The Redskins Blog

The 25th Anniversary Of Super Bowl XXII

It’s been 25 years since the Washington Redskins, put on an offensive clinic, and won Super Bowl XXII. Five possessions, 18 plays, 35 points and 356 yards, and it all happened in the second quarter. The Redskins turned a 10-0 first quarter deficit to John Elway and the Denver Broncos, into a 35-1o halftime lead.

It was because of Super Bowl MVP, Quarterback Doug Williams. There’s no doubt that the Redskins offense fed off of Williams precision. Williams completed 18-of-29 passes for 340 yards, with four touchdown passes. The decisive 42-10 victory on Jan. 31, 1988, was the Redskins’ second championship in five years.

Larry Michael spoke with all time great, Doug Williams, on Redskins Nation Tuesday, about an upcoming event, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Redskins victory in Super Bowl XXII.

Read more »

Redskins Quarterbacks: Greatest Ever?

Football is the ultimate team sport and the skills and attributes of all 52 players meshed perfectly together can bring home a Lombardi Trophy. However, there is only one position that has records kept for their performance as a starter and are often the most scrutinized if a team does not perform well: the quarterback.

While the 52 gridiron warriors cohesively fight together over the common bond of a will to win, the quarterback is constantly in the “spotlight” and rightfully so. The man is in charge of tacking points on the scoreboard and leading the team to victory.

Over on ESPN Radio’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd”, they have decided to put together a bracket of the 65 greatest signal callers in league history together in an NCAA March Madness-style bracket and are letting the aerial barrage of who the greatest field general of all-time is begin!

Find out how many Redskins quarterbacks made the cut here: Read more »

VIDEO: Griffin III On Being A Black QB

(AP photo)

When his NFL career is over — hopefully years and years from now — Robert Griffin III wants to be known simply as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game of football.

And though Griffin III would like to eventually have his names tossed around with the other greatest quarterbacks of all-time, he knows that the color of his skin draws other comparisons.

Griffin III said today, however, that skin color should have nothing to do with how he’s perceived as a quarterback, as many black quarterbacks are mislabeled as “running” QBs.

“They’re always going to try to put you in a box with other African American quarterbacks – [Michael] Vick, [Cam] Newton, Randall Cunningham, Warren Moon,” Griffin III said. “But there’s guys, like the guys I just mentioned, Warren Moon, and Doug Williams, who really didn’t run that much.”

Griffin III considers the “running quarterback” stereotype to be negative, especially when looking at the careers of players like Moon — a 2006 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee — and Williams — who won a Super Bowl with the Redskins in 1987.

“Those guys threw it around,” Griffin III said. “I like to think I can throw it around a little bit. That’s the goal – just to go out, and not to try to prove anybody wrong, but just let your talents speak for themselves.”

Griffin III was asked today in his weekly session with the media what a pioneer like Martin Luther King Jr. means to him, and how he reacts to being labeled an “African-American quarterback” and someone many Redskins fans can relate to. Here’s the full video:

Read more »

Redskins Remembered For Playoff Feats

(AP photo)

The Redskins have three Super Bowl-winning campaigns, two additional NFL championships and plenty of other great playoff runs in their illustrious history, so it comes as no surprise that the team dominates a recently-released list of the NFL’s top playoff performances of all time.

Washington players find themselves in three of the top-10 spots of the Top-25 list, which was generated by ESPN.com and released Wednesday.

Read more »

Doug Williams Has New Deal At Grambling

Twenty-five seasons after he was named Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXII, former Redskins quarterback Doug Williams continues to have success coaching at his alma mater.

Williams, 56, on Monday was officially handed a new three-year contract at Grambling State University, where he left in 1978 as the school’s most prolific quarterback before guiding the team to several conference championships in two stints as head coach.

Read more »

Ken Harvey To Announce Third Round Pick

The NFL has announced that, for the second consecutive year, retired players will announce each team’s second round picks in the draft.  The honor of calling the designated Redskins pick** is four-time Pro Bowl linebacker Ken Harvey.

Harvey played 11 years in the league, and his last five with the Redskins.  His breakout season in 1994 had him second in the NFL with 13.5 sacks, and he finished with a total of 41.5 during his time in Washington.  He was elected All Pro in each of the three seasons from 1994-96. Read more »

First-Round Quarterbacks Vs. Super Bowls

via sixteenwins.com

The history of the Redskins’ franchise is highlighted by three franchise quarterbacks: Sammy Baugh, Sonny Jurgensen and Joe Theismann.  The team has also leaned on spectacular seasons by Doug Williams and Mark Rypien, but have been lacking in quarterback production over the last 20 years.

In the past decade, the team has sought consistent play from draft picks (Jason Campbell, Patrick Ramsey), journeymen (Tim Hasselbeck, Todd Collins, John Beck), and former franchise quarterbacks from other teams (Mark Brunell, Donovan McNabb, Rex Grossman), but all options have fallen short.

Head coach Mike Shanahan told reporters at the recent league meetings that the team is targeting one of the two franchise quarterbacks believed to be available at the top of the first round.  Why the lack of traditional secrecy?  There’s no reason to be coy about addressing a position with strong correlation to Super Bowl wins. Read more »

Nationals’ Harper Wears Redskins Apparel

When it comes to the DC sports community, we usually try to keep an eye out for crossover support, especially in the direction of the Burgundy and Gold.

Last fall, Capitals’ owner Ted Leonsis came out to FedExField for the Sept. 18 win over the Arizona Cardinals.  When the Nationals traded for pitcher Gio Gonzalez, he ended his first radio interview with a “Hail to the Redskins.”  And when the Wizards’ Roger Mason hits hotels on the road, he used to go by the moniker of his favorite Redskins player, Doug Williams.

Now, from spring training in Viera, Fla., it appears that Nationals’ top prospect Bryce Harper is getting his season kicked off with some love for the Redskins (via NBC-4′s @DanHellie):

Read more »

Former Redskins Roommates Square Off

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In Super Bowl XXII, quarterback Doug Williams led the Redskins to one of the most dominant performances in Super Bowl history, drubbing the Denver Broncos to the tune of 42-10.  The Redskins set Super Bowl records for total offensive yards (602), total offensive rushing yards (280), most touchdowns scored in a Super Bowl (6), total offensive yards in a quarter (356), most points in a quarter and in a half (35), and most touchdowns in a quarter (5).

Williams was the Super Bowl MVP, as he gained the lasting adoration of Redskins fans.  His roommate for the road trip to San Diego?  Third-year tight end Anthony Jones.

Twenty-four years later, Williams will coach against Jones on Saturday in the Southwestern Athletic Conference title game.  Williams’s own Grambling State Tigers will take on the Jones-coached Alabama A&M Bulldogs at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.

Thenewsstar.com caught up with Williams and Jones for the story, and noted that their former teammates aren’t taking sides–but the Redskins are involved: Read more »

A Look Back at the 1987 Super Bowl Champs

AP Image

In anticipation of a new football season, it seems appropriate to look back at one of the best seasons for Redskins fans.  Tonight at 9 p.m. on the NFL Network presents a re-airing of the 1987 Redskins Championship team from the series “America’s Game: The Super Bowl Champions.”

For the ’87 squad, the foundation for success was a unified team and a good showing by replacement players.  The team finished in first place in the division with an 11-4 record and a first-round bye.  After a hard-fought battle against the Bears on the road in the divisional round, the team won the rematch against the Vikings in the NFC Championship.

Behind a record-setting performance by quarterback Doug Williams, the Redskins topped off perhaps the most dominant Super Bowl performances in history, winning 42-10 over John Elway’s Broncos.

All of this is the stuff of Redskins lore and it makes for a great story.  Jeff Bostic, Darrell Green and Williams are interviewed, as Gene Hackman weaves it into a narrative.  As you’ll remember, Hackman is also the head coach of the fictitious Washington Sentinels in the movie “The Replacements,” written about the 1987 strike.

One interesting parallel between the 1987 and 2011 seasons is the nearly identical schedules.  The Redskins will face 13 of the same 16 teams that they played in 1987, and hope to have similar results this time around.

Check out the NFL Network production tonight at 9 p.m. or watch the full episode courtesy of Hulu any time.