Larry Michael

Hard to get off the Redskins these days.

Sitting here watching Larry Michael on Redskins Report.  Is there a bigger joker than this guy? He's answering fan mail right now.  Some points he's addressed:

1. Fan writes in and says he's "had enough" because the Redskins lost to one of the worst teams of all time.  Michael expresses utter shock and disgust that you could call the Lions one of the worst teams of all time.  His proof? "Who did the Lions have at quarterback last year?  And who do they have this year?  Ok then, I rest my case."  

2. Complimenting the 'Skins fans from the retirement home near Ashburn who put up some balloons and signs to encourage the team.  'Course, they have no photos of these decorations.  Second, they're in a retirement home.  Third, he calls them "real fans" and suggests the naysayers just "pretend" to be fans.

3. Mentions multiple times that there are still 13 games left on the schedule.  

Larry Michael is filled with the type of blind faith in the organization that comes when broadcasting that blind faith is the sole requirement of a job that nets you a sweet little six-figure salary each year.  Any real fan knows he can't be trusted, but lest the rest of you see him or hear him and get the wrong idea, I wanted to make things clear.  This man is not a journalist.  He is a highly paid employee of the Washington Redskins, who these days rival the Muammar al-Gaddafi regime for absurd propaganda.  

I'm curious to hear if people think they can beat the previously-woeful Bucs at home on Sunday.

On the State of the Washington Redskins

I got started on my "Sunday Evening Notebook" but realized the only things I cared to discuss dealt with the Redskins. So here are a few notes on the state of the team, and on this week's lost to Detroit Lions:

- Jim Zorn is getting appropriately ripped for being a bad coach. The man is a bad head coach. Most are pointing to his two key decisions on the Lions' first scoring drive, when he went for it on 4th and goal at the 1 (but called a stretch running play with the washed up Portis that now even Portis questions) and when he accepted the penalty on third down to try and push the Lions out of field goal range (when rookie QB Matt Stafford ran for about 25 yards on 3rd and 13). First, I think it's reasonable to expect your players -- and your franchise back -- to gain a single yard on 4th down against the worst team in the league. Second, it's reasonable to expect your defense to stop the worst team in the league on 3rd and 13. Each decision is essentially 50-50; Brian Billick, who presided over plenty of such decisions in a fairly successful career, seemed to agree with both of them. But good coaches get these 50-50 calls right. More often than not, Zorn's been wrong.

- All that said, you can't fire Zorn yet. Here's why: you need to seem halfway, just a little sane for the next guy who comes in. Dan Snyder already has a reputation as a highly blemished, deeply flawed decision maker. He ran Marty out of town after an 8-3 finish to a season that started 0-5 -- a team that was starting to really look strong and confident. Despite personnel and scouting issues being theee main reason this team hasn't consistently competed for the division title, Snyder has refused to sign a capable G.M. There is literally nothing in his past that says he would be a good man to work for, save his handling of Sean Taylor's death two years ago. If the Redskins want Shanahan, Cowher, or Holmgren (or Gruden, Dungy, et al), they need to show that they can avoid a rash decision, just this once. That, and they have no one on the staff right now who I'd like to take over this team. Greg Blache? No thanks.

- As Redskins Insider alluded to this morning, there are so many things wrong with this team, I have no idea where you'd start overhauling:

1) The offensive line is patchwork. Great guys, all of them, and they've given us a number of quality years. It will be a sad day when Randy Thomas and Casey Rabach are no longer on the team. But they are an old unit, and I fear for Jason's life when they face the Cowboys or the Giants later in the season.
2) The secondary is far weaker than we thought. They are allowing huge cushions to the opposing receivers. The safeties are adequate in run support but not much for covering. One fears we overpaid considerably for Hall.
3) Clinton Portis looks like he may be done. Last year, he went to town on the weak teams at the beginning of the schedule. Yeah, the O-line was different and better, but he's not cutting very sharply, he's not riding through tackles or hitting holes quickly.
4) The receiving corps experiment hasn't exactly panned out. Santana was great yesterday, which is one game out of three. Randle-El was largely absent and, despite throwing to them early to get them involved, Kelly and Thomas offered nothing. Even Cooley was quiet.

Let's just say Jason Campbell is a big part of the problem (Though I don't think he is). Then just think for a second about all the parts that look like they ought to be scrapped too, and try and think about the "young talent" waiting in the wings to take over. There's literally none.

Redskins - Lions Preview

As some of you know, I write somewhat regularly for DCist.com.  This season I'm doing a weekly preview of the Redskins game, with predictions, each Sunday morning.  

I went back and forth this week, and initially really believed the Lions would win.  My wife convinced me otherwise.  Unlike most 'Skins fans, I still kinda like Jason Campbell.  Great QB?  Of course not.  But he's a decent one, and the team's shortcomings this year are not all on him.  So Judy likes us to beat the spread and win by 9.  I think it's going to be clooooose.  Check out my preview here.

PS - Watching a short interview on Comcast with former 'Skin, current Lion John Jansen.  A true Redskin and was a key part of some very good running teams.  I was sad to see him go and I'd love to see him have a good year with his new squad.  

All You Damn Fascists

Courtesy of Laila Lalami (a very good Moroccan writer who also keeps an interesting blog on many things Maghribi and literary, though not always both at once), the American Library Association is, uh, "celebrating" Banned Book Week right now.  It's designed to raise awareness of book banning -- and burning -- that's gone on in the course of world and American history.  

Here's the list of previously banned books.  It's -- how to put this -- pretty shocking.  Can you conceive of a world where Huckleberry Finn or The Color Purple were not essential high school reading but rather banned?  How about Catcher in the Rye?  As recent as 2007, these books were on the top ten most frequently banned books list.  

Billy Bragg and Wilco - "All You Damn Fascists"

Little Pearls of Wisdom

Bruce Pearl, the University of Tennessee's basketball coach, made headlines this week with some off-color comments about race and his recruits.  I'll let you see for yourself here.  Impressive.

Searching for Hal Mumme

Every Kentuckian's most beloved sportswriter (his "journalist" credentials being subject to debate these days), Pat Forde, put out an APB for former Cats football coach Hal Mumme in his weekly Dash column this week:

A pair of former SEC coaches gone obscure, Hal Mumme (38) and Joe Lee Dunn (39). The Dash found the former offensive gimmick master at Kentucky and the former defensive gimmick master at Mississippi and Mississippi State at McMurry (Texas) University -- where they got their clocks cleaned on Saturday by Mississippi College. Mississippi College walloped winless McMurry 61-14, scoring three unanswered touchdowns to open the game and leading 31-7 at halftime. And so two cocky guys who always thought they were too smart to play it by the book are now 0-3 in Division III.

Really kicked a man when he was down, didn't he? The McMurry webpage flatters Mumme's career, making him look like a redeemer who just so happens to have "saved" about half-a-dozen lost causes that have literally nothing in common (division, size, geography, academics) beyond their legacy of futility prior to his arrival.  After all, this is the man that plunged the Wildcats into scandal and probation that set any progress he may have made back several years. On a related note, I always thought it odd that Lexington renamed a street "Hal Mumme Way" (the signs are all long gone, obviously) before Tubby Smith, who won a national championship, got his own honorary street in town. But I still have a small place in my heart for the man who tried to throw the football like it was going out of style and got us to a New Year's Day bowl game for the first time in...well... my lifetime. And also, during his reign, my dad was always getting stopped and asked if he was Hal Mumme (the resemblance has faded as Mumme's gone gray and gained a little poundage), so that was good laughs all around.

Earlier in the column, Forde also mentioned this year Wildcats, if only to label them a "Pretender" at 2-0 and about to take 4 losses in the next four games against Florida, 'Bama, Auburn, and South Carolina. I'm not sure what Kentucky would be "pretending" to be... an SEC contender? A BCS contender? No one in their right mind has those kinds of delusions. The only thing I think the Cats would claim to be, at this point, is the best football team in the state.

Bunch of tunes

I'm trying to post regularly but today I got nothing. So here's a bunch of songs for yer hump day.

Handsome Furs - "Radio Kaliningrad"
Wilco - "The Long Cut" (live)
Wilco - "Someone Else's Song" (live)
The Avett Brothers - "Glory Days" (Springsteen cover...Happy Birthday, Boss)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - "Come Saturday"
M. Ward - "Big Boat"
Teenage Fanclub - "Star Sign"