I’ve read/listened to various opinions about this situation and the general consensus seems to be, “this is the NFL, this is 2008, there must be a way to prevent this from happening!” Certainly the rules can be changed in whatever way they want but it is a complex situation.

As it turns out, and I didn’t know this until this incident, there’s a relatively new rule that says that even if the whistle is blown the players can continue to play if there’s a potential fumble – unless the QB is involved. The explanation that I’ve heard is that they don’t want the QB to get hurt (but it’s okay for other players to get hurt, I guess). So, if this had been a running back getting ready to throw an option pass it would have been a fumble and San Diego would get the ball (actually, I don’t know if that’s true – the rule may say something about “in the act of throwing” or “any player attempting to make a pass” – I don’t know if it actually applies only to QBs. For that matter, I’m not sure what happens if this situation happens when a QB is handing off the ball, or running down field, or playing defense on a turnover.).

Honestly, I’m surprised that in a game like football there are any situations where it’s okay to keep playing after the whistle. The whistle is supposed to invoke some kind of pavlovian response by the players – everyone is supposed to stop. I always assumed that the main point of this was that everyone would know when to relax and not worry about getting hit. Apparently now if the whistle blows and some folks see a potential fumble all bets are off – better stay on your toes. This seems dangerous. What happens when a player thinks he sees a fumble and blasts someone after the whistle? Is that okay? It seems like the point of these rules changes is to take away situations where the ref has to make a judgment call – but obviously there’s still a judgment call to be made.

Hey, if you want to protect the QB in these potential fumble situations then change the rule so that the QB’s not allowed to go after the fumble and players aren’t allowed to hit the QB in an attempt to get the fumble. It seems dumb to me – but no dumber than the current rule.

Either that or you go back to letting the refs be part of the game, for better or worse.

Brady seemed to be a cry baby about any little thing that went wrong on the field. I respect his intensity and desire to win, it just seemed like he could lead the team with a little more class or something. Belichick is even worse. I don’t mind that he’s surly but the secrecy around injuries is dumb and the whole spy-gate thing was a joke. If Belichick and the Patriots are so great why would they need to cheat? I don’t think the cheating is what made them great – but it sure makes them look dumb. And enough with the stupid sweatshirt – can’t he wear something nice?

BUT, regardless of my opinion of the Patriots I will admit that it was a bummer to see Brady go down with the injury. I’d rather have him in there and get beat fair and square. I guess there’s always next year.

• The field seems strangely slippery – for an artificial surface.
• That interference call on Smoot was a terrible call but…
• The Skins secondary is terrible and has no depth (see below for more).
• If you lose yards on first down just throw on second down, or punt, why bother with some crappy running play?
• Jason Taylor might be able to dance but he can’t stop the run – at all.
• NBC is using some pretty sweet cameras
• Someone should give Ed Hochuli a drug test
• Jim Zorn knows how timeouts work, right?  And no huddle offense?  (Okay so he didn’t need them)

I probably should have watched some of the pre-season.  If I had maybe I had I wouldn’t be so shocked at how bad they are.

This was an interesting play.  It was the screen pass to Cooley.  He was held on the play (actually thrown to the ground) which caused Campbell to delay the the throw for a second.  That caused Samuels to get downfield too early, drawing a penalty.  The offsetting penalties negated a 15-20 yard gain.  Not much you can do about it – just an odd scenario.

My expectations and standards are slow low now that I just want the Skins to not be terrible.

My biggest reaction though is that I really miss Sean Taylor.  Obviously people who knew him miss him because he’s gone and they probably don’t care or think about foodball.  I really think that losing him changes the Skins drastically.  In the first quarter alone I think he would have had a huge impact on the game.  It makes me sad.

Yes, football season starts soon.  I’m a huge Washington Redskins fan and have been ever since I can remember.  I have found over the past few years that my interest in pre-season has dropped to almost nothing.  So, I don’t yet know much about the team yet.

The fact that the season starts soon means one thing: I need to call and get cable hooked up in the new house.

From my perspective that might be good – I doubt Jim Fassel would sign up for such a gig. I’m hoping this points towards the Skins looking for an up-and-coming coach who wouldn’t mind having a staff pre-assembled for him. The least interesting thing to me is to hire some so-so coach on his 2nd or 3rd go around – let’s give someone new a shot!

Unfortunately, with Williams out of the running I haven’t heard any names that get me at all excited. Maybe the young guy from the Pats? I’m certainly not excited about the defensive coordinator from the Giants (who I think was with the Eagles before that) – lame. What about Mike Singletary? That would be interesting.

I can’t help thinking that if Sean Taylor hadn’t been killed this all wouldn’t be happening. I think the Skins would have won another game or two and maybe gotten further in the playoffs. I think Gibbs might have stuck around another year. For some reason I even think maybe Gregg Williams would have had a shot at head coach. Maybe I’m wrong about all that – but if you look at the Skins before Taylor’s death and you look at them now it is two totally different pictures.

One thing I found to be interesting was that Coach Gibbs said that he hadn’t thought too much about his plans for next year until after that loss – and that he though that they were going to go all the way to the Super Bowl!  If pretty much anyone else had said that you would have laughed at them but I believe that Coach Gibbs really thought he would make it to the Super Bowl.

While I’m very, very disappointed that Coach Gibbs is leaving I had assumed that Gregg Williams would be the next coach – even if they went through the motions of interviewing other folks.  Well, as time drags on it seems less and less likely that he’ll get the job.  Heck, he has worked for the team for the past four years – what on earth do they need to ask him about before they can decide if he’s the guy for them?

The other day I read that there might be a new, mystery candidate in the mix.  Hmmm, that could be interesting but unless the mystery candidate is Darrell Green or Richie Pettibone (can you believe that there is no Wikipedia page for Richie Pettibone!  I’ve never contributed to Wikipedia or had much interest to but this might change that.) then I’m not interesting.  Okay, I could live with Riggo – that would work too.

Then today I’m reading about Jim Fassel being in the running.   You have to be kidding me.  It was bad enough when they were talking about Brian Billick – but Jim Fassel?  Give me a break.  Marty was a better pick.  Spurrier was more interesting.  Heck, even back when they had Norv at least you kept thinking maybe he would become a great coach.

Getting someone who has been an okay coach before, maybe even pretty good, but who ultimately failed is just not very exciting to me.  I guess I could live with a big name like Cowher but my preference would be to find some up and coming dude – the next Joe Gibbs – and give them a shot.  If an unknown tries and fails it was at least interesting.  If a re-run coach, like Fassel, tries and fails then it’s lame and boring.  What if a re-run coach tries and succeeds… well I guess I’d have to cross that bridge when we never get to it.

At least if they stick with Gregg Williams for a year we have a shot at keeping the team and the momentum together – bringing in a new guy will wreck everything.

I want the Skins to have a good, long term quarterback.  I’m not sure Jason Campbell is, or can be, that guy – but I’m positive Todd Collins can’t be that guy.  Collins might be able to lead them deep into the playoffs – maybe even to the Super Bowl – but there’s no way he’ll be the QB in DC in 2 years (or even next year).

So I skip over the Collins stories.  I’d rather read about Joe Gibbs or Gregg Williams or Portis or pretty much anything other than Collins.

Go Skins!

I’m feeling pretty bummed about this whole thing, and also a little guilty.  I feel guilty because I wonder if I would feel so sad if it had been someone else on the team – not one of the star players.  When I think about that question I realize that there’s a bigger issue going on for me.

As far as I can remember, I became a Redskins fan back in 1981, the first year Joe Gibbs coached the team.  I was 8 years old.  I’m not sure if I showed interest in it and my dad encouraged that or if my dad, a big football fan, decided that it was about time to get his sons watching football.  Either way, a year after I became a fan the Skins won the Super Bowl and went on a great run for about 10 years.

I was very luck to grow up being a fan of a team that was doing well almost all the time.  As kids we did all sorts of things like greeting the team at the airport when they flew back from Super Bowls, sitting the audience of the various local Redskins Report TV shows, or getting autographs whenever we happened to bump into a player out in public.  In addition to forming strong feelings about the team during that time, my brothers and father and I formed a bond around being fans.

As a kid it was great because Sunday afternoon was football time – we never had any conflicts!  If the Skins were playing, we were watching.  Back then, half-time was a bit longer so we’d duck out into the back yard to throw the football around some.  Sometimes Pop came out with us – that was always the best.  We’d play around until Mom hollered for us because the game was back on.  The first few minutes of the second half we were always winded, having just run in after one last long bomb.

I’m sure life was miserable for my mom and sister after a Skins loss – having half the family sulk around the house must have been no fun.  After a win I’m sure it was a lot better.

Eventually I went off to college and a couple of years later Coach Joe Gibbs retired.  Many a phone call back home involved talking to Pop about the Skins.  After Gibbs retired the Skins were never quite the same so Pop and I would talk about what the Skins needed to do to get back to their old winning ways.  We talked about coaches, other than Norv Turner it seemed like a new one every year or so.  We talked about quarterbacks, the Skins managed to try several different ones every year.

After college, when I was living in Houston, I would go to a sports bar on Sundays, usually by myself, to catch the game.  It was usually on the smallest screen in the joint and there were always more fans for the other team.  But after the game, win or lose, I could give Pop a call to talk about it.

When I moved back to the DC area we would occasionally get together for Skins games.  But the Skins usually weren’t that good and there always seemed to be conflicting obligations.  Plus who wanted to go get into a funk with other people after a loss?  What was once a fun, family bonding experience had now become a fairly depressing, solitary event.  But I still enjoyed rehashing the various Skins news with Pop.

Then, back in 2003, Pop died.  Obviously there are tons of things I miss about him but for some reason one of the hardest things for me was not having him around to talk about the Skins.  Less than a year later the impossible happened, Joe Gibbs came back as the coach.  What I would have given to talk to Pop about that move!  I was overjoyed and heartbroken at the same time – Pop would have never believed it.

Of course, the second Joe Gibbs era hasn’t been the same as the first.  Brian and I have families now and we rarely find time to catch a game together.  Heck, if it weren’t for the invention of the DVR, and a very patient and understanding wife, I wouldn’t be seeing many games these days.  My kids are too young to be fans and who knows if they’ll even be interested in football.  I’ve been holding out hope that Gibbs would eventually get the Skins turned around and if they were winning more Brian and I would make the effort to catch more games together.  Maybe the Skins are on the verge of another strong 10 year run, just about the time when I could bond with my kids over it.

For some reason this news of Sean Taylor has almost killed my desire to be a Skins fan, at least for now.  Maybe it’s because I felt he was one of the key players on the team and without him I see several more years of struggling.  It seemed like if he hadn’t been out with an injury for the previous two games the Skins could have won those – and maybe that would have made this season the turn-around season.

I guess my kids are still several years from being able to appreciate football.  Maybe this is for the best.  Maybe I should just check out of the Skins fan club for about 5 years and see how things are going then.  It obviously won’t be with Joe Gibbs but maybe when Coral is 8 the Skins will have a new, great coach and we can watch some football together – and have fun.

I don’t really know Belichick or even that much about him but it sure seems like he’s concerned about records and stats, which means he’ll be going for an undefeated season, which means he has a good shot at getting a key player hurt and blowing his chances in the playoffs. I think in the past the Colts have gone too soft for the last couple of games, but I suspect the Pats will go too hard. Without Tom Brady, that team is about average. I hate to see people get hurt but as long as it’s not career threatening I wouldn’t mind seeing the Pats go into the playoffs with Cassel under center.

And as for the Skins – well they go up against the Jets this weekend. Hopefully they will bounce back and win decisively. If they just squeak by, or lose, then I’ll be seriously bummed.

A little bird tells me that my brother has a bet with Gary V on the Skins game. I won’t reveal the details of the bet but here’s a question for you: what uniform is Riggo wearing in this video?

Slingbox is pretty cool.  Not the greatest thing ever, but definitely cool.

I’m still amazed at how bad some (most?  all?) DVRs are.  Sure, it’s great technology and I couldn’t live without it but the design and development of the DVR software is years behind most of what you see on the web.  I just don’t understand why the UI and some of the functionality is so bad.  Apple, when will you tweak AppleTV and turn it into an awesome DVR?  (I’ve never actually used a Tivo so maybe that’s the answer.  My experience has been with ReplayTV, Cox’s DVR, and Verizon’s FiOS DVR.)

The final thing is about football.  I know preseason doesn’t matter.  Teams can lose all their preseason games and still be good.  Teams can win all their preseason games and still be bad.  For the Skins a strong win in the preseason would really make me feel better.  Heck, 10 first downs would feel good too.