Also, the more observant among you might notice that things look a little different around these parts.  We’ve switched platforms (again), for a whole variety of reasons — now we’re much more in line with the look & feel of the rest of  Redskins.com, for one thing — and we’re all sort of getting used to things.  The commenting system is different (although I believe it’s much smoother), and you’ll spot other changes throughout the blog.

We know about some existing issues, but if you spot any bugs, dead links, or other huge problems, please drop us a line and let us know.  Thanks, and enjoy the new-look site.

As always, click this first panel or the Read More link to see the rest of the strip.

Pat Fischer was an anecdote-teller’s dream. He was rumored to be fond of chewing on a mouthful of ‘stick-um’ to relax before games. Supposedly finding it difficult to find well-fitting knee pads, Fischer would allegedly tape disposable diapers around his knees. It was also reportedly common for Fischer to send young fans in the stands after hot coffee to warm him during cold-weather games.

Apparently Fischer would’ve been a cartoonist’s dream as well. As always, click this first panel or the Read More link to see the rest of the strip.

As always, click the first panel or the Read More link to see the rest of the strip.

The trickiness is compounded because explaining the crucial reference blows the punchline, so the annotation comes after the strip this week. As always, click this first panel or the Read More link to see the rest of the strip.

As promised, an annotation. If you’re young enough that you don’t remember what 50 Gut over and over refers to, here’s former offensive line coach Joe Bugel speaking about Russ Grimm’s Hall Of Fame enshrinement:

There’s one game that I’ll never ever forget. It was going to be Dallas or Washington going to the Super Bowl. We had them up by maybe two touchdowns. Coach Gibbs come up and he said Bugs what do you want to run. I said ’50-Gut. Let’s run right at Randy, not away from him.’So Randy was lined up against Grimm and it was one after another, plus 5, plus 6, plus 5. We get in the huddle. What’s the play? 50-Gut. We ran it 10 straight times. That’s when Randy White realized that Russ Grimm was not only a great football player but a Hall of Fame football player.”

Ben Ceccarelli, the writer/artist who does these Hail! strips every week, excels at that process. The biggest thrill for me when a new strip comes in is seeing whom Ceccarelli has added to the Hail! universe, and how he’s chosen to depict them. What’s siginificant about this week — and what brought that old McCloud stuff to mind — is that he’s very clearly showing the Joe Gibbs of his earliest years (circa 1982, if I had to nail it down), and it’s those iconic details that make that fact so clear.

The shape of the glasses and hat, the sweater, even the facial expression … there’s no mistaking that for the 21st century incarnation of Gibbs. It’s very good work from Ceccarelli.

All of that aside, though, I’m really annoyed with myself that I didn’t guess the punchline much, much earlier. As always, click this first panel or the Read More link to see the rest of the strip.

But the main thing I’m digging about this week’s strip has nothing to do with Ben’s work at all: I’m just enjoying the reminder that, yes, Chris Hanburger has finally been elected to the Hall Of Fame.

As always, click on this first panel or the Read More link to see the rest of the strip.

One other thing I’ve learned from these Throwback episodes: Cartoon Me’s hairstyle is shockingly timeless. I mean, it fit in with Sammy Baugh in the 1930′s, it fits in with Sonny in the 1970′s … I mean, that look transcends fashion, really. My real hair … not so much.

Anyhow, as always, click this first panel or the Read More link to see the rest of the strip.

Most people attribute that switch to head coach Otto Graham, but writer/artist Ben Ceccarelli — as usual — has some different ideas. And in this week’s Hail! Flashback comic strip, Ceccarelli takes us back to the week that switch was made to see what he believes was actually going on. So set your time-travelling phone booths for 1966, and click this first panel or the Read More link to see the rest of the strip.