The Redskins Blog

Who Makes Cut For Redskins’ Rushmore?

(AP Photo)

Redskins fans unite to form the best fanbase not only the NFL but across the entire sports spectrum. That’s obvious.

No matter if it is a Robert Griffin III dazzling 76-yard touchdown, a Darrell Green punt return, or John Riggins barreling over the Miami Dolphins determined to bring our Nation’s Capital its first Lombardi Trophy, Redskins Nation basks in the glory of the franchise’s success together.

What isn’t so clear, though, is every fan’s thoughts on the four greatest Redskins. Whether it is at the water cooler at work or at your local bar, debates rage over who are the best in Redskins history.

Put all the banter aside and let your voice be heard as to who deserves the prestigious honor of being on the Redskins’ Mt. Rushmore.

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Redskins Historian: Two Legends Honored

(AP photo)

By Mike Richman
The Redskins Historian

(Click here for more about the Redskins and Darrell Green and Art Monk’s Hall Of Fame induction ceremonies)

On Aug. 2, 2008, two legends from the Redskins’ glory period of the 1980s and early 90s, Darrell Green and Art Monk, were inducted into the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
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10 For 80: Bobby Beathard

Note: The Redskins Blog will be profiling several former players, coaches and team officials eligible to be voted by you, the fans, in this year’s Redskins 80th Anniversary celebration. To vote for Bobby Beathard or your 10 other all-timers to join the already-chosen list of the 70 Greatest Redskins, go to http://www.redskins80th.com/

Who could’ve guessed a man with a surfer-boy image would help lead the Redskins to their most successful period in franchise history?

Former Redskins’ general manager Bobby Beathard was one of the chief architects of the Redskins’ three Super Bowl-winning teams of the 1980s and early 1990s.

His drafting prowess — which included the likes of Art Monk, Russ Grimm and Darrell Green — was second to none, including the Redskins’ 1981 draft class that is regarded as one of the greatest ever.

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College Football Hall Honors Art Monk

(AP)

Art Monk, the Redskins’ legendary receiver and three-time Super Bowl champion, on Tuesday was named one of 14 players chosen to enter the National Football Foundation’s Football Bowl Subdivision Hall of Fame.

Monk was a standout receiver at Syracuse University from 1976 to 1979 until being drafted by the Redskins in the first round of the 1980 NFL Draft.

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Happy Belated Birthday To Coach Pardee

AP Image

Lost in the shuffle of yesterday afternoon was the celebration of former Redskins head coach Jack Pardee’s 76th birthday.  Pardee was one of the famous “Ram-skins,” brought to Washington to be part of head coach George Allen’s “Over the Hill Gang.”

During the final two years of his playing career, he started 17 games for the Redskins at outside linebacker and tallied 5 interceptions, one fumble recovery, and a touchdown on defense.

After his playing days were over, he returned to the gridiron on the sidelines, accepting a job in the Nation’s Capital as the head coach of the World Football League’s Washington Ambassadors.  The team would later move to Norfolk and retain the name, before moving to Florida and becoming the Blazers.  After one championship season, he was hired as the Chicago Bears head coach, before returning to the lead the Redskins in 1978.

Pardee might be best remembered for being the head coach of the team directly before Joe Gibbs, but he deserves credit for assembling players that would contribute to Gibbs’s championships. Read more »

Monk’s Military Bowl Ticket Announcement

AP Image

Former Redskins great Art Monk was recently involved with a USO ticket promotion for 2011 Military Bowl at RFK Stadium.    In the public service announcement, he thanked military families for the burden of their service to the country, and he reminded fans that 5,000 complimentary tickets were available through the USO.

Here’s the video of his PSA: Read more »

Hail To The Redskins Walk: Part 7

Hello ’90′s, my old friend.  Hanson sounds like legitimate music, skateboarding is cool (the first time around), and the Redskins come into the decade riding a wave of talent and determination.

The 1990s panel on the Redskins history wall is book-ended with a flurry of franchise activity at the beginning and end of the decade.  The team soared into the ’90′s behind the arm of Mark Rypien and the sure hands of Art Monk and The Posse.

The Redskins kicked off the 1990s with a Super Bowl run in 1991 that made them Kings of the World once again.  The Redskins dominate the Buffalo Bills 37-24 and Mark Rypien is named Super Bowl MVP, going 18-of-33 for 292 yards and two touchdowns. The defense shuts down the high-powered Bills offense, limited Thurman Thomas to 10 yards and sacked Jim Kelly five times.

When head coach Joe Gibbs retired in 1993, he took some of the magic with him, and the team needed a spark.  In 1997, the doors opened on Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in Landovery, Md., a veritable palace for NFL football.  In 1999, the team was sold to life-long fan and marketing and communications mogul Daniel Snyder.  The team wrapped up the decade standing atop the NFC East with a 10-6 record, their first division title since 1991.

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1930s * 1940s * 1950s * 1960s * 1970s * 1980s

Here’s Art Monk Fishing

There’s been an awful lot of drama around the Redskins lately, especially considering that there’s no actual football activity taking place. Sometimes, all that stuff becomes too much and you just want to get away to someplace quiet and contemplative — be alone with yourself and your thoughts and some water while you try to trick marine life into eating a hook.

Well, we can’t actually all do that — a fishing field trip is way outside the remit of this blog — but through the magic of AP photography, we CAN join Art Monk on a 1992 fishing excursion. If you’ve got headphones on, you can make it a truly immersive experience by clicking here for the relaxing sounds of water.

After the jump, more relaxing photos and a quick anecdote. Read more »

Ernie Davis And The Bobby Mitchell Golf Classic; Also, Art Monk Deals With The Same Old Questions In A Different Form

It shouldn’t have taken me as long to realize as it did; the mental arithmetic isn’t all that complicated. Still, I had been planning to attend today’s press preview of The 19th Annual Bobby Mitchell/TOYOTA Hall of Fame Golf Classic for almost a week before I put it all together.

See the, golf classic (as I’ve exhaustively mentioned) is a benefit for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And Redskins great Bobby Mitchell is the founder of the tournament.

Mitchell came to Washington in a 1962 trade with the Cleveland Browns. The Redskins received Mitchell and first-round pick Leroy Jackson; the Browns received standout Syracuse running back Ernie Davis. Davis died of leukemia before he could play a down of football in Cleveland, a story that recently made its way to the movies as The Express: The Ernie Davis Story.

“It was the first time I heard the word ‘leukemia,’ was because of Ernie,” Mitchell told me when I asked about the connection. “I’d never heard of it before, and we lost him and he never got a chance to play.

“It was kinda frightening,” he continued, “because I’m looking at him and — to me — Ernie Davis coming out of Syracuse was another Jim Brown. And I had played four years with Jim, so I knew what that meant. And all of a sudden someone’s saying, ‘This kid can’t play. He’s gonna pass.’ “

And I’m saying, ‘Jim Brown can’t die!’

“And that was the effect. So when I got here to Washington, when I was approached by the Leukemia Society to help out, that was one of the things that got me to do something.”

Mitchell was initially polite but somewhat dismissive when I asked about the movie version, shrugging and saying, “I would say fifty percent of it was right on about him.”

Then he stopped and thought for a few seconds. “There will be those who say it’s just another flick, but there will also be people whose families suffer with this [leukemia] who be will happy that there will be a focus coming from it. I think it helps in that sense,” he said, before heading out to the putting tournament.

Redskins great Art Monk — also a Syracuse guy — was a bit more charitable about the movie. “I thought it was great,” he told me. “I thought it was well done. The message to be got out of it, was right on point.” Read more »