Ten Yard Fight - Are You McLovin It?

1. You know...I had this made up before any of the, uhhhhh, "news" broke yesterday. I reached out to Kevin (the Kevin) and he made this happen, so there is no way I can just let it fall to the cutting room floor. MCLOVIN!!!!!

2. Some people, after having just stepped into a pile of cow manure, are relieved to discover that the ground in front of them is manure-free. Other people, confused by the lack of feces to stomp through, drop their pants and crap on the ground. I find myself thinking this thought today...for no reason whatsoever?

3. I have to tell you guys: I didn't pursue a gig covering my favorite football team so that I could deal with the kind of story that broke last night surrounding both the team and members of the media. When I first started, I was worried that any tendency to be slightly more edgy would be seen as "rocking the boat." We are through the looking glass on this crap, folks. I am going to refrain from repeating allegations and such here--most of you saw and read it already. If I had to take all of this in and somehow make something positive out of it, I suppose I would marvel--MARVEL--at the ingenuity and rediscovery--with specific regard to shitstorms--that takes place every day at Redskins Park. It simply can't be easy to be at the epicenter of so much drama, and yet we never seem to stop trying. It's actually pretty impressive.

4. My concern, shared by most of you, is that this team is just starting to take shape ahead of a season that could likely determine our path for the next five to ten seasons. More on that in a moment. I mean, I was just on with Chad Dukes yesterday talking about giving Dan Snyder credit for listening to McLovin and suggesting that change could be in the air. Come on, man!

5. Think about it...Brandon Scherff, Preston Smith, Matt Jones. Chris Culliver, Terrance Knighton, Stephen Paea. These players, along with more than a handful of others, were hand-picked by McLovin' to start the turnaround process in Washington. If these guys show promise at all this season, it doesn't just mean that we will have decent players at important positions in the near term. It also means McLovin will get a longer and longer leash to continue to make such franchise-shaping decisions. It will raise the overall confidence level everyone has in his abilities, including the next wave of free agents that might choose to play for a team that features him at the helm. It means Dan Snyder would continue to take and follow the advice given to him by McLovin. It sets off a chain reaction of events over a period of years that has the chance of turning our rubber raft into a boat with an actual sail with an actual captain who knows how to navigate the choppy seas of the NFL.

6. The timing of this off-field disaster could not be much worse, could it? As bad as the timing is, the way this rubs an outlet like ESPN is also kind of...a bad thing. Look, the national perception of the Redskins is undeniably terrible. It's bad enough that people laugh at what we have done on the field, but manner in which we seem to always be stepping in it off the field is laughable...at best. Ruffling the feathers of the machine that is ESPN is not going to help the way our "story" is portrayed. I hear that the higher ups at ESPN are VERY displeased over this latest episode. I could care less what they think, but I am not looking forward to the manner in which they will be reporting on my favorite team.

7. It should be said at some point that when people level these kinds of accusations, you have to withhold judgement. It isn't fair to assume that one person can tweet about something so over-the-top terrible and it is then taken at face value.

8. If you're keeping track: TWO times this week, we have been treated to an explanation out of Redskins Park that attempted to explain social media disasters. I think we are well short of any record, but when you are trumping YOUR OWN team-crafting news with this crap, it does not bode well for the way this movie is going to play out. This has "Gone Girl" ending written all over it.

9. The worst part is that I was preparing my annual "10 Most Irreplaceable Players" list for this week, but I wasn't going to post that today. I guess I have spared myself--for a week--from all the harassing about my list. SPOILER ALERT: The list looks markedly different this year.

10. Was it necessary to play the "fake twitter account" card so fast, Redskins PR department? That was...a mistake.