The Redskins Blog

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.

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Hail To The Redskins Walk: Part 1

The Redskins have unveiled two wall murals dedicated to the rich history of the football team, entitled the “Hail to the Redskins Walk.”

One mural is adjacent to the locker room on the first floor of the facilities at Redskins Park.  Players cannot enter or exit the locker room without seeing life-sized pictures of Slingin’ Sammy Baugh or “The Diesel,” John Riggins, immortalized on the wall.

“It displays the storied history of this proud franchise,” said Redskins Senior Vice President, Tony Wyllie.  ”Anyone that walks downstairs and takes a look at it will instantly understand what this organization is all about.”

The mural magically appeared on Monday morning, and curious players have been seen pausing on their way to and from meetings, taking a closer look.  Wyllie said, “Everyone from veterans to rookies have read it and studied it, and walked away proud to be a Redskin.”

An identical wall has been constructed at FedExField, and will have television screens embedded in the wall for a delightfully multimedia experience.  It’s located on the club level of the stadium.

This is Part One of an eight-part series, looking at each decade of the Redskins history, as depicted on the walls.

The Redskins were born in the 1930′s, in Boston, Mass.  Originally known as the Braves, the team moved to greener pastures in Washington, D.C., and became the Redskins that we all know and love.

Here are shots of the 1930′s panel on the Hail to the Redskins Walk:

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What Is The Key Moment For The Redskins Franchise?

So ESPN’s NFL blogs all appear to be doing something called “Flash Points”, where they look at the crucial, formative moments in a franchise’s history. Each team gets a few possible Flash Points offered up for a vote, and the results will be revealed on May 27. For the Redskins, ESPN’s choices are:

• Trading for Sonny Jurgensen in 1964
• Hiring George Allen in 1971
• Hiring Joe Gibbs in 1981
• Daniel Snyder purchasing the team in 1999

Or, of course, “Other.” Here’s ESPN writer Jeffri Chadiha’s explanation for those choices: Read more »

NFL Network's Top 10 Playoff Runs Not Kind To Redskins

That’s possibly the most iconic play in Redskins history right there: John Riggins, 70 Chip, poor Don McNeal being thrown down like salt on a driveway. And that’s a number 3 next to it.

This was a pretty important play in Redskins history. It turned the tide of the Super Bowl — was the go-ahead score, in fact — and probably set the tone for Joe Gibbs’ entire coaching tenure in Washington. Here, for example, is the Washington Post’s Ken Denlinger writing about the play after the game:

The play that will linger a lifetime for Washingtonians was fourth down on the Dolphins’ 43, with about 10 minutes left and slightly less than the length of the football from a first down. Time for “70 Chip.”

Time also for the whiff of luck that has helped them so much of the season. A defensive back following man-in-motion Clint Didier, Don McNeal, slipped to the ground. Came the snap; came McNeal to grab Riggins; came Riggins wiggling out of his hands and then thundering down the left sideline and into the end zone.

Had McNeal kept his feet, he might have gotten his entire body in front. Arm tackles don’t stop this Rig.

So a town that thought its last magical moment might have been Wes Unseld making two free throws June 7, 1978, now has Riggins outlegging Glenn Blackwood for the go ahead touchdown in a game that ended a four-decade dry spell.

(You really should go read the whole column — it’s terrific, especially if you want to hear Riggins compare playoff football to advice an “old gentleman in Kansas” gave him about coyotes in the night,)

So, yeah, a fairly important play. So important, in fact, that I have difficulty thnking of many lists in which this play should rank at number 3. “Things I Remember,” maybe — I don’t have a whole lot of pre-1983 memories, but I remember this. But certainly not an NFL Network list of Top 10 Playoff Runs.

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A John Riggins Photo Gallery

These photos all come from a disc labeled “Riggins Slides” that turned up while sorting through a stack of CDs without cases today. At least one of the images is iconic — the pointed mustache headshot below — but most of the rest were unfamiliar to me and worth sharing.

(As usual, click on the images to enlarge.)

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Greg Blache Breaks Silence, Defends Daniel Snyder. I Transcribe.

http://p.castfire.com/1Ll7r/video/187071/redskins_2009-11-05-125617.flv

Defensive coordinator Greg Blache hasn’t been talking to the media lately, not because of a boycott but for personal reasons that were approved by the league. Today, that changed.

I figured I had written everything I was going to write about John Riggins’ screed from last night in my last post. But Blache wasn’t satisfied with quietly mumbling his frustration with Riggins. He asked the Redskins PR staff to gather the media, and unleashed the following comments.

“Hey, guys. I just wanted to come in here today real quick. This morning when I came in I turned my computer on, and I was looking at ProFootballTalk and I saw a comment that John Riggins had made about Mr. Snyder, and it really bothered me the more I sat there at my desk. Because there’s been a lot of criticism of him over the last few weeks, and this is a man I’ve known for six years — since I’ve been here.

“And in the six years I’ve never seen John Riggins here. I’ve met him once at the Beach Blitz down in Virginia Beach; never seen him down in the building. So to hear such a vicious criticism of somebody I consider not just my employer but a good friend … bothered me.

“As much as I hadn’t been talking to the media, I felt like this was something I needed to do. Somebody needed to stand up and set this record straight, because this person … the comment that was made was “dark heart”? That’s totally, totally untrue. And the problem is the fans don’t get to know Mr. Snyder like we do, and so they get an impression of things that are written and things people say.”

But wait, there’s more: Read more »

Yet Another Interesting Ad: John Riggins

Reviewing Redskins ads for yesterday’s Peyton Manning post, I was surprised by two things. First, that so many quality Redskins ads have been removed from YouTube. (For example: John Riggins raps for Ford! Hogs for Theatervision!) That’s seriously disappointing.

And, second, that Sonny Jurgensen actually appeared in a cigar ad. I know, I know — times were different, the Flintstones used to advertise cigarettes, Sonny is STILL known as a cigar lover, blah blah blah. It’s still bizarre to see the starting quarterback of a professional football team selling a tobacco product.

But I figured that was the strangest, most cognitively-dissonant thing I was apt to find. Rummaging through some stacks of old pictures here at Redskins Park today, I found out that I was wrong:

Yep. That’s Super Bowl XVII MVP John Riggins, happily advertising for Winchester shotgun shells.

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