Independent voices from the TWT Communities
That the Rangers may be a smidge better is not arguable. Five-oh better? No way. That a tight series became a laugher in the finale can be, in part, blamed on the Caps' ugly playoff past. There's not an elephant in that room. There's a herd of them in there and it is not an easy thing to clear out.
Santana Moss reached the playoffs in three of his first four NFL seasons, all with the New York Jets. After Washington acquired him in 2005 for Laveranues Coles, via a straight-up trade, Moss advanced to the postseason in two of his first three years with the Redskins. He was accustomed to such success, having lost just eight times in three seasons at Miami, going 3-0 in bowl games.
In the Washington Redskins' locker room late Sunday afternoon, amid the dazed looks and downcast eyes, Barry Cofield said something interesting: "We get to finger-pointing this early in the season, it can be a disaster."
Four Aprils ago, when the Washington Capitals made the playoffs for the first time in the Alex Ovechkin era, the possibilities seemed endless. Not just hockey possibilities, Stanley Cups and the like. I'm talking about the opportunity for the Capitals — a team that played its games on ice — to move way up in the D.C. sports pecking order.
Who needs August? Welcome to the dog days of January, when every new year seems just like the old year for many sports fans in these parts.
Shouldn't the Redskins, after two seasons under Mike Shanahan, be further — maybe even a lot further — along the rebuilding path?
The disparity between the Washington Redskins and their NFC East division counterparts became painfully clear - for the umpteenth time this season - in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 34-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel could be lost for the season with what his coach calls a significant injury to his throwing hand.
'There are no five-year plans in the NFL," Joe Gibbs is fond of saying. "I don't care who you are. You'd better start winning pretty quick."
Nobody likes to clean up somebody else's mess. But that's usually the first order of business for an NFL coach. After all, teams that bring in a new head man aren't usually oozing with talent. They're usually oozing with losing.
Mike Shanahan took the Washington Redskins' coaching job in January 2010 expecting to make the greatest improvement in his second season.
About 30 years ago, a youngster who ate, drank and slept football had a poster of Jim Zorn. The kid was a rabid Pittsburgh Steelers fan, but thought the creative, left-handed Seattle quarterback was cool.
The Washington Redskins have traded maligned defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth to the New England Patriots for a 2013 fifth-round draft choice, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
Mike Shanahan hasn't done much that deserves applause during his brief tenure as head honcho, inheriting one headache and creating another, then exacerbating the situations by gross mismanaging. But give him a hand for swiftly addressing the dueling dramas that overshadowed everything else at Redskins Park.
"Southeast Jerome" is officially gone for good. As well as "Dolla Bill" and "Sheriff Gonna Getcha."
Had the club not lost so many key performers, he said, it could have won "10, 11 games."
DALY: As Redskins keep losing, Shanahan's credibility can be questioned →
"Todd asked me to come and interview. I liked what I saw with Todd," said Zorn, who looks younger than his 58 years and still fit enough to step back and throw a quick out.
