The Redskins Blog

Meet Redskins Alumni At Best Buy Stores

Get Your Bye Weekend Started Off With Harvey, Mitchell and Portis

Washington Redskins alumni Ken Harvey, Brian Mitchell and Clinton Portis — who were selected to a combined nine Pro Bowls — will be making appearances Saturday at three newly-remodeled Washington, D.C.- area Best Buy stores. So pick your alumni and find out which store they’ll be at.

The events are the perfect way to get your weekend off on the right foot while the Redskins are away for their Bye Week. The participating Best Buy stores will be serving a free breakfast and the first 300 fans receive a gift bag and could win a gift card between $10 and $1,000.

Here are the details of Saturday’s appearances by Harvey, Mitchell and Portis:

Read more »

Redskins Players Out And About Today

Tuesday’s are the NFL’s day of rest, but that doesn’t mean that players just kick back and relax.  The player parking lot was about half full when I pulled in at 9 a.m., and players will trickle in for workouts, treatments, and film study throughout the day.  No one is satisfied with the team’s performance from Sunday, but they’re putting it behind them and looking ahead to Carolina.

In case you’re out and about today, you may catch some other Redskins out at various events in the community.

Return specialist Brandon Banks was up early this morning to attend a Redskins Charitable Foundation event at Calverton Elementary School in Beltsville, Md.  He’ll be hanging out with the children between 8:15-10 a.m. as part of the United Way Day of Service, focusing on NFL Play 60 and fitness.

Rise and grind!! On way to Calverton elementary in MD to hang out with the kids for the day!!—
Brandon Banks (@speedybanks16) October 18, 2011

Read more »

What Brian Mitchell’s Stats Imply About The Rule Change

The news that the NFL has moved the kickoff spot from the 30 to the 35 almost immediately raised some concerns about the productivity — and value — of speedy return man Brandon Banks. Banks himself voiced some concerns to the Free Lance-Star’s Rich Campbell, although he also spoke boldly about running the ball out of the end zone. For now, all that is speculation.

Which isn’t to say there’s no data to look at. Because the NFL’s move today essentially reverses the 1994 change (kickoffs went from the 35 to the 30), it seems reasonable to assume that stats will be affected in roughly the opposite way that they were from pre- to post-1994.

Which is, unfortunately, not optimal for Banks.

Brian Mitchell was one of my all-time favorite Redskins players. He was the first player I ever sent a card to for autographing — his 1990 Pro Set Prospect card — which he sent back to me signed, somewhat inexplicably, in ballpoint pen. He was an exciting, gamebreaking return man who finished his career with 23,330 all-purpose yards (or 13.25 all-purpose MILES) and the most combined special teams touchdowns in NFL history. (Devin Hester has since taken the top spot in touchdowns.) And, most important for this exercise, his career nicely overlapped with the rule change: he came into the league and played four seasons with the kickoff at the 35, then played in ten more after the move.

And here are the stats:

Read more »

Monday, June 29: The Circle Of Broadcasting Life

Renaldo Wynn was at the broadcasting bootcamp last week, the NFL’s three-day seminar designed to prepare current players for a second career in the announcing booth. As I mentioned on Wednesday, SI.com‘s Ross Tucker caught up with Wynn — among others — to get some thoughts about current announcers.

Wynn was impressively frank. After hammering Tiki Barber as his least-favorite current announcer, here’s how he responded to the question of what qualities he “really dislike[s] in an on-air personality:”

Wynn: “The least-liked broadcasters are former players who get in the booth and they start bashing other players immediately. They start bashing other players and forget they used to be a player. You can be critical if you need to be without personally bashing people. I think you lose your credibility.”

So you have to wonder what, exactly, Wynn would make of this morning’s news from an ex-player who recently became an ex-broadcaster. Read more »