The Redskins Blog

Redskins Players Christmas Day Recap

In honor of yesterday’s moderately well-known holiday, most players had a chance to spend time with some version of family or adopted family.

While many players hosted family or made it home, some of the visits were unexpected.  Safety DeJon Gomes was his own surprise present, playing Santa Claus for his delighted mom.  From the looks of his pristine suit, I don’t think he had to brave the chimney:

Other players had a visit from Santa…or at least from nose tackle Chris Neild’s “nutty Nephew”: Read more »

To All Fans: Merry Christmas, Thank You

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On behalf of the Redskins organization, I hope that all people of all faiths and creeds can enjoy time away from the world, with their families today.  More important than any gift given or received, are the people that you get to share them with.  So to all of the Hoos down in Hooville, Merry Christmas!

Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan began his post game press conference yesterday for their season-long support, regardless of the team’s record.

“I’d like to start off by saying thanks to our fans,” he said.  ”Any time you’ve got a five-win season and a team comes in with two wins, it’s not too often you get that type of support. Obviously, we didn’t make them very happy with the way we played. But I’d like to thank them for being as loud and showing up over other things you would do over Christmas weekend.”

Whether you made it out yesterday or not, thank you for your support.  Now please close your laptop/smart phone and enjoy time with family and friends.

Santa Shoppe Starts Friendly Competitions

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Given the short practice week and Saturday game, everything in the normal NFL week has been moved up a day.

So happy Tuesday to all of you.

Tuesdays are a day for players to give back, which is precisely what they did this morning at the “Skins Santa Shoppe” at FedExField.  The event is held in the locker room, and 1,100 area school children get to walk through with their favorite Redskins player and pick out their favorite toy for the holidays.

The toys are supplied by the Redskins in conjunction with the U.S. Marine Corps and the Touchdown for Tots toy drive.

Redskins players Oshiomogho Atogwe, Brandon Banks, Travon Bellamy, Chris Chester, Reed Doughty, Chris Neild, Cole Pemberton, Markus White, Erik Cook, Nick Sundberg, Ryan Kerrigan, Darrel Young, Rob Jackson helped underserved kids that might not otherwise get what they want for the holidays.

“It’s just fun that the kids get to come out and have it here in our locker rooms, meet some of the players, Santa’s here, get to pick out a toy, and just make it a totally enjoyable day for them,” said Redskins safety Reed Doughty.

Looking around the room at the over-sized boxes of toys, lollipops, horses and candy canes, he added: “This is a whole different atmosphere in here.  I think it’s cool that they have it in here, where the kids get a better look at where we play, but I don’t get any nerves walking in here today.”

And neither did the rest of the crew.  Maybe it was yesterday’s win, maybe it was the holiday spirit, or maybe it was everyone’s inner child coming out–but the players might have had more fun with the toys than the kids.

The biggest hit of the day were the NRG yo-yos that were handed out in addition to the toys.  For most of the young players on the team, this harkens back to elementary and middle school when yo-yos were the coolest toy ever.

Let’s just say that some players still had skills…and some just had enthusiasm:

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Players Invest In Christmas With Redskins

The holiday season is full of Redskins charity events throughout the DMV region.  Whether it’s a coat for a child, Thanksgiving dinner, or a meal for the homeless, the Redskins players are at the forefront of giving.

But not very often do the players have the opportunity to provide the cheer that brightens a child’s day, like they do at Darrell Green’s annual “Christmas with the Redskins.”

At this particular event, the players and other various members of the organization are given a name and picture of their appointed child, and they go out and buy that child shoes, clothes, and a unique gift.  Then, with the help of Ms. BJ Blanchard, the front desk receptionist at Redskins Park, they wrap the gifts in festive holiday paper and head off to deliver.

This might be the most uniquely personal act of giving that the players get to partake in, and as Green describes it, the blessing is on the part of the players that get involved.

“The privilege is ours, don’t kid yourself,” he said with a smile.  ”This is the Super Bowl 12 times, meaning every time you go, the one you’re playing in is the most-special one.  The joy that we get–we’re the ones getting the blessing.”

For some players, events like this hit close to home, because they can identify with the situation that some of these children grow up in.

“I’ve been in his position before, I remember what Christmas was like,” said receiver Niles Paul.  ”I’m gonna get him something nice and not just something that fits the criteria.”

Check out more of the Christmas magic, below: Read more »

Santa Claus Is Coming To…FedExField

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Jolly Ol’ St. Nick made his first appearance of the season at FedExField today, to participate in the “Harris Teeter-Redskins Harvest Feast” presented by Ryan Homes.

Kris Kringle revealed that not only is he a big Redskins fan, but he also used to be a Redskins season ticket holder.  He would spend more time at his favorite football stadium, were it not for his regular 9-5 of delivering toys to every good little boy and girl in the world.

“When I’m not flying my reindeer, though,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye, “I drive a Burgundy and Gold van around with Redskins decals on the side.” Read more »

Chris Cooley Comes From The Best Christmas Town In America

Chris Cooley stared at my computer screen, slightly incredulous. “No way,” he said. “Logan, Utah?”

What he was looking at was an article from The Daily Beast that had named that city — where Cooley lived for more than ten years, including high school and college — as the best Christmas city for kids in all of America. The criteria included number of kids under 14, toy stores per capita, candy stores per capita, and the probability of snow on Christmas day.

For Logan, the Daily Beast put the white Christmas chances at eighty percent, a number that made Cooley dubious. “8 in 10?” he asked. “Oh, that means there’s just snow on the ground during Christmas, it’s not snowing on like Christmas Eve or something. That’s why five towns are in Utah, and all of them are in the west. I mean, we had Christmas, like, four years in a row with no snow on the ground.”

For the record, Cooley’s surprise doesn’t come because he lacked fun Christmases as a kid. “We always had good Christmases because my mom was big into Christmas,” Cooley said. “I guess it doesn’t totally shock me, but … you know.”

Indeed. So the ironic wrapper on this particular Christmas package is that Jay Cutler gets lots of ink around this time every year for being from Santa Claus, Indiana … “Which is not on the list,” Cooley noted.

Elfed Cooley image taken from the videos the Extremskins folks made. Read more »

Redskins Get ELF-ed For The Holiday

The kind fans at ExtremeSkins were looking for a slightly different way to wish their favorite team a Merry Christmas; what they came up with — as you can see from the screenshot of Santana Moss, Terrence Austin, and Brandon Banks — was to use the OfficeMax Elf Yourself webpage and make dancing elves of the Redskins.

All the Redskins. And the coaches. And much of the support staff — including the blogger, if that interests you. The videos aren’t embeddable, but they’re plenty entertaining, and you can get to them via the links below.

Now, off to Jacksonville. Hope everyone is having a happy and healthy holiday!

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Four Redskins And Their Favorite Christmas Gifts

The Toys For Tots/Redskins Santa Shoppe at FedExField on Tuesday was mainly about the, you know, IMPORTANT parts of the holiday season. It was about giving back, about charity, about a little girl who wanted to help people. But, as that girl’s mom noted, “it’s very humbling to realize that your child — your 8-year-old child — wants to put other kids before herself on Christmas. Normally, Christmas is all about me-me-me-me.”

I wrote about the humbling charitable parts the other day, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t ask a few of the players there about the me-me-me-me part as well. Here, then, are four Redskins players talking about their favorite childhood Christmas gifts.

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Redskins Work In A Pizza Place For Christmas

Waleed Zarou, owner of The Don’s Wood-Fired PIzza in Sterling, Va., had one major concern with letting Redskins players act as servers during his second annual Christmas Eve free pizza dinner: “They take too much space,” he said. “You see how tight it is. I was nervous with them being in the kitchen how the other guys were gonna move. It’s a tight space, [and] you got a 700, 800 degree oven going, man.”

The dinner — supposedly two hours of free pizzas for all, although Zarou was still handing them out when I left half an hour past the scheduled end time –is partially about fellowship, a place for people who don’t have anyone else to come on Christmas Eve, and partially about charity, raising money for a mission in Africa. This is the first year that the players have participated — “I thought these guys would help me to grow it,” Zarou said — and Kedric Golston, Derrick Dockery, Lorenzo Alexander, and Renaldo Wynn seemed to really be enjoying themselves.

“We’re very blessed people,” Golston said. “To be in the NFL — regardless of the record — we’re very blessed, and to be able to give back and help … I mean, you never know.”

Golston is friends with Zarou through his father-in-law, and was acting as the de facto manager of the restaurant-working Redskins. “It was hard to get Derrick from the pizza,” Golston said, explaining how the group divided their labors. “I didn’t wanna fight that battle, so I just left him there. And Lorenzo’s more of a calmer dude, so he just said he’ll get the drinks. Renaldo was actually the last guy to show up, so we was actually already operating when he came, and so he was kinda like the guy in the restaurant that went around talked to everyone.”

Watching Golston and Dockery handing out pizza like old pros — asking a firm “Cheese or pepperoni?” like they’d been doing it forever — was entertaining, but not as entertaining as watching them eat seeming one slice for every one they handed out.
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Friday, December 25: The Redskins Christmas Halftime Show, 1946

Honestly, there is nothing I can say about this that trumps the description from the person who put it up on YouTube: “A rare gem — portions of the Washington Redskins halftime show from what I believe is the 1946 Christmas Halftime Show, featuring the Washington Redskins Marching Band — also featuring Santa Claus and midget acrobats!”

Well, I suppose that description fails to mention the horse, the elephant, and the “gilded Indian dancers,” but you get the idea.

I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy Christmas day, whether you’re celebrating it with a tree and gifts, Chinese food and a movie, or a nice comforting day at work waiting for Redskins practice.

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