Casey Rabach, Elder Statesman
Posted by Matt Terl on March 9, 2010 – 10:42 am
Center Casey Rabach drove through the night on Sunday to sign his contract at Redskins Park yesterday. He left behind a winter of snowmobiling and ice fishing in his native Wisconsin to return to … the remains of the enormous snowstorms that blanketed Loudoun County this winter.
“You know, you guys got more snow than we did,” Rabach told me. “We were thinking of bringing the snowmobiles back and just riding ‘em to work down the WO&D [trail], but it’s gonna be kinda hard now with all this warm weather.”
Rabach’s return home yielded a pleasant surprise: instead of damage from the snow, he found his house in better condition than when he left. “A toilet that didn’t work when I left is actually working now,” he said, “so I’m pretty excited about that.”
With the departure of Randy Thomas and retirement of Chris Samuels, Rabach also returned to sunny Ashburn (and his newly-operational toilet) as the undisputed elder statesman of the Redskins’ offensive line.
Well, “undisputed” by everyone besides Rabach.
“No,” he explained patiently, “I’m the most experienced offensive lineman.”
I asked if there was really any difference, and Rabach laughed. “No,” he said, before going ahead and embracing the role. “There’s a new offense, a new coaching staff, but — y’know, being the guy with the most experience — I definitely want to help get everybody on the same page. I think we’re gonna have some new guys around here, so it’ll definitely be some extra time in the film room.”
And Rabach also had a chance to sit down with his new head coach, Mike Shanahan, and his new position coach, Chris Foerster.
“I talked to both of ‘em today,” Rabach said, “and they’re good guys. Coach Shanahan, obviously, knows how to win football games. You know, he’s done it in the past. Two Super Bowl rings, you can’t really argue with that. He’s a guy that seems real intense, hard-working.
“And Coach Foerster,” Rabach continued, “I actually know him a little bit. He arrived in Baltimore the year that I signed here, so I talked to him when I was leaving there. And he’s a guy that has done well everywhere he’s been, and the guys that have played for him really liked him. It’s gonna be different and strange without Buges, but I kinda look forward to it.”
This was somewhat surprising — poor Coach Foerster has had to hear so much about recently-retired offensive line legend Joe Bugel that I’ve almost started to feel bad for him, and I hadn’t heard anyone looking forward to the time without him. But Rabach explained: “It’s kind of a breath of fresh air to the organization. It’s something new, it’s a new beginning. But as far as coaching-wise, you want to stick with what you’re good at, but maybe [Foerster] has something that’ll really help you out. It’ll be a mix-and-mash of a lot of different techniques that you’ve learned over the last few years.”
With the changes in the coaching staff and his official elevation to NFL Elder Statesman, I asked Rabach if he would be making any conscious, deliberate changes in the way he works and the way he relates to players.
His response came quickly and bluntly: “No.” He thought about softening it — “I mean,” he said, and paused — but eventually repeated his initial point: “No. I love playing football. I work hard, and I don’t know how else to play.”
The AP image up top is actually from 2006, but I liked the way it worked with the headline. It’s also part of this excellent four-part series of images, which I just had to share. Feel free to suggest titles.
Tags: 2010 offseason, Casey Rabach
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