into signing Von Miller, it called to mind the great Coy Bacon.

People complain Miller is 36.

Coy Bacon was 37 in 1979. The 79 Skins were a good team. That was the year Riggo went 66 yards for a TD in Dallas. And Staubach knocked them out of the Playoffs.

Joey T and Joe Walton were vibing on offense. As Joey T has contended, they would have been a real threat in the playoffs. And history might have gone differently had they made it.

Bacon at 37 was credited with 13.5 sacks that year.

People say that was then. This is now. It is tougher today.

In the age of cut blocks and knee targets Bacon had 13.5 sacks. The Historians give him 21.5 sacks for 1976 when he was with the Bengals. He was just a baby then as Stevie Nicks might say. A spry 34 years old.

No it was tougher then. 

Here's some highlights. As a Bengals terror.

Check out NFL X-Files treatment of Coy Bacon.

Coy Bacon is in the HBCU Hall of Fame. 

Hey Man. Old Dudes can get it on the Edge. 

And it was NOT George Allen who brought Coy Bacon to D.C.

It was Bobby you know who.

Musical Spheres of the Championship Years and 1982

It is fitting the first real commentary from Joe Theismann on the 2024 Commanders came this week as we look at music from that incredible Super Bowl year of 1982. 

Game Highlights. Tale of Two Seasons.

Billie Jean.

Theismann said Jayden Daniels ought to skip the preseason, or so I heard. Some people revolted against the notion. But I hold Joey T to be a heckuva lot wiser than most of today's commentators. 

I mean, rookies struggle with the length of the NFL Season. It is such a malignant force, said length, that your best metric for who will win in the playoffs is who is the healthiest. The NFL has not tempered its greed by expanding rosters which would allow for mitigation of wear and tear. 

The Message

So much for the League's commitment to quality. Expanded rosters would allow for better performances as playing time gets more evenly distributed. Playing time makes players better. That's why they are called "players". If you don't play, you are not a player. If you don't play, how do you know where your game is at? If everybody plays, everybody is more likely to be happy and happy football teams make better decisions on field and off. 

It sounds like I'm making the argument against Theismann's position. But no. I'm saying I'd like Jayden to be available for the playoffs. I'll entertain any such notions as would incline fate to cheat in that direction. The most games he's ever played is 14. The late bye might give him and the other rooks a boost. If the Commanders get a playoff game, he's looking at, minimum, 21 games. With that much wear and tear, I don't think we make the Super Bowl. 

Tough

We'll be out of gas. I mean, vets will be OK. Rooks will have jet lag. Lightening the load would be good, as Joe Theismann as in Wise Man has pointed out. How to Be A Champion Every Day.

Led Zeppelin

Scorpions 

The North Sea Jazz Festival

Willie Nelson 

Bobby Sue

Dolly Parton 

Here are some of the flicks that year:

Blade Runner

Fast Times at Ridemont High. Rockin tune from that movie.

Creepshow

Eye of the Tiger Man 

Conan Da Bahbarian 

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Khan 

Comps Going into Summer Vacay: 71 Skins 95 Panthers

How are the Washington Commanders going to do this year? 

I have no earthly idea. All I have is fleeting football memories in the archive of my aging mind. 

I remember for instance the 1971 Skins, George Allen's first Washington Squad. Allen stocked that team with veteran players who knew what he wanted in a football player. Those veteran winners, the Ramskins, helped bring a winning mindset to a perpetual .500 football team and they went 9-4-1 and went to the playoffs Allen's first year.

The Carolina Panthers acquired veteran leadership in the expansion draft their first year of existence. They won 7 games. They brought brisk competition. The next year they got Kevin Greene. They went 12-4.

Both these teams were in the Conference Championship games the very next year. The Panthers lost to Green Bay. The Skins beat the Cowboys and lost to the Phins in the Super Bowl.

The Free Agent Class Adam Peters signed this year reminds me of those Panthers and Skins signings. Really solid. Bringing in guys who play the way the team wants to play. Veteran leadership has been significantly upgraded. Judging from a history buff perspective, that tends to produce rapid change in win totals.

I hadn't expected Peters to do what he did in Free Agency. I thought he was a Draft guy. I am happy to see he is a "by any means necessary" type guy. Drafts, trades, free agency. Grocery bagging.  

Quinn was 8-8 his first year in Atlanta.

So somewhere between 7 and 9 wins. 

If they get solid offensive line play and the defense goes ape over turnovers it will be more than that.

As with a George Allen type team, the vets on defense might be the difference between being a good first year team and a good first year playoff team.

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

Pulling Out the Scrapbook

Some guys in the media are pulling out the scrapbooks on Old School Washington Football. I can't blame them. There is no real hard evidence on what the Commanders will be this season until September. You get tired of speculating, though some of it is fun.

They were trying to rummage up the Five Most Iconic Plays in Redskin History. Here are a few they were speaking of:

1. Number One was Riggo's Romp.

2. Number Two Darryl Grant taking a pick in for a touchdown against Dallas in the NFC Championship Game.

3. Number Three was Darrell Green jumping out of his rib cage in Chicago.

I lost track after that. Guess I'll conjure up a few more.

4. Charley Taylor's TD Catch against Dallas in the NFC Championship game.

5. Darrell Green's stop against Minnesota. Without Darrell Green, that's a Viking touchdown.

Of course, Santana Moss made TWO ICONIC plays not just one.

It's these guys the whole nickname thing is trying to connect to. It is going to be hard for fans today to remember the Founders, so to speak. The New Owners want the passion back. Just changing the nickname won't do that.

These young fellas today got to start doing it. That's the only thing gets the mojo back in butts to sit in seats and rock stadiums. 

But us geezers who lived through that 70s, 80s, early 90s era we're not in danger of forgetting the guys who put football on the map in D.C. 

I have no doubt that if they start winning these young Washingtonians will go as nuts as we did back in the day.