The Redskins Blog

A Technical Note, and Redskins Links for 1/27

All right: I’m told that Blackberry and other mobile access to blog.redskins.com has been restored, so drop me a line and let me know if you’re still having problems with that. (In fact, let me know if you’re having any problems with the new site — with commenting, with reading it, or anything else.)

Now, some links.

• Dan Steinberg at the DC Sports Bog has started digging into the Post archives on Cardinals’ assistant head coach (and former Hog) Russ Grimm, and uncovered some great stuff — including some pranks that make an early-morning trip sent to the stadium in Charlotte look like a cakewalk.
• If you’ve been missing your regular doses of SmootSpeak, DC Sports Fan’s ten minute video of him speaking at George Mason University at their banquet this past Sunday should tide you over. It’s characteristic Fred Smoot, and well worth your time.
• Hogs Haven takes a look at the circus the Dallas Cowboys have become, and also suggests a few ways it could become even more entertaining. I heartily endorse the idea of roping Jeff George into Michael Irvin’s reality show. The comedic potential there is simply off the charts.
• And if you want to know how keeping Leigh Torrence could’ve gotten the Redskins into the Super Bowl, Hog Heaven has you covered, with one of the most mind-bogglingly aribitrary feats of extrapolation that I’ve ever seen.

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Salt In The Wound

Just in case you had forgotten about the Redskins missing the playoffs, the NFL’s official online store has decided to remind you as frequently as possible by plastering this banner ad all over sports-related websites:

Thanks, NFLshop.com, for the emphatic reminder of the Redskins’ status as a “non-playoff” team. Perhaps if we miss the playoffs again next year, you can just cut out the euphemisms and announce that “losers’ gear” is on sale. Read more »

Tuesday, January 27: Kedric Golston Goes To MonsterJam

It’s Super Bowl Media Day for the Steelers and the Cardinals and a seemingly-infinite pool of reporters worldwide. For the Redskins, though, it appears to be motorsports day. You’ve got Joe Gibbs not only driving a racecar, but losing control and flipping his sponsor. And you’ve got motorsports aficionado Kedric Golston reporting in from his experience over the weekend at MonsterJam at the Verizon Center.

This is something he’s been excited about at least since I last caught up with him about his offseason a couple weeks ago, so I curious to see how it actually went. (Where he offers sound effects, just trust me that they sounded better than my crude attempts to transcribe them here.)

So? How was it?

“They were real limited in space, but it’s still exciting.”

I’ve never actually been to a monster jam — run me through it. What happens?

“Introductions are a big deal. The trucks come blazing out of the tunnels, like, “Raaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!” Then the drivers stand up on their trucks to get the crowd fired up, like, ‘rah rah rah.’ After the introductions, they’ve got what they call wheelie contests, where they hit the cars but the object is to get the nose of the truck as high up in the air as possible.

“Grave Digger won the first event, and after that they have the quad wars, four-wheelers that race around, and that was fun. After that they did the racing, which is kinda like a draft race because it’s so small. They just launch, jump over the cars and the first person to –”

At this point, James Thrash interjected. “Wait, Grave Digger’s still winning?”

“Yeah,” Golston said.

Thrash shook his head, impressed. “Man, he’s been doing that for years.”

“27 years,” Golston said.

“Yeah,” Thrash said, “since back when I used to watch as a kid.”

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