1. Kevin assures me that Dan Snyder has steadfastly refused to allow HBO bring in their cameras for a season of Hard Knocksin D.C. It seems that HBO's task of finding willing teams in the NFL gets harder every year. I think it would be a mistake to invite any additional scrutiny into what will already be a circus this summer, so you have to hope that Dan Snyder stays resolute. One thing we all know: if Hard Knocks had been filming back in 2000, Dan Snyder would have paid them to come to Redskins Park. I like to think these are the kinds of things we fans can point to as evidence of maturation on the part of our owner. Baby steps.
2. I was getting my hair cut last week and the dude sitting in the chair next to mine asked a question we have all either heard or spoken in the last decade: Will the Redskins ever win a Super Bowl as long as Dan Snyder is the owner? My answer is always the same: "I sure hope so." This question gets asked to me as if there is some thought that we will change owners after another decade of futility. That is not how it works. Owners don't go anywhere--especially rich ones that grew up as fans of the team that they currently own. There are very few scenarios that could play out that would result in Snyder ceasing to be the owner of the Redskins. It is not a game worth playing. We all hope that our team will contend for a title at some point. Whenever that occurs, Snyder will almost definitely be the owner.
3. Have you read Rick Maese's article yet from this past weekend? It reads like sports porn for Redskins fans. I think my favorite part just might have been in the first few sentences: "...a home that features a Washington Redskins flag high atop a flagpole in the front yard--sacrilege here in the middle of Dallas Cowboys country..." Awesome.
4. As anti-climactic as you could imagine it would be to make a pick that everyone already knows you will make, I am getting ridiculously excited for Thursday. I am fighting as hard as I can to resist that voice in the back of my head desperately trying to convince me that, "Everything's going to be different from now on." It's the same voice that convinced me that Steve Spurrier had a chance to succeed in the NFL, or that Trung Canidate was going to succeed in Washington, or that Jim Zorn just needed time to perfect the fake field goal. Nobody knows more about self-loathe than this guy.
5. I don't care...everything IS going to be different from now on. Though I lobbied hard for the team to trade down and not up, I have fully embraced the beginning of the RG3 era and I am just as all-in as everybody else is at this point in time. The decision to trade up for RG3 is officially the right one in my mind--I am convinced. I wasn't old enough to really understand the significance of the Heath Shuler selection in 1993--almost twenty years later, here we are taking another stab at a top quarterback prospect at the top of the draft. Here's hoping we are not all gathered back here in 2032 hoping against hope that we land the franchise signal caller that has eluded us for...well, forever.
6. We are working on a Redskins draft board this week and having just wrapped up the safeties portion, it is my sincere hope that Markelle Martin, the safety out of Oklahoma State, is available for us at the top of the third round. I am convinced that there will be multiple players available at positions of need, which is rather comforting. Martin, though, would be my absolute top target here...and that is coming straight from the guy who thought Trung Canidate was good.
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