7:30 PM Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Cortez Kennedy said how during his Miami Hurricanes days, teammate Randy Shannon would stay in his apartment & watch the refrigerator to keep Kennedy from eating late at night.
“Like Parcells said I’m not sure he will play at the quarterback position and if I’m a general manager and I’m looking at Michael Vick right now, spending a year and a half, to two years or three years away from the game, I cannot have this guy as my quarterback.
“First of all he had a lot of issues trying to grasp the offense, go through the reads and find the right receivers in the first place. Let alone now spending three, three years or whatever many, however many time, how much time he’s away from the game trying to get that back when he come back it’s going to be very, very difficult.
“BUT, this is a guy who is very athletic. You can bring him in, have him play some kind of position on the football field whether it be punt return, kickoff return, third down wide receiver. Possibly even running back. Like to run the ball anyway so give him a chance at that.”
So despite last night’s stunning performance against the Redskins, Vick still hasn’t earned the Rite of Patches. Or Rice of Passage, for that matter. Read more…
After his decision to bench Donovan McNabb in favor of Rex Grossman on Oct. 31 against the Detroit Lions, Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan gave his reasoning for making the move with these postgame comments:
“I felt with the time, with no timeouts, Rex gave us the best chance to win in that scenario. Everything is sped up when you don’t have timeouts. It’s got to be automatic. People forget how quick things are in that two minutes. It’s like learning a new language.
“Are you asking me if we played poorly? Yes, we did.”
After the game, Jamie Mottram posted the above photo of a seemingly perplexed Redskins Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan as he was apparently looking at McNabb during the Redskins-Lions game.
In the brief clip, while watching McNabb run the Washington offense against Detroit, Shanahan said, “What the hell?”
The next day McNabb’s replacement, Rex Grossman, told the media that he called his own plays for the two drives he was in the game. CSNwashington.com’s Ryan O’Halloran subsequently reported,”it doesn’t appear McNabb has such freedom.”
Though there does seem to be some circumstantial evidence to suggest that perhaps McNabb is not completely up to speed on the Redskins offense, regarding Shanahan’s postgame defense for McNabb’s benching …
Most Likely: Mike Shanahan was covering his own a– for his horrific coaching manuever
Less Likely: Mike Shanahan was covering for son Kyle advocating a horrific coaching manuever
Least Likely: Mike Shanahan has trust in Rex Grossman’s abilities
Unlikely: Mike Shanahan was completely honest in his explanation for McNabb’s benching
From there, Mike Shanahan only made things worse for himself.
Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan said Monday that Donovan McNabb’s lingering injuries played a role in the coach’s decision to bench his starting quarterback Sunday.
… But McNabb wasn’t able to fully practice and Shanahan said that from a “cardiovascular standpoint,” McNabb couldn’t handle the fast-paced two-minute offense.
The next day, Michael Wilbon wrote this in the WASHINGTON POST:
“Look, I’ve long ago declared my bias toward McNabb and I’m not going to spin away from it now. McNabb, though, hasn’t played all that well and has said so. He wasn’t particularly effective Sunday in Detroit, either.
“And indications are now that the Shanahans, father and son, don’t much like the way McNabb prepares for games. Mike’s assertion makes it sound like McNabb is some dummy, an ominous characterization he’d better be careful about, lest he run into some cultural trouble in greater Washington, D.C.”
Wilbon’s Tuesday column, as noted by Steinberg in the Washington Post, was followed the same day by stronger comments from David Aldridge and John Thompson II on DC’s ESPN 980 that echoed Wilbon’s implication that race may have been a factor in McNabb’s benching.
In the aftermath of charges that female reporter Ines Sainz was harassed by members of the New York Jets organization last Saturday, Dan Steinberg of the WASHINGTON POST has this reaction from Redskins running back Clinton Portis on DC radio today:
“You know man, I think you put women reporters in the locker room in positions to see guys walking around naked, and you sit in the locker room with 53 guys, and all of the sudden you see a nice woman in the locker room, I think men are gonna tend to turn and look and want to say something to that woman. For the woman, I think they make it so much that you can’t interact and you can’t be involved with athletes, you can’t talk to these guys, you can’t interact with these guys.Read more…
Les Bowen of the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS reports from Eagles training camp this morning that head coach Andy Reid reportedly ordered a fan at the team’s practice to remove a Donovan McNabb Redskins jersey that he was wearing while standing on the sidelines.
The fan, Jim Devlin, was a friend of a guest of the team that had been granted sideline access.
Eagles fan Jim Devlin, of King of Prussia, was directed to remove the Donovan McNabb Redskins jersey that he was wearing on the Eagles sideline at training camp this morning by security.
Devlin said that security told him that coach Andy Reid wanted the jersey removed. A team spokesman said he was unaware whether the directive came from Reid.
Devlin was on the sideline, not in the stands, on a guest pass, provided by friend Frank Deutchki, of Schwenksville, who is with him. A team spokesman said guests with sideline passes are supposed to be screened at the gate.
Devlin was surprised but also really angry. He was curious what other fans’ reaction would be so he also wore the jersey to Sunday’s Phillies-Mets game.
Deutchki now has the jersey in a bag, with Devlin wearing a red T-shirt.
Rick Maese of the WASHINGTON POST reports Thursday morning that Redskins wide receiver Santana Moss “received human growth hormone from Canadian doctor Anthony Galea, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.”
Dan Herbeck of the BUFFALO NEWS previously reported that Canadian Doctor Anthony Galea was accused this week by U.S. Federal prosecutors of, “drug smuggling, conspiracy, lying to federal agents, unlawful distribution of human growth hormone and introducing an unapproved drug into interstate commerce.”
Herbeck added, “federal prosecutors do not intend to file criminal charges against Moss or any other athlete who had dealings with the doctor.”
Mark Maske of the WASHINGTON POST also noted the questions, reporting that, “some Native Americans have been critical of the team’s nickname, calling it derogatory, and have challenged it in legal proceedings.”
I actually don’t think the question was inappropriate.
Dan Steinberg of the WASHINGTON POST’s DC Sports Bog has the decency to reset the gastronomical legend that is Russ Grimm’s “hot dog story.”
(Grimm hot dog vomit now stocked by 3 Southeast Asian grocery chains)
When (former Redskins Offensive Line Coach) Joe Bugel retired in January, he told the greatest story ever, in which Russ Grimm threw up a whole hot dog during an evening practice at Carlisle, then put it back in his mouth and ate it, saying “Can’t waste a good dog, now.” Doc Walker said it was only a quarter of a dog, but added that Grimm was a “total neanderthal.”
Then in early February, when Grimm was elected to the Hall of Fame, his former teammate Joe Jacoby brought the story closer to the earth.
“Russ’s lunch didn’t stay down on him when we got to practice. You know what I mean? He just chucked up a hot dog,” Jacoby told Wise. “One of our ballboys, we called him ‘Booger,’ just looked at it and said, ‘Ooooh, that’s gross.’ Russ looked at him and said, ‘You think that’s gross, watch this.’ He blew the dirt off the piece of dog on the ground, picked it up and ate it. True story.”
Coincidentally, that’s also an excerpt of speech Jacoby gave when inducting Grimm into the auto-immune system hall of fame in 1993.
As you would expect of XTRA 910 in Phoenix as the hot dog vomit radio station of record, the Bickley and MJshow called Grimm to set the record straight.
UPDATE (11:17a ET): Bob Glauber of NEWSDAY has same thought I process I do on the Redskins’ abrupt announcement - via Snyder-owned ESPN 980 - of Bruce Allen’s hire:
(In zeal to control message, did scooped Snyder break hiring rule?)
“The announcement that the Redskins had replaced vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato with former Buccaneers general manager Bruce Allen may have been a violation of the league’s expanded Rooney Rule requirements for diversity hiring practices.”
At 9:30am ET this morning Jay Glazer was first to report the possibility of Bruce Allen being hired by the Redskins as the team’s new Executive VP of Football operations - posted at FoxSports.com:
Redskins coaches were told the team is now in talks with former Bucs and Raiders head honcho Bruce Allen to replace Cerrato, FOXSports.com has learned.
It is unclear what job title Allen will be given if they lock him up, but his brother George Jr. is a big player already in Washington, D.C. Their father was legendary coach George Allen.
It’s unclear who the team interviewed to satisfy the Rooney Rule or if such an interview has taken place yet. They cannot hire Allen until a minority candidate is interviewed for the position.
What followed was a predictable response from Dan Snyder’s radio station in DC.
