Not a lot of heavy news to report on the first day of camp. I’m just happy every one is there and everybody’s happy.
Well almost everybody. Laron Landry missed the first day but Redskins.com reported a signing was forthcoming both in this story and when Gibbs took the podium after practice.
An unexpected extra player came in the form of veteran wide receiver and late signing Corey Bradford. I like this pick up as a low-risk, nice potential signing. It hurts Mike Espy a bit, and if I were James Thrash I’d be making sure I didn’t miss a tackle in special teams practice, but Bradford makes a nice 4th receiver.
It is obviously too early to tell if it is true, but there is an interesting story in the Washington Post about the Skins having a tougher camp this year. One of the unspoken parts of the story seems to be that Portis’ preseason injury might have made the camp a little less hard. Another aspect, of course, was that the Al Saunders offense required more time to implement and presumably that meant less hitting, etc. My only real doubt here in the story is that I feel like every newspaper in every city runs one of two stories– “camp will be harder this year” or “Because of all the injuries/poor finish we had last year, camp will be easier this year in hopes of keeping everybody healthy.” It can’t be true that every camp in ever NFL city can get harder every year, and if it does happen to be true, then maybe that’s why we get the stories about the easier camps. Sometimes this stuff is just fluff.
If you have any question about the power structure in the Redskins front office, check out this fun blurb in DC Sports Blog.
That’s all for now. I hope my next post will be reporting that Landry is signed and practicing. Hail Skins!
-DW
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Is it my imagination, or do the Redskins have an enormous amount of payroll invested in petulant babies who lose badly while complaining about the tactics of our Hall of Fame coach? Perhaps these baying losers should review tape of the 1991 Super Bowl champs; not only was it the product of Mr. Gibbs coaching, but was ranked by Espn as one of the top 10 champions in Super Bowl history.
Welcome to the Rag, Otherworld. You're sadly right, but unfortunately I think that it is a sign of the modern NFL and maybe a sign that Gibbs isn't as young as he used to be. The more money out there, the less leverage owners and coaches have with players. But I do think we often look back on the past with rose (or burgandy) colored glasses. Joe Gibbs coached his fair share of head cases including cocaine addict Dexter Manley and just a few years before that brilliant '91 team, there was Timmy Smith who was such a head case after his performance in Super Bowl XXII, that he held out, got fat, got hurt and was out of football in a few seasons. We like to put myths around teams. Either they are perfect teams without any acrimony like the Pats teams of late or they are like those 70's Oakland A's teams where they coined the phrase, "25 players, 25 limos." We like that kind of simplicity.The truth is always somewhere in between, and I think one of the reasons why Gibbs decided to step down as the play caller and be more of an executive was because he needed more time and energy to handle all the people conflicts. This was probably something that used to take much less effort when he was younger. Now he fights the image that he is the old man, that he is out of touch with the times and the league, and it probably takes more just to get these guys on your side. The frustrating thing for me is the number of stories about guys who are "trying harder this year," but maybe Gibbs is finally getting some traction with these guys.Let's keep our fingers crossed.-DW