Video of ARE Leading ‘Hip Hip Hooray!’
By Chris Mottram | October 6, 2008
As Steinz noted this morning, it was Randel-El who led the three cheers yesterday, not the Zorn Star. So, because we are quickly falling in love with the “hip hip hooray,” here’s video of ARE breaking it down:
Don’t forget, friends, “hip hip hooray” shirts are now available!
Bonus Footage: After the jump, relive the glory of ARE’s pass to Cooley.
Topics: Hip Hip Hooray, Redskins | 3 Comments »
Redskins-Eagles Winners & Losers
By Chris Mottram | October 6, 2008
Handing out labels following Skins games. Today: a 23-17 win over Philly …
WINNERS:
Clinton Portis. CP continues to party like it’s 2005, and yesterday was his best game of the season. He rushed for 145 at a five-per-carry clip, including a much-deserved TD. But, most importantly, he picked up the game-clinching first down on 4th and 1 with 2:48 left. On top of that, it was CP who called the draw play.
London Fletcher. He may very well be the most important player on this entire team. He runs the show on D, and yesterday he made several game-changing tackles on Westbrook.
Jason Campbell. He continues to “manage the game,” but in a good way, not in a “this guy sucks, please don’t lose it for us by throwing picks” sorta way. Speaking of picks, he still has thrown zero.
The defense. Aside from the Eagles opening drive, the D totally shut-down Philly’s offense. They forced five punts, and made a goal line stand in the 4th (anchored by Rocky and Andre), which held the Eagles to a field goal.
Chris Cooley. A huge game for Cooley — 109 yards on eight catches, capped off by a TD reception on the ARE run-pass option play thingee. Kudos to Cooley for working himself open on a play that didn’t appear to be designed to go to him. Although I haven’t broken down the film yet. UPDATE: I broke down the film (see: watched the replay). It appears that the play was designed for Moss in the corner of the endzone and Cooley was the underneath check-down for ARE.
Jim Zorn. I’m not sure if it’s getting his players to “stay medium” or his “hip hip hooray” cheers, but whatever he’s doing, it’s working. The team is finding ways to win games that in recent years, they would’ve found ways to lose. Yesterday was a prime example. Speaking of the three cheers, we now gots a shiny new shirt in honor of the Zorn celebration, which he did again yesterday. Get you one.
Shaun Suisham. He went 3/3 on attempts, all three of which were outside of his comfort zone. Which is to say they were all over 40 yards, including the huge 50-yarder he nailed before the half. All of this is enough to overlook his out of bounds kick-off.
The Dirtbags. They opened up big holes for the backs all day, which led to a team rushing total of 203 yards one week after putting up 161 on Dallas.
LOSERS:
Antwaan Randel-El. The aforementioned pass to Cooley was awesome, but my man is paid to catch the football, not throw it. He dropped three easy passes.
Durant Brooks. A Vinny Cerrato special. We waste a draft pick on a punter, which means we’re then forced to cut the incumbent, Derrick Frost. Brooks’ four punts yesterday averaged 34 yards.
Devin Thomas. He continues to hold down his weekly spot in the losers section. This time, it was for his blatant pass interference on third down pass to Moss. It brought back both a first down and Santana’s only catch of the day.
The refs. There is simply no explanation for picking up the flag on that block in the back on the Eagles punt return. It’s one thing to miss the penalty, but the ref saw it, threw the flag, and then somehow they decided that a Redskin had blocked his own player in the back. In the refs’ defense, it is pretty difficult to tell burgundy and green apart. The gaffe handed Philly a free touchdown.
Donovan McNabb. Normally, we save this space just for discussing the performance of Redskins personnel, but this post-game quote from McNabb warrants his inclusion:
“There is no way that you can look at this game and say that, and not taking anything away from them, but there is no way that this team is better than us.”
Yep, there’s no way you can say the Skins are better. Aside from the scoreboard, our record and the fact that Washington dominated the game for all but the first eight minutes.
Topics: Winners & Losers, Philly Sucks, Redskins | 18 Comments »
Dan Snyder Is Michael Scott, Part 2
By Chris Mottram | October 6, 2008
Well, this pretty much speaks for itself. Here’s Mr. Snyder after the win yesterday enjoying his team’s success on the road. Warning: It’s even more painful than last week’s Snyder Gone Wild clip, so brace yourself:
(Via This Is an Adventure)
Topics: Mr. Snyder, Philly Sucks, Redskins | 4 Comments »
Skins Winners & Losers, Early Edition
By Chris Mottram | October 5, 2008
Jamie is back in NoVA, enjoying (hopefully) the game with our good friend Andy (better known here as Putts From the Rough), so he’ll be unable to do a post-game Winners & Losers thang. And I’m forced to the bar to see the game (stupid fucking Panthers hogging the TV), so I’ll be drunk post-game. So, in our absence, please use the comments section below to post your own winners and losers, or just to vent your frustrations. I’ll join you as soon as I return from the watering hole down the street.
We’ll be back with the real deal Winners & Losers post tomorrow, when we’ve sobered up. HTTR.
Topics: Winners & Losers, Redskins | 17 Comments »
Manny Ramirez Is a Clean-Cut Young Man
By Jamie Mottram | October 3, 2008
After a torrid two months to close the regular season in L.A., Manny has a homer in each of the first two games of Dodgers-Cubs. And as bad as I feel about that for Cubs fans, I can’t help but be happy for the guy who has been knocking the cover off the ball and entertaining us for 15 seasons. So let’s take it back to the salad days in Cleveland, as we did with slim Jim Thome, via ‘93 Upper Deck Manny, sans dreadlocks but irrepressible as ever.
(Note the similarities between Manny’s portrait and Dave Morgan’s. Birds of a feather, those two.)
Topics: Cardboard Icons, MLB | 5 Comments »
Dave Morgan Didn’t Make Me Write This
By Jamie Mottram | October 3, 2008
Three cheers for Yahoo! Sports executive editor and my boss Dave Morgan for making Business Week’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Sports. Read the profile if you like, and know that, yeah, he does look kinda like Jon Stewart, but with a bit of Pete Carroll thrown in. He also doesn’t usually carry the lumber or sit on a purple throne, but it’d be a lot cooler if he did.
In other PR-type news, I’m reprising my role as an amateur talking head on tonight’s Washington Post Live from 5-6 p.m. ET on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic (DirecTV channel 642). Bog is my co-pilot, and LaVar Arrington will be the in-studio guest, so chances of a Chris Farley Show-esque moment are high to quite high.
Topics: Personal PR, Yahoo! Sports, Comcast SportsNet | 2 Comments »
Football Players Are Smart
By Chris Mottram | October 2, 2008
The future of Eastern Motors commercials: Less Shaggy-inspired theme music and more, well, more of whatever the hell this is:
(Thanks to Steinz. And he says I never read the Bog. Pshhh.)
Topics: Clinton Portis, Absurd Video, Redskins | 3 Comments »
My Old Professor Is Slangin’ Mason Rings
By Chris Mottram | October 2, 2008
A few years ago, while struggling through my sixth year of college, I took a sports ethics course at Mason. It was a requirement for my Sport Management major, an area of study limited to athletes and people who couldn’t hack it anywhere else within the University, like me. The only thing I remember about the class is sitting next to Jai Lewis all three or four times that I actually went.
But when I saw this post on the Mason Blog, the name attached to it — Maurice Scherrens — rang a bell. Turns out that, yep, that was my sports ethics professor. Which makes this all the more ironic:
Two “George Mason Final Four 2006 Championship” rings are listed on eBay currently. One here and another here. In the description the seller claims to have gotten them from a pawn shop in Virginia and that they are both from the same player. So naturally I’m thinking Tony Skinn. Yet if you look at the engravings the name on each ring reads “Scherrens”.
The rings are currently going for a few hundred bucks each, which is significantly more than the zero dollars I’d pay for them. Although it is odd that a man making 230 grand a year needed some extra pocket change by pawning his rings. This has the makings of the biggest scandal Old Town Fairfax has seen since the changing of Ned Devine’s to the Auld Shebeen rocked the town to its core. The 22030’s douchie nightclubs posing as Irish pubs industry hasn’t been the same since.
Also, if you’d like to hear a really cool story(!) about the day Mason made it to the Final Four, check out The Big Lead. That man is the greatest story teller of our generation.
Topics: George Mason | 7 Comments »