Posts from the Washington Redskins Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

More proof that the Cowboys are among the favorites heading into 2008, even though '07 ended on such a downer: BetUs.com has America's Team! at 16-1 odds to go undefeated during the regular season. In case you're wondering, the Patriots are 15-1 odds to run the table without Matthew Estrella (those odds fall to 1-1 if New England figures out a way to beat the system, however).

DMN's Cowboys Blog runs down some of the regular-season contests that could trip up the team's march to perfection. They've identified the season opener at Cleveland, the Week 3 Sunday nighter in Green Bay, the Week 5 showdown against the Bengals (in Dallas), the Nov. 2 game in New York, the Week 14 get-together in Pittsburgh, and the season finale at Philly.

The thing is, a seemingly daunting schedule in July could turn into a cakewalk by late October. That said, I don't think the Cowboys will have any problem with the Browns or the Packers (unless Favre returns, of course). And the Bengals franchise could be dissolved by Week 2.

The Giants, Steelers and Eagles are all quite capable of winning (especially since they're home games), but it's curious that DMN's Calvin Watkins thinks so much of the other NFC East team, the Redskins, to not include them here, even though they annually give Dallas fits. Dr. Do Itch Big is not impressed.

By the way, the Cowboys' odds of finally winning a playoff game? That's off the board.

If you go to eBay right now you can bid on an autographed rookie card of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. No surprise there.

But it is a little surprising that the seller, identified as cooley717523, is none other than Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley. Cooley explains on the Shutdown Corner blog that he has always loved football cards, and he and his wife are now becoming collectors and sellers:

At home with hundreds of cards, we decided that it would be fun to create our own account on eBay and sell them. We tried to take great pictures and then describe the cards. Christy wants to describe every card as beautiful. I don't know if that's a great way to describe a card, but it seems catchy enough.

We have our first cards listed for sale and three of them have bids already. I'm pretty sure we'll spend way more money buying cards than we'll ever make on them, but we've had a blast giving it a try.

Cooley has set the starting bid on the Peterson card at $150.

If you think this video purporting to show Washington Redskins kicker Shaun Suisham making a 110-yard field goal is real, I've got a poker game I'd like to invite you to:

But there are a whole lot of people I'd like to play poker with, I guess, because the guy from the TV station that put it together tells Deadspin that many viewers believe it:

"We've had a ton of e-mail on this, and about 30 percent of people think it's real, which is frightening," Brett Haber, the sports director at WUSA-TV in Washington D.C., said. "Yes it's real, and so is the Easter Bunny. Our marketing department put it together in the spirit of the Kobe video to promote our Redskins preseason football package. I think the phrase they're using upstairs for the video is "summer fun." I didn't have anything to do with it, but I don't think it was ever meant to be taken seriously."

So, to be clear: No, Shaun Suisham cannot make a 110-yard field goal. No one can.

Former Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke died 11 years ago, at age 84. So among the many odd things about this story is that he has a daughter who's 20 years old.

Other odd things: That daughter, Jacqueline Kent Cooke, got arrested over the weekend and asked the arresting officer, "Do you know who I am?" I'm going to go ahead and say no, Jacqueline. No one knows who you are.

Ms. Cooke told the officer that "$1 billion goes a long way" and that he would lose his badge for arresting her, according to the police report, but in reality she apparently has significantly less than $1 billion.

She was charged with operating under the influence and operating without a license.

Via A.J. Daulerio at Deadspin.

Yesterday, I passed an article along that suggested that the Houston Texans were a team that compressed the time between training camp and the rest of the offseason schedule. I thought it might be an interesting experiment to watch.

Whoops, it turns out that the Si.com article was wrong about the Texans schedule. I contacted someone with the team, and they said that the official offseason workouts concluded a few weeks ago with the last day of OTAs, but added there are "a lot of players" working out on a voluntary basis.

Maybe it's too bad, because Washington Redskin tight end, Chris Cooley provides some thoughtful reasons why offseason schedules make no sense. In one of Cooley's magnificent blogs, he explains:

"If teams really want players at their highest performance level then have guys stick around until closer to two weeks before camp starts. If you want to give players a little more time away from the game, then give it to them in March and April. If I'm coaching, I'd rather find out that my players are lying around on the beach having a couple drinks earlier in the year. I certainly don't want that happening with less than two weeks to training camp."

That seems to make a lot of sense to me but the SI.com article explained that teams are reluctant to do it because it's the only time coaches get much of a break. The coaches need to be around earlier in the season because of draft evaluations.

Cooley HT to PFT

This one is a bit odd. The Washington Times reports that Redskins' defensive lineman Phillip Daniels called out cornerback Shawn Springs for not being at the team's OTAs yesterday. (Hat tip: Hogs Haven):

"If there's no reason [for his absence] and I'm here, then be here, be a leader," said Daniels, who has been Springs' teammate for eight seasons with the Redskins and the Seattle Seahawks. "[Shawn]'s his own man. I'm a leader. I lead by example. I lead by being here. I'm not a rah-rah guy. He's not here to help us right now. ... He gotta deal with the way people perceive him. I can only say to him, 'Get here. Be involved with this.'"

Wow. Now you as a fan may think the same way, but players don't typically do this. Unless you have some character issues, teammates rarely call out others for not showing up to these things. Remember, these are OTAs which are, technically, voluntary. Now, we all know that "voluntary" in the NFL eyes means "you are either a mega star or you better have a good reason not to be here".

Dear Lord, thank you for Clinton Portis and blog wars, but mostly for Clinton Portis because he doesn't take himself quite so seriously.

Dan Steinberg writes that the artist also known as "Southeast Jerome", "Coach Janky Spanky", "Bro Sweets", "Choo-Choo", "Sheriff Gonnagetcha", and "Dolemite Jenkins", unveiled four new characters this week, and he's looking for YOUR help on which one to debut to the Washington-area media this fall.

You can see all four characters and vote here, but if Dr. Do Itch Big doesn't win, the whole thing is rigged. Just like Spygate, which means we can expect Senator Arlen Specter to get involved, and, really, nobody wants that.

According to his bio, Do Itch Big is a dentist who does his own work (of course he does), and goes by the motto, "Cleaning up the NFL one mouth at a time." And then there's this fun fact: "The good doctor started his bicuspid crusade by enhancing the grills of former Giants DE Michael Strahan and Bills RB Marshawn Lynch." Nice.

Since Joe Gibbs announced his retirement, and Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato took a more prominent role in personnel decisions, the Redskins, surprisingly, have made a series of not-insane moves that should make them better heading into 2008.

The head coaching search was a little shaky early in the proceedings, but by all accounts, Jim Zorn, the guy who eventually got the job, is perfectly suited to run the team. There's still the little issue of implementing the West Coast Offense, which Zorn picked up while working in Seattle under Mike Holmgren.

Former NFL personnel dude Mike Lombardi thinks the WCO is the exact wrong fit for a team comprised mainly of Joe Gibbs players.

Some of the assets he has on offense, like Santana Moss and Clinton Portis are not best highlighted in the west coast offense. Moss is an explosive player, who is best running over routes and deep comebacks, not slants and snags. When the Jets ran the west coast with Paul Hackett, Moss was the change of pace wide receiver he was used for specific routes as Laveranues Coles was the number one wide receiver.

Portis is best when he can run the zone scheme and is not very effective when it comes to pass protection--something the west coast tailback will have to handle.

I agree that Moss is probably better as a deep threat, but the Redskins did draft pass catchers with their first three picks -- two wideouts (Devin Thomas, Malcolm Kelly) and a tight end (Fred Davis). There's no reason to think Moss couldn't take on the role he had with the Jets when he played alongside Coles.

Above is a TNT interview with Redskins' tight end Chris Cooley and NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Apparently, Cooley traveled down to Charlotte with then-head coach Joe Gibbs (who owns Joe Gibbs Racing) and left with a good buddy. Earnhardt is a die-hard Washington Redskins ... as is most 30-somethings who grew up the Charlotte area (like yours truly) ... and loves having a friend who plays for the team. He even says in this interview that he "give everything he's got" to be Chris Cooley for one year.

Most of us aren't anywhere in Junior's shoes, but we agree with him (football player, married to a cheerleader, coolest guy in the NFL).

As you're probably aware by now, Redskins tight end Chris Cooley has a blog. So far it's been fairly well received by football fans, mostly because in an era when too many professional athletes follow a safe PR script in all public comments, Cooley will say anything.

But has he gone too far with his latest post? It's an interview with Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell, and when their Q&A delves into the subject of Campbell's relationship with Redskins center Casey Rabach, it gets, well, disgusting:

3. Jason, have you ever smelled the back of your left hand (the one that's securely lodged under the center's sweaty butt crack the entire game) after a game? I would imagine that hand would have to go through a thorough decontamination process after every game and practice.
For everyone to know if you don't take a bath your butt crack stinks and I think that's what Rabach does to me. Imagine sweating for 2 hours and you're Casey Rabach and you're really hairy and stinky. Rabach has even farted on my hand which is a feelin that never really wears off. I can actually feel it while we're doing this interview right now. After each practice and game the first thing I do is wash my hands of all that chaotic stuff running off his sweaty, nasty body.

I've heard it said that athletes' blogs will take fans inside the locker room in a way they've never been before. If that's what it's going to be like, I'm perfectly content to remain outside.