Greetings from Redskins Training Camp

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Peter King was sent to Ashburn, VA on July 25, 2008 to report on the Redskins’ training camp for SI.com. After reading King’s article, SI editors decided it was insufficient, so they sent me to get the inside report on the Skins’ camp. I took the trip to Redskins’ Park, their year-round training facility, one day after King did. It was Fan Appreciation Day and 28,000 fans showed up to watch the team’s practice. The team warmed up, did some position drills, and then played an intra-squad scrimmage. Basically, the first, second, and third units took turns driving up the field, starting from their own 35. Afterward, many of the players interacted with the fans, signing autographs. I was two yards off the line in endzone the offense was driving away from during the scrimmage but where the offense skill positions did their drills. Here are my observations and thoughts:

Observations/Notes

• Chris Cooley is the fan favorite of the Redskins nation. And rightfully so, as he was one of only two players wearing yellow socks at the practice. It helps your population rating when you are the favorite player of every single female fan. (Cooley is seen right, #47).
  
• I am 5’9” and ¾. Santana Moss, Antwaan Randle El, and Rock Cartwright are all shorter than me. Chris Samuels, Jon Jansen, and Jason Taylor are taller than me. It is really cool seeing these giants playing on the same field as these small dudes.
• Clinton Portis is the star of the team (more eyes on him than anyone else, but not as beloved Cooley) and he acts like it. Portis came out on to the field wearing a Skins baseball cap backwards, put his helmet on for about 15 minutes and then returned to the sideline with the cap. Portis was the only back or receiver to drop a pass in a drill catching balls out of the backfield. He was also the only player wearing a yellow shirt under their jersey (you could see because most players had their jersey tucked up under their shoulder pads). He seemed like the relaxed funny guy you see in interview. He is the Skins' franchise back and he knows it.
• The scrimmage was full contact (except for QBs) and the first big hit really got the fans riled up. Campbell hit Moss on a 5 yard route and three defenders (a linebacker, corner, and safety) converged and crushed Moss. Randle El wisely fell to the ground in a similar situation later in the scrimmage.
• You know the players were going full speed because DT Anthony Montgomery fractured his hand during the scrimmage.
• Most of the studs only took a few reps during the scrimmage and some of them, like Portis and Taylor, didn’t play at all.
• Rookie TE Fred Davis made me regret selecting Jets TE Dustin Keller instead of him in the rookie draft of my dynasty fantasy football league. Davis dropped the only ball thrown to him during the scrimmage but man, he can move. He has that “it.” Some athletes just move different than all the rest: really fast and powerfully but gracefully and with ease. It’s hard to explain, but you know it when you see it. That’s Davis. It will be really cool to see how new Coach Jim Zorn utilizes Davis and Cooley this season and down the road when Davis develops.
• QB Todd Collins led the second team instead of rookie Colt Brennan. At first I was confused why the promising Brennan wouldn’t be the back up, but after watching both, now I understand why Collins is the #2 QB. Collins may not have the physical tools Brennan does, but he moved the ball effectively up the field and didn’t screw up. Brennan struggled to maintain a drive, repeatedly making mistakes. If they were playing full contact with QBs too, Brennan would have been crushed about a quarter of the reps he took. Poor Derek Devine, a QB one year out of Marshall, didn’t even get to take a snap.
• Rock Cartwright signed autographs with his mouth piece in his mouth.
• The coolest piece of memorabilia that I saw at the dozens of stands was a framed photograph of the Redskins “missing man formation,” signed by ever Redskin that was on the field for that play. In the Redskins first defensive play of the game after Taylor’s death, they only sent 10 players on to the field to honor Taylor.
• In his article, King states that he thinks Washington has the best skill players of any team in the NFC East. Dallas is clearly the only other team in the division that could hold that title. Excluding QBs from “skill players,” I think King is right, Washington edges Dallas in that area.

Uniforms

• Like I said, Cooley was one of the only players wearing yellow socks, and they were sweet. The few other players that were wearing socks wore black ones.
• Most players’ helmets had the Redskins’ logo on both sides but some were bare.
• Many of the skill players wore new black and yellow Nike cleats that are very nice. None of the linemen wore these flashy cleats, instead choosing plain black ones.
• Injured rookie wide receivers Malcolm Kelly and Devin Thomas were wearing sweet practice shorts. Standard NFL issued shorts probably, but still, very cool.
• The Redskins’ fans are pretty rabid. 87% of fans were wearing Redskins paraphernalia and 50% were wearing a jersey.
• Starting QB Jason Campbell is improving but he still has a way to go in earning the trust of Redskins fans. I saw 5 fans wearing Joe Theismann jerseys and one wearing a Mark Brunell. I only saw 4 Campbell uniforms. And I was looking for them too.
• Other former Redskins were well represented by fans wearing their jerseys. I saw multiple people wearing the jerseys of Jon Riggins, Lavar Arrington, and of course, Sean Taylor.
• Fans were also wearing some Redskins players’ jerseys from former teams. I saw a Miami Hurricanes Portis jersey, Miami Dolphins Taylor jersey, and most exciting, a younger kid was wearing a Colt Brennan Hawaii jersey.
• If I had to guess, Cooley and Portis jerseys would be tied with for the most worn by fans.

Play of the Day

• Fourth year receiver Billy McMullen made the most exciting play of the day. McMullen ran a 15 yard post and rose up with the safety and cornerback. Each player had a shot at the ball and McMullen snatched it out of the hands of the safety while still in the air. He came down with the ball, quickly broke away from the two defenders and took it 35 yards to the house, stiff arming another D-back on the way.

Personal Highlights of the Day

• One fan was wearing a blue Seahawks Steve Largent jersey. Awesome.
• I also saw a woman with the most legit mullet ever. I had no idea women could, or would, put their hair into a mullet. Apparently in Virginia they can and do.

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Red, White, and... Brown?

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This afternoon, the United States men's soccer team played England in a friendly at Wembley. As Coach Bradley mainly used the match to test the form of his European-based players--only one MLS player started, with two more coming on in relief--and we were missing star midfielder Landon Donovan--who had a sore groin--the Americans weren't particularly expected to have a strong showing, and we surprised nobody. Amherica's poor passing, inability to set up quality scoring chances, and propensity to concede dangerous free kicks led to a 2-0 England victory.

So, our play was exactly like expected, anyway. And you might even say the same about our uniforms, in that in being nothing like anyone could've expected, they were exactly like could've been expected. (It's only fitting, I suppose, that such a contratian-sounding comment would owe a debt to Slate, and here it comes). The United States soccer teams' uniform troubles (and travels) have been well-documented. (Please note that the placement of the apostrophe was not a grammatical mistake. Rather, it was a nod to the American women's own kit problems, which, though many, will not be covered here.) Michael J. Agovino's piece that appeared on Slate last May--www.slate.com/id/2168476/--decried the American reluctance to pick a nice kit or two and stick with it. (For those who aren't up on soccer uniforms, and I can't say I blame you, "kit" just means "uniforms and stuff". Teams usually have two kits, a first and a second, and would generally prefer to wear the first as long as it isn't too similar to that of the home team, which has first pick.) In American soccer-playing history, long-but-not-distinguished, we've sported quite the array of uniforms. Below is a sampling. (Please note as well that I was unable to find any old pictures in color online, so these are all from the last 15 years.)



Yeah. Not pretty. Some red, some white, some navy blue, some royal blue, some stonewashed-looking blue, some diagonal stripes, some vertical stripes, some circles, some stars. A couple of those are solid, international-level kits, and more than a couple are pure garbage. But what we wore today... hoo boy.



I couldn't believe my eyes. America, as even foreigners like blogsquatch and dead people like blurryfoot know, is red-white-and-blue. Sure, the US men's soccer team hasn't been able to pick out a blue and stick with it, but at least we've been blue. When I asked some friends (and friends of the site) what color the US's uniforms were, I got the following responses:

Mrs. Schrute: "It's the USA. Of course they're wearing blue... No, brown. No, blue. Sons, why's the United States wearing brown?"

MacAttack: "They look gray... Or a weird blue."

Slov: "Blue. [With confidence.] Black. [With slightly less confidence.] They look gray. [She thinks for a moment.] Are they--[Totally perplexed.]--purple?"

As for myself, well, I think they'd be best classified as gray, perhaps even "slate". Maybe it's some kind of homage to Agovino's Slate commentary that the US needs to brand itself by picking something and sticking with it--so we picked something no one else would wear in a million years--or maybe it's an attempt to be "cool" and "cutting-edge" in an effort to attract fans who don't give a damn about World Cup quarterfinal appearances (2002, natch) but really like space-age looking Nike gear, or maybe they started as a normal blue and got damaged on the plane ride over. Or maybe they're just really fucking ugly, and will get thrown in the dustbin of bad American soccer uniforms like so many that have come before them.

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