Redskins season begins: An Open Thread

Here's the Gameday Preview per the Official Site with projected starters listed. Starters nowhere in sight:
Clinton Portis
Chris Samuels

Everyone else is on board.

I exchanged Six Questions with Jimmy earlier in the week and I hope reader(s) took a gander.

Real life responsibilities are going to keep me away from the keyboard for the rest of the day, so this is your open thread for all things Redskins, related to the game or not. As always, I encourage you all to explore the blogroll. I will say a few brief words on this, the start of the NFL season, and will then cede the floor to you.

I was watching the Cowboys-Colts game last night with my girlfriend and beers, and it was about the most therapeutic experience I've had since... around this time last year. Even watching a game where I am dispassionate about one of the teams and spiteful towards the other, I couldn't help but be totally overwhelmed that live (or near live) football was unfolding right in front of me. For the next five someodd months (plus an additional month for playoffs -- fingers crossed) this will be my weekly ritual, beer and football, for which the rest of the week exists merely as build up. I don't doubt that reader(s) have their own rituals and I encourage you to share them here.

I spend a lot of my personal time focused exclusively on football: news, notes, injuries, minutiae that should interest no one but captivates me, etc. All the hours invested in following this sport are totally justified on gameday if/when the Redskins are storming over their opponents. I'm unqualified to capture in writing how I felt watching the Redskins miracle a win out of the Cowboys last year, though let me just say that all the effort here invested was totally justified by moments like that. Last night's meaningless fake game still brought the same sense of "Holy shit it is on like donkey kong" that makes running this blog worthwhile.

All that sentimental nonsense aside, I do not get local Redskins coverage in my area and thus will be viewing the game at a bar with my girlfriend and will be incognito online. Thus I ask that reader(s) take over the Open Thread for this week in my absence. I also pledge to be available more often during the regular season, as I already have scheduled to watch many of the games this year with a friend who has Sunday Ticket. Bear with me through the preseason.

Hail to the Redskins.

-Skin Patrol