Rich Tandler's Real Redskins

Will change to Nike revolutionize Redskins jerseys?

By Rich Tandler

If you’re looking at plunking down over a hundred bucks for an authentic Redskins jersey you might want to wait a few months.

That always is solid advice for Redskins fans given the roster churn the team seems to experience at a very high rate. In fact, when someone asks me for a recommendation I suggest a throwback Jurgensen or Green.

But our corporate cousins at Pro Football Talk passed along an additional reason to wait. In April, Reebok is out as the official apparel supplier for the NFL and Nike is in. And apparently that will mean more than just replacing the Reebok logo with the swoosh.

“We plan on changing the NFL jersey dramatically just like we’ve done with the college programs,” Nike brand president Charlie Denson told Darren Rovell of CNBC.

It seems doubtful that Nike will have NFL teams were uniforms that are as radically different as those worn by the University of Oregon, although there is no guarantee of that.

But from what Denson says, we can expect changes that are more revolutionary the evolutionary. It might be wise to keep your money in your pocket and hang on to that Clinton Portis 26 jersey for a while longer. 

Update: When the switch to Nike was first made, some creative individual came up with some potential designs. Here is the Redskins uniform: (h/t to @TMM75) 

 

 

 

 

Tweets to Packers' Finley reveal the ugly side of Twitter

By Rich Tandler

This morning, Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com tells us about Packers tight end Jermichael Finley being the target of some nasty Twitter comments by some Packers “fans” after dropping a couple of passes in Green Bay’s playoff loss to the Giants on Sunday.

Now, you figure that Finely is a grown man who gets paid a lot of money to play a game and that he should be able to handle some nasty tweets. But these fans—Freeman correctly labels them “malicious idiots”—didn’t stop with hounding the player. They went to the timeline of Finley’s wife Courtney and started attacking her. She eventually tweeted "If ure bored tonight & want to see how disgusting people treat other people.. Feel free to go thru my mentions 2 see how heartless ppl r."

I was talking to a Redskins player during the regaular season. He thought it would be fun to try Twitter but he soon stopped looking at his timeline, especially the @ messaged directed at him. There were just too many personal attacks and even death wishes and it soured him on the whole thing.

Twitter can be a great medium for fans to converse with athletes, something the vast majority of them couldn’t do without it. It would be a shame if a few malicious idiots here and there forced most of them off of Twitter. 

 

Get the picture with this new Redskins book

By Rich Tandler

Redskins fans looking for a book to adorn their coffee tables should take a look at Washington Redskins: The Complete Illustrated History (MVP Books, 2011).

Written by longtime Redskins beat writer David Elfin, the book delivers on exactly what the title promises. It relates the history of the team from the Boston years starting in 1932 through last season both in Elfin’s words and in hundreds of pictures.

And it is the “illustrated” part that sets this book apart from the many fine books on Redskins history that have come before it. There are some rarely-seen action shots, many of them in full color. One is a shot of Deacon Jones attempting an extra point in 1974 with Joe Theismann holding. There are pictures of game tickets and press guides and trading cards and pennants and game programs. There is a picture of an RC Cola can with John Riggins’ picture on it. One could spend hours just perusing the images in the book.

But you’ll certainly want to read the book as well. Elfin does a thorough job of chronicling the story of the franchise. He captures all of the big games from the first NFL championship in 1937 through the golden era Super Bowls. The star players, from Baugh to Sonny to Riggo to Monk (who wrote the foreword) to Green, get the star treatment with detailed accounts of their careers.

As one who does a lot of research, there is one feature that I love—the book has a thorough index, making it easy to find when I’m looking for. But this book is best enjoyed by picking it up, opening it to a random point, and taking in the picture and the story.

While there is not a lot of new information uncovered here, that’s not the point. The story is told in rich detail and whether you want to relive old memories or discover elements of the Redskins’ history for the first time, this book is the place to go.

Washington Redskins: The Complete Illustrated History by David Elfin is available on Amazon.com and at book retailers everywhere.

 

Tight ends in tights Wednesday

We haven't had much in the way of fun costumes since Clinton Portis' heyday in 2005. But the Redskins' three tight ends decided to have some fun during practice on Wednesday. As he went to practice, Chris Cooley announced to the media that it was "Tight ends in tights Wednesday."

And, indeed, Cooley, Fred Davis, and Logan Paulsen were all wearing tights. They talked with Kelli Johnson of Comcast SportsNet after practice.

Cooley tried to get more players to buy in to the look.“The intent is really to spread among the whole offense. But we’re working, you know?

"A lot of guys were attracted to the look we had today. A lot of guys thought we looked sleek, faster.”

Davis noted that he felt "very comfortable."

No further comment here. Feel free to leave your own below.

Check out the AAA Pick 'Em Challenge on CSN

If you're not in an NFL pick 'em game this year--or even if you are--take a minute to join the AAA Pro Football Pick 'Em Challenge on CSNwashington.com. 

You can win some pretty cool prizes, and it's easy and free to enter. The contest has both a pick-the-winners element and a suicide pool as well. 

I picked the Lions over the Bucs this week in my entry. Yeah, the Lions are on the road but I see them coming out of the gate pretty fast this year and they should handle a Bucs team that I'm not too sure about.

I didn't check the fine print of the rules but I'm pretty sure that as a CSN employee I am not eligible to take any prizes away from anyones else. Not that I would; my game-picking ability is notoriously mediocre at best. 

So, check it out here or just find the ad on CSNwashington.com and join. There are weekly prizes so it's never too late to join.

A stadium story and getting back to work

Thanks to all of you for the kind words of sympathy after my father’s passing last week. I may not have a chance to acknowledge all of you individually and I want everyone to know that the kind words mean a lot to me.

Quick story: At the visitation on Thursday, I turned around and saw a man I had not seen in years. It was Alan, who sat next to me and my dad at RFK Stadium from 1966 until the team moved to FedEx. Alan went to only a few games a year at FedEx but Dad and I (until I started sitting in th press box 10 years ago) always had a great time when he was there.

Alan never saw or spoke to Ty Tandler outside of a stadium. But for seven or eight Sundays a year for 45 years, they were the best of friends. The bond was strong enough that Alan came out to the funeral home to pay his respects. It is one of those relationships that a team like the Redskins can build. 

I’ll be back out at Redskins Park on Monday, getting back to work. If I didn’t answer a question you sent me on Twitter or email or in the comments here, please re-send it and I’ll get to it.

 

Ty Tandler 1927-2011

We lost a great one on Saturday.   

I believe a few of you who read this blog met Ty Tandler, my father. He was a great father, a great patiot and a great Redskins fan. On Saturday, he passed away peacefully at home at the age of 83.

He was a Redskins season ticket holder since 1966. He and I sat in Section 219 at RFK and in Section 111 at FedEx Field for nearly every home game from then until the early 2000's, when I started sitting in the press box. Even after that I was always at the Tandler Tailgate, a feast that included some grilled meat and other great food.

We went to two Super Bowls together, the John Riggins game in Pasadena and the Doug Williams/The Quarter performance in San Diego. These and many other specail Redskins moments were made even better because they were shared with Dad.

Of course, if not for him, I would not be doing for a living what I am doing now, but that is not just because of the Redskins connection. Dad was the most optimistic and positive person anyone ever met. Whenever I would even think about getting discouraged he would be right there, encouraging me to continue following my passions and dreams. He was very proud of what I am doing And as the patriarch of the Tandler family, when it came to my sister, two brothers, his nine grandchildren, and all of the neices and nephews of the extended clan, he bragged about what every single one of us was able to accomplish in life.

He called me last week when his Redskins season tickets came and he was starting to figure out who to invite to each game. Dad certainly was slowing down at his age but that was not about to stop him from going to Redskins games. Sometimes he would need to stop and catch his breath during the walk from the car to seats but he wasn't about to let that stop him from seeing his beloved Redskins. He was an optimist, remember, and he practiced what he preached.

He's with Mom now. We will miss him.

Gibbs to teach rookies about financial peril from experience

This week, Joe Gibbs will be teaching NFL rookies about the importance of watching their finances. He will be speaking to the incoming players from the perspective of having been in severe financial distress at one point in his life himself. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week Gibbs, along with some financial planning experts from Strayer University, will conduct a seminar in financial education at the NFLPA's version of the rookie symposium, cancelled this year by the NFL due to the lockout. The Business of Football: Rookie Edition will take place this week in Bradenton, Florida. Gibbs recalled his days negotiating contracts in the NFL. "A player would be upset with his contract, (and) we'd be in serious discussions," he said. "And during the conversation, it dawns on you, 'Are you in financial trouble?' That happens over and over again. It played out a lot." Gibbs once was in severe financial trouble himself. His annual salary on his first coaching contract with the Redskins in 1981 paid him about $100,000 a year. He decided to invest some of that money in a real estate partnership. It soon turned sour.

I got into this investment which was a land deal and a partnership and I was going to be a passive investor and make some money. Instead of just trusting God and coaching football, I was going to get rich in real estate. I don’t think I’m an egotist about football because I always know there’s somebody around the corner ready to knock our block off but in the business world I was somebody who thought he had this all worked out. I got into this investment and it was for about two years and all of a sudden I started getting late notices right before a football season started.

He coached the season and then turned his attention to the debt.

After the season I beat it down to Oklahoma and when I sat down with the attorneys there were nine banks involved and it was way over a million dollars in debt. The interest alone was over thirty thousand dollars a month. I was bankrupt.

Gibbs said that he prayed for help and he decided to pay back the banks.

I feel like I have an obligation to these banks and to these people and I’d like to work this out. I’m just praying to you and saying this is the biggest mess in the world. Only you could straighten this out . . . I went to all nine of those banks and they all worked something out.

Now, $100,000 a year is not a lot of money by today's standards but the record shows that the bigger the money, the bigger the problems can be. Defensive end Luther Ellis, who earned about $20 million playing for the Lions and Broncos for 10 years before retiring in 2005, filed for bankruptcy last year. According to USA Today, 125 of the 254 players drafted will be attending the NFLPA's event this week. It seems a shame that nearly half of the rookies in the league will not have the benefit of the advice based on lessons that Gibbs learned the hard way.

How I won some of Jim Irsay ' s money

[caption id="attachment_5589" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="@JimIrsay"][/caption] Before the Super Bowl, I wrote an article letting people know that following Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay could be both fun and profitable. I've had a lot of fun trying to decipher his rock lyrics, which appear in his Twitter feed at all hours of the day and night. On Monday night, I got to the profitable part. I was waiting for the national championship game  between Connecticut and Butler to begin when I saw Irsay throw out a trivia challenge which, again, is something that I see him do at all hours of the day and night. Here was the question:

Riddle- The forrest is full of diamonds...name the song and former Colt player I'm thinking about,remembering the color of my heart 2nite For $500 and Real NFL football...1rst on tweetwall wins...Go Butler!!!!

I knew from seeing tweets from Irsay during the NCAA tournament that he is a Butler basketball fan, which is logical given the Indianapolis connection. The Bulldogs' color is blue. The first part of the answer was easy. It was a song by Neil Diamond that had the color blue in the title. That would be Song Sung Blue, a rather catchy if nondescript and somewhat cheesy 1972 tune that is probably a favorite of lounge singers in Holiday Inns across the country. I vaguely remembered a player named Blue having played for the Colts but I couldn't remember a first name to save my life. That sent me to Pro-Football-Reference.com, a site I use multiple times daily for research. I typed "Blue" into the search box and worked my way up the list of Tony, Luther, Greg and, finally, Forrest. He was an offensive lineman our of Auburn who played for the Baltimore Colts from 1975-1978. I didn't get the first part of the clue, the part about "forrest full of diamonds" until then. I replied to @JimIrsay, typed in the answer, and hit send about five minutes after Irsay had posted the question. I was pretty sure that I was right, I just didn't know if I was the first of his 34,593 followers to tweet it. At halftime, Irsay tweeted and it confirmed that I did indeed have the right answer:

1)Song Sung Blue/Neil Diamond 2) Forrest Blue..Correct answer,who's 1rst Abby...U sober?

I believe that Abby is his assistant who handles social media matters. I barely made it to the end of the basketball game with my eyes open (I was shutting them earlier to avert my gaze from some ugly hoops). When I got up this morning, I checked my replies and, sure enough, I had the first correct answer:

The 1rst to post tonight's riddle answer was @RealRedskins. Congrats! Abby, the game is over...get to work!!!!

And there was a direct message to me with instructions on how to claim the money and the football. Five hundred bucks isn't life-changing money or anything but not bad for a couple of minutes of research and an uncanny ability to remember cheesy 70's music lyrics.

McNabb doing NCAA hoops commentary on CSN

Update: Ryan O'Halloran of CSNwashington.com talked to McNabb about his gig with Comcast SportsNet and about who he likes in the tournament. We're not sure where Donovan McNabb is going to be later this year but we do know where he will be during the NCAA basketball tournament. The former Syracuse point guard, better known for his exploits on the gridiron with the Orange (or Orangemen, as they were known then) will be joining the crew at Comcast Sports Net in Washington to comment on the first two rounds (I refuse to call the Thursday through Sunday action the second and third rounds) of the NCAA basketball tournament. Watch for McNabb on various editions of Geico SportsNet and Washington Post Live. The full press release from CSN is after the jump. Donovan McNabb to Contribute to Comcast SportsNet’s Coverage of NCAA Men’s Basketball Washington Redskins quarterback and former college hoops player Donovan McNabb will serve as an in-studio college basketball analyst for Comcast SportsNet’s coverage of the first round of the NCAA men’s tournament this week. On Thursday, March 17, McNabb will be featured on SportsNet Central, the network’s daily news program, at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. and appear on Washington Post Live with Ivan Carter at 10:30 p.m. for a special late night edition of the daily talk show. McNabb will be back in studio on Saturday, March 19, to talk college basketball for the 6 p.m. edition of SportsNet Central. Segments and shows featuring McNabb will also be re-aired at various times and will be available online at CSNwashington.com and CSNbaltimore.com. McNabb, a 12-year veteran of the NFL, spent two seasons as a guard on the Syracuse University basketball team following a stand-out hoops career at Mt. Carmel High School in Illinois. As a freshman, McNabb was a member of the 1996 Orange basketball team under Jim Boeheim that posted a 29-9 record and appeared in the NCAA championship game, losing to Kentucky. Following his sophomore season, he left the basketball team to focus on his football career.