I have attached an event to this post which I believe creates some sort of specialty tag yet discovered in the mean streets of Hogs Haven. The event is a football game on Sunday Night, and I will be watching. Don't expect much on the day's open thread unless yours truly is saved from Ben or TexSkins or BnG or whomever. I intend to postdate an open thread sometime today or tomorrow with limited info, as I shall be celebrating the coming fake football season aaaaaaaaaall weekend. I think the rest of you should as well.

Let's just rant and rave like crazy people.

Ben, when he's not pandering to the lowest common denominator (throwing in Colt Brennan's name in a post just to get google searches is like scantily cladding women to talk fantasy sports -- you guys disgust me) has all the Training Camp updates in the ways I don't conveniently pooled into one paragraph:

The morning practice was spent in short yardage and with significant player on player contact. Bring on the hitting. Ladell Betts took a big hit but walked it off. There were some other collisions, every one was fine. Rich Tandler liveblogged it here, here, here and here. And after he got home he wrote about how great Jason Campbell looks.

Unfortunately, because we're the Washington Redskins in 2008, Betts' recovery was but short respite from sidelining shennanigans per Redskin Report:

Ladell Betts was once again kicked in the thigh during practice and has now been ruled out for Sunday’s exhibition opener against Indy.  Seeing as Clinton Portis is likely to play very little (if at all), all you Marcus Mason fans out there are going to be seeing a lot of your guy on Sunday.  In fact I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of the team signing a FA running back tonight or tomorrow just in case of injuries to either Rock Cartwright or Mason on Sunday.

Eric Shelton (who at 246 pounds moonlights as a fullback), thy time is now. Speaking of whom, Shelton was:

drafted in the second round by the Panthers in 2005...

Which means at least one team thought he was better than Frank Gore, Marion Barber III, and Brandon Jacobs. For all the love Erasmus James is getting due to his "potential" perhaps Shelton should get a look. I say that recognizing, though, that 2nd round is much different than 1st round and that we're enough years removed on Shelton to wonder whether or not the Panthers effectively utilized their draft resources on him, but I'm just sayin'. Eric will hopefully show us something amazing this coming preseason.

Oh wait he was cut this morning. Here is usually where I redact the above paragraph but it remains because I took the time to find out which successful running backs were drafted after Shelton and that kind of contribution to the Football Universe shouldn't go unrealized simply because we think having something like two healthy running backs on the roster for a preseason game is a good idea.

Hog Heaven on Carlos Rogers allegedly playing somewhat soon, original story from WaPo. WaPo has first word:

Rogers plans to play when Washington kicks off the NFL’s regular season schedule on Sept. 4 against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium, and he said he is confident about achieving his goal. When Rogers comes back, he will rejoin a unit that was among Washington’s strengths during its late-season push to the playoffs and could be deeper this season because of an infusion of youth.

Greg Trippiedi at the other HH gets second word:

Everyone in the world knows that it’s only a matter of time before he gets starts, but why push it before it’s necessary?  Shawn Springs and Fred Smoot both had great seasons last year, and it would be tough to just pick one or the other to replace.  Rogers figures to be back in the starting lineup for any sort of playoff push the Redskins would make, but fewer early season plays would decrease the chances of re-aggravating something, or overcompensating for his knee putting another body part at risk.

Myself agrees aggressively with Mr. Trippiedi. I love the enthusiasm from Carlos Rogers as that evidences good football spirit as well as hints towards his mental/physical well-being, but let's simmer down. This is a dangerous summer to wear a Redskins uniform and there's really no utility in pushing him onto the field too soon. If he needs some time to get his sea legs, I say let him do it early in the regular season as a nickel back behind Smoot and Springs. The only thing he can learn during a premature return is how to reaggrivate an injury, just my two cents. (Tandler talks roster ramifications if Rogers isn't ready to go by season's start.)

Chris Cooley gets cool.

Because I wouldn't stoop to throwing out Colt Brennan's name just to get google searches, I'll let Ryan Wilson at Fanhouse talk about Colt Brennan because that's not what I'm about. Enjoy:

Brennan is facing pretty long odds, but who knows, if Collins continues to struggle, maybe Brennan wins the job. I don't see it happening, but, honestly, who had Mark Brunell as an NFL starting quarterback two years ago? Exactly.

In the meantime, Brennan will continue to work hard and do quirky things like wear tights to practice and play the ukulele. And who knows, if this all works out, maybe he can have a recurring role in one of Clinton Portis' many productions.

Just. Crazy. Enough. To. Work.

A great big happy blog welcome to two newcomers, Burgundy Army and Bleeding Burgundy. The former is run by Matt, associated with The Warpath Redskins MB, which is much more big time than this blog. He opens with Rogers and McIntosh injury recovery newsstuffs. Ben done it and alerted me too Bleeding Burgundy, who opened a minute ago but currently wonders why our newest Redskins receivers haven't figured out who Art Monk is yet. Good question.

John Lynch... Redskin? So suggests Riggo's Rag:

Think about it, Skins fans.  Doesn’t this make so much sense? Secondary depth is a problem for us.  Lynch is the kind of veteran leadership that this defense is built on right now.  He doesn’t trap a young player we want to develop.  I love Reed Doughtery’s guts, but he is no John Lynch even at the end of his career. Lynch will likely take a pay cut to go to a winning team so the cap is no problem. What would he cost?  A 7th?  Who would pay more for a 37 year old safety who is contimplating retirement?

All this prompted by Lynch leaving the Broncos. My retort: Maybe Reed Doughty really isn't just a constantly overachieving madman? I'd like to find that out.

Redskins 360 had a post up that titled: For the Gambling Junkies. My degenerate addiction is well documented here so you know I was jotting notes while reading, but stopped briefly to lament when one of the better College Football minds didn't think highly of this football team:

*Phil [Steele] projects the Redskins will 6-10 and finish last in the NFC East. He has Philadelphia and Dallas going 11-5 and the Giants 10-6. The Redskins are 40-1 to win the Super Bowl, 14-1 to win the NFC and 8-1 to win the division.

While we're on the subject of great college football minds, this isn't Redskins related but I've been meaning to get a post up about it all week. Actually: Speaking of greatest college football mind, the bestest will move on to bigger and better things. Sunday Morning Quarterback has been a daily read for me since my first introduction to his writing years ago, and you have him to thank for many instances of posts not getting written here. He writes, I read. He is hands down the most talented writer on this particular blogging network and one of the better sports writers out there, period. He will be missed at SB Nation though his pen will find paper somewhere: He'll write, I'll read.

What else is there, really, to talk about? Because I'm way above this sort of thing, I tsk tsk towards Dan Steinberg obviously pandering post about Colt Brennan and Colt Brennan's training camp blogging. I understand that Hawaii CFB fans are some of the best, greatest, most magnificent people on earth and also happen to frequent the internets massively searching for Colt Brennan news, but that's no excuse to spend a disprapportionate amount of verbiage on third string quarterbacks who happened to be named Colt Brennan. It's just really sad.

Even as the rest of his teammates join him in injury daily, the word today from various places is that Carlos Rogers is making big strides towards returning to the field. Before we get to that, I just want to stress how important cornerbacks are for a defense. We've previously gone over the trials and tribulations of the 2006 Washington Redskins defense, but it's worth remembering. Shawn Springs goes down to injury and the entire thing collapses because we don't have the requisite depth in the secondary to survive that particular disaster. A great philosopher put it best:

I'm worried about the beer supply. After this case, and the other case, there's only one case left.

(Yea yea, Barney's right we should get some more beer.)

What's true of beer is also true of cornerbacks. I don't want to sound fatalistic, but if Carlos Rogers can't get back on the field, and Shawn Springs plays injured, and something bad happens to Fred Smoot, there's only Leigh Torrence left! I'm extremely confident in the abilities of Smootsmack to take out the opposing 3rd WR (that's our best lineup, maybe, as I might even put Smoot in front of Rogers) but less so when it is Byron Westbrook or even newcomer Justin Tryon.

Speaking of which, briefly, but I don't know if II'm reading the depth chart right, but isn't it putting Leigh Torrence in front of Smoot and Westbrook in front of Tryon? If not, injured Carlos Rogers has somehow supplanted Shawn Springs as the team's go-to cornerback.

And maybe he has from all the great print he's getting from camp. As per usual, I'm tipping a hat to the thousand eyes of Extreme Skins. First up is noted only because the frequently misprinted last name of Carlos Rogers as Rodgers is not just a problem with us amateur types, but with the legit-like news outlets. Here's the article (from a TV station or somewhers), here's the title:

Redskins camps: Carlos Rodgers looks strong

Sure does, he bulked up an extra d on his last name, effing hard core!

Howeva:

The surgery was so extensive that the Redskins weren’t sure if Rogers would be able to do anything during the preseason. He was a likely candidate to begin the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list. That would mean he would be out for at least six games.

Healthy enough for preseason? Naw says Coach Zorn:

"Right now he's just practicing, with very limited reps," Coach Jim Zorn said. There are still no plans for him to play in a preseason game anytime soon, and caution remains the buzz word when it comes to Rogers, who underwent major knee surgery in November.

With our dumb luck this offseason, maybe the best of all possible worlds would be the one where Carlos Rogers miraculously or dishonestly recovers from his injury immediately after the last preseason game.

But Rogers wants a piece of the fake season nonetheless:

"It felt pretty good," Rogers said. "I thought I was going to be tired, but actually I'm in better shape than I thought. My knee isn't bothering me. No swelling."

Earlier this offseason, Rogers had targeted the Redskins' regular season opener on Sept. 4 for his return.

Now he thinks he could be available for one or two preseason games.

Careful what you wish for. The above link also says Rogers participated in 7-on-7s, but I've also got word from Zee Times that says he was in on 11-on-11s:

Cornerback Carlos Rogers was on the field for 11-on-11 practice today for the first time in his recovery from a torn ACL and MCL he suffered Oct. 28 against the Patriots.

Whatever it is he did, it was on the field which means he's that much closer to being on the field when it counts. A repeat of 2006 is unacceptable for any number of reasons, least of which being it would represent a cruel and perhaps unrecoverable indictment of a young coaching staff generally and Greg Blache specifically. I'm pretty blind but believe hindsight tells me that but for a disastrous '06 defensive effort, Gregg Williams survives the last head coach search.

Still on injury from The Times, unrelated to Rodgers Rogers:

Eric Shelton has been dealing with some numbness in his hands and legs. The team is trying to be cautious because it is a neck injury.

Very alarming news for Eric Shelton and he is wished the best from this space.

The only good news is that Ben is back, the bad news chronicled well over at Redskin Report by Lee Gibbons:

Devin Thomas, Hamstring

Malcom Kelly, Hamstring

Phillip Daniels, Knee

Alex Buzbee, Achilles

Anthony Montgomery, Hand

LaRon Landry, Hamstring

HB Blades, Knee

Eric Shelton, Shoulder

Rian Wallace, Hand

Stuart Schweigert, Leg

Anthony Mix, Hamstring

Kareem Moore, Leg

Chris Wilson, Leg

The above list being Person Injured comma Place Injured. What is it with the damn hamstrings, again? Acknowledging that more of the stress one places on a body during typical football activities (running, changing directions, carrying veteran equipment, farting) manifests itself in the lower half of one's body, is there reason for concern that we've had at least 13 injuries thus far in this unborn season, 10 of which have hit below the belt? A representative example, per Redskins Insider:

Linebacker H.B. Blades, who sprained his left knee in this morning's practice, will undergo arthroscopic surgery this week, according to a Redskins source with knowledge of the situation. The exact nature of the injury is not certain, but the source expects Blades to be out at least two-to-three weeks, returning toward the end of preseason.

The acceptable news here is that he's returning before the season starts and, given the way lady luck has beaten the tar out of the team so far, maybe it's better he's safe on the sideline and not on the field where disaster strikes like the second half of a Behind the Music special. The reality, stated here as the bad news, is that our young backup middle linebacker will already have gone under the knife once in 2008 before he gets an opportunity to step on the field. Knees don't like being injured.

Don't forget: Rocky McIntosh also recently underwent knee surgery. London Fletcher is an epic iron man, but since he was born 33 years ago, I wonder whether reality won't strike him sooner rather than later. Marcus Washington is now two seasons removed from starting all 16 games, though RESPECT to him for starting 48 games in a row prior to injuries as recent as both 2006 and 2007.
Khary Campbell is three years removed from an ACL injury but, to his enormous credit, played in 16 games last season. To sum up: Rocky McIntosh and The Hamburgler won't be long removed from surgery when the season starts (ditto linebacker Rian Wallace), neither Marcus Washington nor Khary Campbell are that far removed from injury, and London Fletcher ain't a kid (but he has one, and congrats to him). Behind the starters at linebacker are a bunch of people I haven't heard of, really, but I remain irrationally optimistic nonetheless. It's all up to you, do work, Danny Verdun-Wheeler.

Just off the top of my head the Redskin Report list above (13 players) must be incomplete, perhaps only including players still with the team. The injury bug may be affecting our chances of having reliable depth at linebacker this coming season, but they are also ruining or setting back substantially the professional careers of younger players who desparately need to remain healthy just to assure themselves a paycheck in this cruel league. Appalachian State's Kerry Brown was released due to injury. Says the partisans, who my fan-heart goes out to:

Looks like Jon Jansen is gonna have to carry his own helmet again. App State great Kerry Brown has been waived by the Redskins.

He could still stick with the team per the Official Site, pending a contingency I doubt the player hopes for:

The Redskins have waived defensive lineman J.T. Mapu and offensive lineman Kerry Brown. They could be placed on injured reserve if no other team picks them up.

Oh woops, make it two names the RR list left off:

Mapu suffered a knee ligament injury... in Friday's practice.

If we have to sign fake Chad Morton or fake it's real, damn you Heath Shuler, so be it. I just want to make it through TC with a 53 man roster, mang. How does all this happen, under Icing Guru Derek Devine's watch, no less!? At least the beards are safe.

I'd open up a poll with loaded answers such as: How much do you hate Training Camp?

1. A lot

2. Even more, 'yotch.

But what's the point? I know exactly how 100% of Redskins fans feel about training camp so far, which is to say: Injuries are suck. Did Clinton Portis really hurt his ankle last week? Honestly, at this point, I might start telling people to fake it; that field is cursed.