The Redskins Blog

Exclusive Reading Of “A Little Skins Football Story”

Come out to Redskins Park this Saturday, April 6th from 10am-12pm for an exclusive, one-of-a-kind, Kids Club event! Join us and your favorite Redskins players as we bring A Little Skins Football Story to life. Authored by Richard Torrey, the story tells the tale of little Drew joining his first football team.

That’s not all.

Following the book reading, Kid’s Club members, ages 5-8, can participate in football drills on the field with real Redskins players! The event will conclude with a special autograph session.

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A Happy Belated Birthday Song For No. 85

AP Image

Twenty-three years ago (yesterday), the tick-tock started on the ‘Hank Time’ clock.  Via Leonard Hankerson’s twitter (@HankTime85):

Morning peeps… Thanks God for another year to my life, #23 Whew I'm getting old lol—
Leonard Hankerson (@HankTime85) January 30, 2012

Thanks peeps for all the love, I really appreciate it—
Leonard Hankerson (@HankTime85) January 30, 2012

It didn’t go completely unnoticed in Redskins Nation that Monday was Hankerson’s big day, I confess that I just didn’t have a compelling reason to write about it.

That is, until Hankerson spent his first full day as a 23-year-old reading with area children as part of the Charitable Foundation’s ‘Redskins Read’ program.  Then it became a very special event for everyone.

The students and staff at the Longview School were very appreciative of their visitor, and had a big birthday welcome for the young receiver: Read more »

Hankerson, FedEx Deliver ‘Redskins Read’

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Earlier this afternoon, Redskins wide receiver Leonard Hankerson joined FedEx workers to read to and distribute Redskins Read activity books to students at the Longview School in Germantown, Md.

This is the 13th year for the Redskins Read program, which was established by the Redskins Charitable Foundation at its inception in 2000.  This is the fourth year that the Redskins have teamed up with FedEx, in an effort to spread literacy and learning in the metropolitan area.

The Redskins will distribute approximately 360,000 activity books this year to various area schools.  Since 2009, FedEx has helped the Redskins ship more than 480,000 books.

Longview School–a special education school for disabled children–was selected by the Redskins this year thanks to a teacher, Josh Schechter, who wrote a letter requesting a visit from players.  He told the organization that he had the biggest Redskins fans in his school and classroom, and he was right.

The school colors for Longview happen to be Burgundy and Gold, and most students and staff show their school and team spirit throughout the year.

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Enter The Redskins Kids Club’s Football Five Writing Contest

If you (or someone you know) is a creative first- through sixth-grader who loves the Washington Redskins, you (or that someone you know) have one week left to enter the Football Five Writing Contest. The rules are pretty simple: just write a story — one page typed or legibly handwritten — about anything dealing with the Washington Redskins and including ALL FIVE of the following words:

• Community
• Umbrella
• Gold
• Jump rope
• Spoon

You can find the full official rules and the list of prizes on the official contest website.

If you (or your entrant) need something to jog your creative juices, may I suggest that you start with the word umbrella and extrapolate the rest from this vintage Redskins Blog post. Ah, memories.
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Bring A Children's Book To Sunday's Game; Redskins Recommend Green Eggs And Ham. Again.

At this Sunday’s home game against the Kansas City Chiefs, there will be Redskins Read collection bins set up at every gate into FedExField. If you’re coming to the game, please consider bringing a new children’s book to donate; all books received will be redistributed to needy children throughout the DMV.

Last year at about this time, I went around the locker room asking players about their favorite children’s books. In the process, I learned that Fred Smoot was the only guy on the planet who had fond memories of a book called Sun Up, and virtually everyone else like Green Eggs and Ham.

This year, instead of thinking of something new, I figured I’d ask the same question to some of the guys I had missed last season.

Pretty much nothing had changed.

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Redskins Rookies Recommend Reading

Because nothing sells a title quite like alliteration.

Anyhow, the Redskins Charitable Foundation yesterday hosted the Redskins Read-A-Million Celebration, marking the distribution of the 1,000,000th Redskins Read Activity Book. Many of the 2009 Redskins rookies came to FedExField to read David Schwartz’s How Much Is A Million to students from selected elementary schools in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

The event picked up a little added gravitas from an appearance by Russlynn H. Ali, a Presidential appointee as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for the Department of Education. “That definitely increases the importance of it,” rookie defensive end Jeremy Jarmon said. “It’s not just a couple of the players coming out and speaking to the kids. People that are involved in the community in important positions coming out, it adds even more authority to the event.”

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Clinton Portis Has Had Enough Of Your Llama Drama

A long, long time ago, when the 2008 Redskins were sitting at 1-1 and anything seemed possible, I prepared for a Redskins Read event by asking players about children’s books. Most of the guys told me about books they remembered from their own childhood — including Fred Smoot, who described in the minutest detail a book that no one else had ever even heard of – but Jon Jansen talked about a book that his kids enjoyed.

“It’s … Llama Llama something? Llama Llama something Mama?” He stopped for a second, then got it. “Llama Llama Mad at Mama, that’s it. They LOVE it.”

My daughter was only four months old at the time, so I had no idea what Jansen was talking about. I dutifully recorded his quote and moved on with my life. In the intervening half year, though, we’ve discovered the awesome majesty of Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama books for ourselves.

Llama Llama Mad At Mama tells the harrowing tale of a Mama Llama who goes shopping at some kind of big box retailer with her cranky child, Llama Llama. Chaos ensues, as you might expect, until Mama Llama calms Llama Llama by explaining that they’re all in the horrible shopping experience together. It’s a touching story of family unity and teamwork in the face of impersonal commercialism, and I recommend it extremely highly.

So you can probably imagine how thrilled I was to find out that Clinton Portis would be doing a reading of it. Read more »