The Redskins Blog

Statement From Joe Gibbs on George Michael

Former Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs issued the following statement on the death of George Michael:

“George was a very dear friend to me and my family. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Pat and his family. I always appreciated George’s direct and honest approach and I certainly leaned on his advice many times throughout my career. He was a tremendous influence on me and so many in sports and in the Washington community because he truly cared about the people he covered.

“His courage over these past few years really stood out to me. Every time I spoke with him I came away encouraged by his upbeat approach to fighting this illness. His relationship with the Lord came out in every discussion, as well as his love for his wife Pat and his concern for others around him, including our grandson Taylor who is battling Leukemia. He will be missed greatly.”

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Secret Santa With The Defensive Backs

I’ve been involved in some Secret Santa gift exchanges before and made out pretty well, I think. An orange-shaped lump of chocolate one time, an Amazon gift certificate another. Solid workplace gifts.

The Redskins defensive backs their Secret Santa on a slightly different level. (“Nah, nah,” LaRon Landry said. “No secrets, just a gift exchange. We drew names.” Whatever.)

Reed Doughty was sitting in front of his locker today, already changed after practice into his usual everyday-guy jeans-T-shirt-sweatshirt-sneakers combo, a Gucci bag sitting incongruously next to him. “Should’ve put your name into the defensive back secret santa pool,” he explained. “Fred Smoot had me, so I got my first pair of Gucci shoes.”

I asked if Gucci shoes weren’t a little steep for the usual twenty-bucks-max Secret Santa. “Yeah, I can be a little frugal at times, so when I found out that Fred was giving me these, I was, like, whoa.” But Doughty found out in time to adjust his gift for Doug Dutch.
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Last Minute Note: Free Pizza, Served By Redskins

This is mainly for those of you in or around Sterling, Virginia:

This afternoon, from 4-6, Lorenzo Alexander, Kedric Golston, Derrick Dockery, and other Redskins will be serving pizza for charity. Free pizza.

Here’s the deal: you go to The Don’s Wood Fired Pizza in Sterling during that time. The pizza is free. The Redskins are serving. And there will be donations jars if you’re so inclined. Should be a good event. I’ll be there as well, for whatever that’s worth.

(And, yes, that’s their pizza pictured above. I haven’t had it yet, but I hear it’s pretty darned good.) Read more »

Dallas Week 1983: We Hate Dallas

While searching YouTube this morning for old George Michael clips — a pointless exercise, since this NBC-4 tribute video from today trumps everything — I came across this entertaining halftime segment from another December Cowboys game, hosted by another much-missed late local sportscaster.

The host is Glenn Brenner of Channel 9, who passed away too young in 1992. But the relevant part for Dallas week comes from Mike Buchanan, broadcasting from a then-new sports bar in Georgetown called Champions. “We are joined together in a common cause,” Buchanan says “We. Hate. Dallas.” And the whole bar joins in.

I don’t know: for me, “We hate Dallas” actually carries more weight than “We want Dallas.” I wonder why it never caught on.
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Thursday, December 24: George Michael Passes Away

Sad news on the day before Christmas: legendary D.C. sportscaster George Michael has passed away. Michael was, among many other things, a part of Redskins history; here he is just over four years ago offering a lesson in that history as the Redskins got ready to (finally!) return to the playoffs. Better times all around, really.

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