How Ken Harvey Watches Bad Redskins Football is Quite Amusing

Fat Pickled Hogs Radio, which is our weekly 1-hour of radio between Ken, Doug Ramey, and I, had the pleasure of picking Redskins great, Ken Harvey's brain for almost half an hour. 

Fat Pickled posted Ken Harvey's discussions on the first time he went against Joe Jacoby,  the time Sterling Palmer punched him in the stomach on a Punt return, fighting Greg Little, and a great story from his youth. Please check that out because it's quite hilarious.

In this post, we cover Orakpo and how the retired players' health is holding up. One question I had to ask first, though:

"Whenever I watch the Redskins, especially the last 3 years, I'm either throwing the remote, cursing, God knows what....what does one of the Greatest 70 Redskins do when watching this team play so bad? What's your in-game habits?"

Harvey: Well I use to, I have a treadmill at my house and I use to jog on the treadmill and I'd start revving it up because I'd get so pissed off watching them play! It's like I'm killing myself and I'm like whoa...I'm not in the game anymore.

I understand the game and a lot of it is believing in what you can do and making that extra effort and saying - I'm going to do it. I don't think the teams of the last 2 years, I think a lot of the guys played hard, I think a lot of the guys are willing...but I think collectively that mental attitude of we can do anything we have to do...we can win these games, I don't think it was there as much. I think they wanted to win but there's a difference between wanting to do something and knowing you can do it.On

I might have to try that because spending $88 on Budweisers at Fedex is not doing it for me.

On Brian Orakpo and similarities between the two...

I think he has a great game, I think he's a great player. I think that they under utilized him or didn't necessarily have the...it wasn't put together in the right way. He's an outside pass rusher and sometimes you can preach contain, contain, contain. You know and you preach it so much that you don't let the player become the player he could be. And I think with Brian Orakpo, I think he was trying to use his speed rush coming off the outside, use a few techniques. But, because there wasn't that balance on the other side, somebody rushing from the other side, because there wasn't that pressure up the middle where the quarterback couldn't step up inside that pocket...I think that stopped a lot of his sacks. I think that if they got any type of pass rush up the middle, you're going to see a great year from him because he has enough speed, he has enough technique and he's definitely strong enough. I definitely see similarities in that. I think you know, this year...yeah probably this year if you get some kind of push up the middle, even if Haynesworth would've played and done well and played up the middle strong, Brian Orakpo would've had a dominant season.

On former players health concerns

Now, what I worry about and I think what other guys are worrying about is you're hearing hard cases of concussions. You know when I played it was just suck it up and get back on the game, that's how you were tough and that's how you played. Injuries I would have, you just suck it up and keep on playing. You don't let anybody take your position or take your spot, you keep going. Now me knees hurt, my shoulders hurt and you're like...ok, maybe I should have moved out or went to the sideline after one play. But the reality was when I played you couldn't. Guys, players were replaceable...that's kind of the sugar coating.

He then mentioned the terrifying stat the lifespan for NFL players is around 55 years old. A recent study revealed these mind-boggling stats:

"the average life expectancy for all pro football players, including all positions and backgrounds, is 55 years," adding that "several insurance carriers say it is 51 years."

"Men between the ages of 30 and 49 have a one in a thousand chance of being diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer's, or another memory related disease," according to the author, Sean Gregory. "An NFL retiree has a one in fifty-three chance of receiving the same diagnosis."

Who's on the owner's side now?

You can listen to our interview with Harvey on Blog Talk Radio. The former Redskins LB has several books coming out including a thriller and children's books (insert Haynesworth joke here). Please follow Harvey on twitter at @transition57 or check out his blog.