The Redskins Blog

Annual Mickey Steele Outing A Success

Redskins’ alumni, current players and executive vice president/general manager Bruce Allen were present Friday for the eighth annual Mickey Steele Celebrity Golf Tournament.

The tournament is named in honor of Mickey Steele, a Maryland native, sports enthusiast and business owner, who in 2004 lost his battle to Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).

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Give Blood, Get Free Redskins Tickets!

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The Red Cross and the Redskins are hosting a blood drive at Life Time Fitness in Centreville, Va. on Wed., Dec. 21^st from 9 a.m.– 4 p.m.

All participants will get one free ticket to the Redskins-Vikings game this Saturday, Dec. 24^th!  There will also be special appearances by legendary Redskins Gary Clark and Ravin Caldwell, and a visit by two Redskins Cheerleaders.

Call 1-800-REDCROSS to register now or learn more at www.redcrossblood.org/redskins.  Because tickets go fast, appointments are strongly encouraged.

Play 60 Punt, Pass, Kick Competition

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The football action started early this morning at FedExField, as the Redskins held early morning tryouts of 6-to-15-year-olds this morning, seeing who had the strongest arms and legs in Redskins Nation.

Talk about early scouting.  Not many football prospects have their moms and dads drive them to the tryout.

The annual NFL Play 60 “Punt, Pass & Kick” competition was held at midfield this morning, with local competition winners from as far as eight hours away making the trip to Washington.

Kaylen Cales, 7, and Ashten Hinkle, 13, are actually sisters from Capron, Va., and competed today in their respective age groups.  This is Ashten’s fourth year competing, and according to her proud poppa, she’s won it twice. Read more »

Redskins Runway Owns The Night

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At last night’s third annual “Walk This Way” fashion event in support of Becky’s Fund, members of your Washington Redskins cut up the runway in support of domestic violence education and prevention.

DeAngelo Hall, Brian Orakpo, Anthony Armstrong and Gary Clark tried their hands at modeling, while Tim Hightower offered his support from the sidelines.

Yours truly was in attendance to catch the action and offer poorly-informed critiques.

Armstrong kicked off the quartet with a simple, stoic approach:

Gary Clark represented The Posse with a dapper gray suit and a big grin, earning a huge applause from the crowd.  It’s great to know that the man is still a legend in this town, 20 years later:

I got a chance to speak with Hall before he went backstage, and he talked about the importance of preventing domestic abuse.

“It’s a cause that I think needs a lot more attention, nationally, and I jumped at the opportunity to get involved,” he said.  ”Clinton Portis brought it to my attention last year, and I immediately jumped on board.  This year, it was a no-brainer.  I grabbed a couple of my teammates to come down with me.”

Knowing that Hall can clean up well, from seeing him on road trips and the Welcome Home Luncheon, I asked him if he would be strutting the catwalk as well.

“Yeah, yeah, unfortunately I am,” he said, modestly.  ”They asked us to come out and do something, and we had to come down and give them a little something.  I’m gonna show off a little something that they have made up for me.”

Entrance music?  Right said Fred?

“I dunno man, I don’t think I got to pick my own,” he said with a laugh.  ”If I had my pick, it would definitely be something hot, but I’ll make it work with whatever they put on.  I’ve walked a time or two before, so hopefully I don’t look too crazy.”

Here’s the grizzle fashion vet:

And then there was the catwalk rookie, Orakpo.  Orakpo has never blinked on third down, never found a left tackle he couldn’t beat, and never left a punishing hit undelivered.  But backstage, he solicited some pointers for the fashionistas, with pretty good results.

Here he is, rocking the scarf and flashing the open jacket:

It was a great night for the Redskins and fashion, and it was done in the name of a cause that needs champions.  The mission of Becky’s Fund is to foster awareness, encourage advocacy, promote activism, and create support for the victims of domestic violence.  One of every three women is affected by it, and the runway last night featured three doors to symbolize this statistics.

With the funds raised from the event, Becky’s Fund will be launching an unprecedented program, endDV, that will fundamentally alter the way domestic and dating violence resources are provided.  endDV is a social and mobile platform combining technology and digital media to raise awareness while empowering victims and community members with the necessary tools and knowledge to address and prevent abusive situations.

Follow the initiative on Twitter (@EndDV), support Becky’s Fund, and never be afraid to do what’s right.

Redskins Work The Runway Tonight

Tonight, at the Mellon Auditorium in Washington, Redskins Anthony Armstrong, Tim Hightower, Brian Orakpo and DeAngelo Hall will adorn the runway in support of “Becky’s Fund,” which helps promote awareness and prevention of domestic violence.

The event runs from 6:30-10 p.m. tonight, and will feature fashion, food, and a star-studded attendance.  Other VIP guests that are planning to attend are:

Capitals: John Carlson, Karl Alzner, Nick Backstrom

DC United: Ben Olsen

Former Redskins: Gary Clark

Former Jets: John Booty, Marvin Jones

Boxers: Lamont Peterson, Anthony Peterson

Mayor Vincent Gray, DC Council Chair Kwame Brown, DC Councilman Michael Brown, DC Councilman Harry Thomas, and more! Read more »

Redskins Hand Out Annual P.O.Y. Awards

AP Image

While the Redskins were very much focused on the upcoming 2011 season at today’s “Welcome Home Luncheon,” there was time to reflect on last season’s accomplishments.

Former Redskins great Gary Clark introduced last year’s offensive player of the year, wide receiver Santana Moss.  He said that his daughter describes Moss as “Sexy Cool,” and recalled that people had once compared Moss to him, “except better-looking and a step faster.”

Here was the Moss tribute video:

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Images From Redskins Super Bowls Past

The Redskins aren’t in the Super Bowl this week, obviously. But Super Bowl weekend still seems like a good time to look back at some pictures from the times when they were — and I was fortunate enough to come across a few Redskins Super Bowl photos — mostly AP photos — that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before. It’s not really any kind of salve for not having the actual team in the game, but … well, at least it’s Super Bowl-related.

(Click images to enlarge.)

Before Super Bowl XXVI, the Redskins goof around at practice while Charley Taylor looks on

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Doug Williams, Ricky Sanders, and Gary Clark Discuss 'The Quarter' At Homecoming

Of all the Redskins who attended the Homecoming festivities at Sunday night’s game, I think I was probably the most excited to see Doug Williams. The reason for this was simple: I had never met him before, and — as an eleven-year-old kid watching Super Bowl XXII — I thought he was probably the greatest football player who had played.

He wasn’t, of course. But when you’re eleven years old and you see a quarterback complete 9-of-11 passes for 228 yards and 4 touchdowns IN ONE QUARTER OF FOOTBALL, it’s an easy mistake to make.

Wide receivers Ricky Sanders and Gary Clark were both also instrumental in that quarter of football — Sanders’ second quarter stats: 4 catches for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns — and that Super Bowl in general, but they’ve been to more alumni events and occasionally show up at Redskins Park. It was Williams’ presence that made this seem (to me, at least) like a really monumental event.

“I came back for the 70 Greatest Redskins team,” Williams told me, “But this is the first time back from a homecoming standpoint and I’ve got to take my hat off to Bruce Allen and the owner and the Redskins for doing this. I think it’s big and I think it’s something that the fans and all the players enjoy, coming back.”

Williams had been marching with Clark and Sanders in the Homecoming Parade that circled the stadium, and the trio seemed to be laughing and having a generally festive time. Read more »

In Fairness To Gary Clark

When Larry Johnson signed on Friday, he told me a story about former Redskins great Gary Clark. It was a story about how Johnson grew up a Redskins fan and about why Johnson tries to sign every autograph the fans ask for; I thought it showed a different side of a guy who has some knocks against him, so I posted it.

It didn’t occur to me at the time that it could be perceived as a slight to Clark, though. When Johnson told the story, it was in the context of how much he looked up to those guys and how enthusiastically he rooted for the team. His tone wasn’t critical or negative toward Clark, but reading it cold I can certainly see how it was taken that way by some.

In addition to comments like those linked above, the blog Fatpickled posted an even more detailed memory of an autograph encounter with Clark:

I was visiting Redskins Park in January of 1988, the last day before the Redskins headed off to San Diego to completely destroy the Broncos 42-10. I arrived early that day and was the only person in the lobby when Gary Clark walked right by me at a brisk pace, headed upstairs to where the admin offices were located. I quickly asked Gary if he would sign an autograph for me, he informed me that he was in a hurry and could not sign for me. Even at 13 years old, I remember this being a WTF moment? I’m the only person in this lobby and he’s not going to take 30 seconds to sign for me? He spent more time explaining why he couldn’t sign than it actually would have taken to sign. I was bummed.

Later, though, when Redskins Park had gotten crowded, this is what happened to young Fatpickle:

As I was sitting on the stairs watching all the mayhem, I heard a psst, psst noise coming from the 2nd floor above my head. As I turned and looked up I was amazed to see Gary Clark waving me up the stairs. I collected my things and bounded up the stairs to meet Gary and who else should be sitting up on the 2nd floor…Sam Huff and Sonny Jurgensen, who was enjoying a large cigar. Gary happily signed for me and even promised to catch a TD for me in the Super Bowl (he did.) As an added bonus I was able to also secure the autographs of 2 Hall of Famers.

So there you go: Johnson’s story wasn’t meant to sound negative, and it wasn’t nearly representative of the guy that Gary Clark was all the time. Now that that’s all cleared up, let’s enjoy these fantastic pictures from Clark’s appearance in the 1991 Pro Bowl.

(Click images to see a larger version.) Read more »

Why Larry Johnson Signs Every Autograph

When new Redskins running back Larry Johnson was waiting to sign his contract, Gary Fitzgerald of Redskins.com and I managed to talk to him briefly about his feelings for the team. Between his talk of “a dream come true” and “grew up watching the Redskins,” Johnson started to say, “I have a story about Gary Clark, but…” and then trailed off to namedrop Joe Jacoby and Charles Mann as guys he rooted for growing up.

We eventually got him to come back around to the story, though, just before he was called away, and it turns out that Gary Clark — the great Redskins wide receiver — was a pretty big inspiration for Johnson, just not in the way you might expect. Read more »