Monday, September 8, 2008

Stats

If anyone wondered if players in the NFL care about how others at their position are doing, they do. This Sunday sucked for me watching so many tight ends put up big games. I hate not being productive and I hate being so far down this list. I guess Fasano and Rosario are ballers. It's gonna take some serious work this week just to get back to even. I think both I and the Redskins need it.

Fantasy Update

Last Thursday's loss was a very tough one for me to deal with. After thinking about it and watching the film, I am ready to move on and start preparing for the Saints. I am confident that we will bounce back and come ready to play on Sunday against a great opponent that is 1-0. These next two home games can and will define this team. Becasue if we can come out and get a couple of wins before heading to Philly and Dallas, we will be in great shape.

Now as for our fantasy football league here is what happened over the weekend. Even though I am losing to Colt's MENEHUNE I still have AP and Berrnard Berrian who I am hoping can muster up enought to win this week. What a move it was for me to sit Fast Willie Parker! The high scorer as you can see was Jason (even though I managed to score him zero points this week). The surprising low of the week, Fred Smoot, 14 points. I don't even know how that happens but it did.

MENEHUNE 46 - Cooley's Zornado 39
Team Red Snapper 70 - Better Halves 55
Lionel Richie Boys 92 - Cavemen 47
Hurricanes 36 - Bulldozers 46
chocolate assassins 52 - DC Lumber Co 14

So everyone out there with Adrian Peterson on their team, pray for him to stay healthy and score a TD or 2 or 3 cause I want to win at something this week, even if it is Fantasy Football.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Breakfast with the Cooley's

Friday, September 5, 2008

TC: College Football GOW


Moving across the country does a lot to a person especially a college football fan. I mean, I am used to teams like Utah State, BYU, and Utah. I can easily list every team in the WAC, Mountain West, and Pac 10. But now, I have to totally adjust my life and my knowledge of college football to from the Aggies, Utes, and Cougars to the Terps, Hokies, and Mountaineers. Not that I am complaining about having 5 times the amount of teams within an afternoons driving distance but who do you cheer for?

After being let down by Va. Tech last week and struggling to stay awake in the Maryland/Delaware barn-burner, I’m not going to lie about how not excited I am for the matchups this Saturday. Richmond @ Virginia, Furman vs. Va. Tech, Maryland @ Middle Tennessee or ECU coming to get their asses beat by West Virginia. Now I don’t want to rag on anyone’s team here but I would rather watch a repeat of the Skins Giants from last night than any of those games.

This makes it tough to pick a winner to watch this week since obviously those others aren’t on the charts for game of the week. So…my “east coast” team of the week to watch is going to be Cincinnati. They beat down Eastern Kentucky last week and won 10 games last year leading me to believe they are a legit team to watch. Plus with QB Dustin Grutza having a 200 rating I get the feeling that they can compete against the 4th ranked Sooners this weekend.

So get your cooler out and put your game gear on cause instead of watching #15 BYU play Washington State or my alma mater square up against the #18 Ducks, I will be watching the Bearcats and Sooners in the battle of the…well hopefully it will be a battle cause this is my pick for college game of the week.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Countdown to Kickoff


30 hours. Why do they put Direct TV on a bus? Super Bowl XXV conveniently played while we rolled down 66 toward Union Station. The Giants in their highest glory, but the overhanging trees and multiple overpass bridges were enough to interrupt the signal every 10 seconds. By the time the ride was over I didn't know if I was more nauseous from the scrambled championship viewing or seeing Tyree's helmet catch for the 500th time.

29 hours. A rickety ass train ride was not nearly enough to detour the euker cards from being dealt. Euker is our new game of choice, it's almost like a white dude's version of spades. The game is played with a partner (Todd Yoder) against another pair of partners. (Suisham and Rabach) The basic story of the game is that euker passes shitty train riding time like a frenzied roller coaster. After all was said and done, me and Yod walked away with two extra per-diems.

24 hours. I'm fucking starving. This morning I weighed about two pounds more than I wanted and there is no way I'm gonna be a fat ass for week one. Fat acts as a break on the football field. Now I've tried to contain myself all day, avoiding all kinds of terrible traveling foods. I'm waiting for the team snack at 9. I could have went to dinner with my newly acquired euker money, but I would end up eating way too much. Yea, great self discipline.

23 hours. Team meeting. We go through the first 15 plays of the game. I was hoping for about 8 scheduled catches on that play list, I guess I'll leave the anticipation for what happens there. Film review for a half hour, more Super Bowl action. Then Zorn talks, he is ready to battle with us.

19 hours. Can't sleep. My TV is a piece of shit. I guess that's becoming a theme of the trip. Every five minutes it goes fuzzy and gets really loud, constantly ruffling the serenity of my night. I like to play this little game at night in the hotel where I try to fall asleep during the commercials. I'll watch whatever show is on then roll over during the ads. Every damn time I roll over the TV starts blasting static. Of course I could turn it off, but that's not part of the routine. So now I have to get out of bed every five minutes and beat some sense into it - pounding it three or four times on the sides seems really successful. Probably not good in the long run for the TV, but the weird thing is that the harder my fist hits the side the longer it functions normally. Whatever.

18 hours. TV off, I'm not very happy.

14 hours. Someone thought a wake up call at 5 would hilarious. Preliminary suspect: Clinton Portis. Who doesn't want to be watching Sportscenter reruns at 5 AM?

12 hours. Sleep again. I would've been crushed had this not happened.

9 hours. I watched that Nichole Kidman movie where the world gets some weird virus if they fall asleep. Virus movies scare me more that horror movies.

8 hours. Breakfast. The coffee in our hotel is terrible, but after yesterday's eating limitations breakfast is smelling perfect. We always have an omelet and waffle station in our road trip dining rooms. Usually I go with a more conventional bacon and eggs, but we stayed here three weeks ago when we played the Jets and I found out first hand this hotel sucks with bacon. So I headed to the omelet stand.

7 hours. Another team meeting. Only on night games do we include this time filling meeting. It's pretty much an hour of re-watching game film that everyone has seen 10 times. Last week in this same meeting Yoder and I played the "vagina game." The object of this game is to say "vagina" louder than the person before you. By the end of the meeting we were yelling vagina. I think coaches were a little concerned, but we would yell in context of the meeting. "That right guard is a complete VAGINA." There may have been a little too much pressure building up this week to be screaming vagina, but I smiled inside thinking of great moments to slip it in.

6 hours. I'm sitting naked in room 909, my back and ass pouring sweat into a shitty black leather chair. I showered and I'm waiting to put my nice clothes on. I guess I'll be showering again. I've brushed my teeth three times. I have a pimple in my eyebrow and it's swelling up because I go back to the mirror and squeeze it every thirty minutes. I know I haven't gotten it all yet so I haven't stopped, but it really is starting to hurt. I have nothing to do right now. Boredom is fusing with excitement, creating a stoppage of time in my world.

5 hours. Two hours until I board the bus the hell out of Hasbrouck Heights and into Giants Stadium. I'm starting to get pre-game nerves, one of my favorite feelings in life. I could not be more ready to play than right now. Thank God football is back.

Redskins Fantasy Week 1



Cooley's Zornado
QB Jason Campbell
WR Derrick Mason
WR Chris Chambers
WR Bernard Berrian
RB Adrian Peterson
RB Steven Jackson
TE Kellen Winslow
K Shaun Suisham
DEF Tampa Bay

MENEHUNE
QB Ben Roethlisberger
WR Randy Moss
WR Roddy White
WR Deion Branch
RB Maurice Jones-Drew
RB LenDale White
TE Jason Witten
K Shayne Graham
DEF Washington

Better Halves
QB Peyton Manning
WR Braylon Edwards
WR Hines Ward
WR Donald Driver
RB Reggie Bush
RB Jamal Lewis
TE Tony Gonzalez
K Adam Vinatieri
DEF San Diego

Cavemen
QB Matt Hasselbeck
WR Chad Johnson
WR Laveranues Coles
WR Lee Evans
RB Brian Westbrook
RB Edgerrin James
TE Antonio Gates
K Josh Brown
DEF Seattle

Bulldozers
QB Derek Anderson
WR Plaxico Burress
WR Greg Jennings
WR Vincent Jackson
RB Joseph Addai
RB LaDainian Tomlinson
TE Heath Miller
K Phil Dawson
DEF Pittsburgh

DC Lumber Co
QB Tom Brady
WR Marvin Harrison
WR Torry Holt
WR Devin Hester
RB Larry Johnson
RB Ronnie Brown
TE Vernon Davis
K Stephen Gostkowski
DEF Minnesota

Hurricanes
QB Carson Palmer
WR Andre Johnson
WR Reggie Wayne
WR Anquan Boldin
RB Fred Taylor
RB Darren McFadden
TE Jeremy Shockey
K Rob Bironas
DEF New England

Lionel Richie Boys
QB Drew Brees
WR Santana Moss
WR Roy Williams
WR Terrell Owens
RB Frank Gore
RB Thomas Jones
TE Chris Cooley
K Nate Kaeding
DEF Chicago

Team Red Snapper
QB Donovan McNabb
WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh
WR Wes Welker
WR Calvin Johnson
RB Marion Barber
RB Clinton Portis
TE Alge Crumpler
K Jason Elam
DEF Dallas

Chocolate Assassins
QB Tony Romo
WR Larry Fitzgerald
WR Marques Colston
WR Dwayne Bowe
RB Marshawn Lynch
RB Willis McGahee
TE Dallas Clark
K Nick Folk
DEF Baltimore

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Quotable

So many awesome comments have gone forgotten over the my years with the Redskins. I won't stand for it any longer. Last weeks Bugel quote spurred a commitment in my note taking. Something gets said and you can bet your sweet ass it's going in my notebook.

This week our coaches were nothing short of outstanding in our NYG preparation. We even had a special owner pep talk to kick off our week and let me say Dan Snyder is a exceptional speaker. Really, no bullshit, he was awesome! He walked out the door and I was ready to put the pads on. 

After all was said, it was too tough to narrow my quote of the week to one, so I've chosen three.

Dan Synder "Redskins football is violent, physical, violent f****** football! If we play that way we will win...if we don't...we will lose.

Joe Bugel "Take that field that first play and somebody's gonna get hit in the mouth - and somebody's gonna bleed.

Sherman Smith (This one was short, but held so much value in context) "It's about team men!"

Fantasy Football 2008

A couple weeks ago we had a fantasy football draft with a bunch of the guys. We will be running our league through Yahoo sports. This should be an awesome year for fantasy football as we will be giving you updates both here and on comcastsportsnet.  Be sure to check out the winners and losers from each week, give us your picks, expert fantasy advice, and anything else we should know.   

Monday, September 1, 2008

Yode's Corner: Final Cuts Ode to Boss



Final Cuts -- The day that ends the dream for some NFL players. After final cuts, over 500 NFL players are now looking for work. For some, they will land jobs with other teams and a few younger players maybe get picked up on a team’s practice squad. For many of the younger players their quick minute of glory and hopes of making it into the NFL are now over. They will go on with their lives trying to find work in the real world and telling stories of how they had a shot in training camp and almost made it in the big league. That final day is almost like a funeral because it signals death to some guys.

As a player it sucks as you lose some teammates that you have become close to who are great people. This year it was Ryan Boschetti; a friend, a father with a wonderful family, a hard worker, a great teammate, a below average poker player, and a great guy.  I will miss the Greasy Meatball and hope he picks up somewhere else. But as life in the NFL rolls on, we have to get ready to play our opening game against the Giants and Ryan's name becomes just one of many that have been on teams that I have played with to get cut. 

In my position I have probably seen some 25 TE's come and go through 9 seasons. I have even felt the pain of being released. Three years ago in Jacksonville I received a phone call from the Grim Reaper himself. It was a call that ripped my heart right out of the chest, because everything I had worked towards for the past years of my life was gone. It had a profound effect on my wife and family as well because it meant relocation, moving them away from friends and our home. It was definitely the low point in my career as I didn't know what would happen next. But I lucked out and found a new home here in Washington. Making this day of final cuts  for a guy like me, a day of life, a day of exhilaration because I made it another year. I get to continue playing football for one more season.

Team Captains

This season the Washington Redskins had an official, secret ballet vote for team captains. I was hoping we would use the "close your eyes and raise your hand method," but Zorn just passed around some papers with blank lines. Yoder said that we should have made Cooley campaign pins, but it got procrastinated too long to be ready for our "high school" election. I guess there is always next year.

We now have 2 captains from the offense, defense, and special teams. I'm sure that most Skins' fans could have made their team captain assumptions and came very closely to the actual selection but here they are. On offense Jason Campbell and Chris Samuels. Defensively London Fletcher and Cornelius Griffin (I thought both were obvious choices). And finally, not trying to leave out our special guys, Rock Cartwright and Khary Campbell made the cut.


Something discussed amongst the team during stretch today: The population of white players on the Redskins is exactly 25 percent and no white captains were selected (no big deal, just something we observed).

Also notable: Reed Doughty is the only white player on the defense.

Lastly: Not that I feel like I have to justify my previous notables, but I will. I love the black man! I love black people! I'm every body's motherf*****!