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Thom Loverro

Thom Loverro

tloverro@washingtontimes.com

Thom Loverro has been a professional journalist since 1977, working for a number of newspapers, including eight years as a news editor and reporter for The Baltimore Sun, where he covered government, politics, and crime. He moved into sports writing when he joined The Washington Times in 1992. He moved to The Washington Examiner as a sports columnist in 2009 and returned to The Washington Times in 2013, where he is currently the lead sports columnist.

Columns by Thom Loverro

Former Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan makes a statement after he was fired on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013 at Redskins Park, in Ashburn, Va. Shanahan was fired after a morning meeting with owner Dan Snyder and general manager Bruce Allen. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

LOVERRO: Mike Shanahan exits, but questions and mysteries remain

Mike Shanahan followed the tradition of Redskins coaches now by leaving a trail of wreckage behind him – a steaming, heaping pile of controversy and chaos. It is the Redskins way of the 21st century. But he leaves behind a list of questions and mysteries as well.

December 30, 2013
A view of the 2014 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, which includes first-time candidate Greg Maddux. (The Washington Times)

LOVERRO: Determining naughty, nice on Baseball Hall of Fame ballot

Unlike some of the writers who struggle with whether or not to keep some candidates out for use of performance-enhancing substances, I'm at peace with my decision to not vote for those candidates, and here is why — election to the Hall of Fame is a privilege, not a right.

December 23, 2013
Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan, left, watches quarterback Rex Grossman throw during warm-ups before an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins, Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011, in Miami. (AP Photo/Hans Deryk)

LOVERRO: Mike Shanahan’s QB bets keep busting in D.C.

I believe Redskins coach Mike Shanahan is a good football coach, and a quarterback guru. And if this is true – that Mike Shanahan is a good coach who knows quarterbacks – then he is on the worst losing streak a gambler like Shanahan has ever seen.

December 20, 2013
Joe Gibbs walks on the field before the start of Monday night's Washington Redskins against the New York Giants, Landover, Md., Monday, December 3, 2012. (Craig Bisacre/The Washington Times)

LOVERRO: Tone-deaf Redskins could use a bit of Joe Gibbs’ harmony

When you see the dysfunction that has turned Redskins Park into a battlefield of bickering, and the record nearing the end of Mike Shanahan's four-year tenure in Washington, mixed in with the two bizarre years of Jim Zorn, you have to come to a new appreciation for what Gibbs managed to do in those four years running this organization.

December 16, 2013
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III pauses while speaking during a media availability after an NFL football game against the New York Giants Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013, in Landover, Md. The Giants won 24-17. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

LOVERRO: RG3 mentor still believes QB will be elite

Terry Shea — the quarterback guru who prepared Robert Griffin III for nearly three months to play in the NFL — has been watching the fall from grace of his former student from afar.

December 2, 2013
Washington Wizards forward Nene (42), from Brazil, shoots between Los Angeles Lakers guard Steve Blake (5), center Pau Gasol (16), from Spain, and guard Jodie Meeks (20) in the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013, in Washington. Nene had 30 points and the Wizards won 116-111. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

LOVERRO: Despite Bradley Beal injury, signs of hope for Wizards

Bless the basketball fans in this town. They can set aside decades of ineptitude by the historically bad franchise – a franchise that has not won 50 games in an NBA season since 1979 – and get excited about a losing team in November.

November 28, 2013
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III rubs his head as he walks off the field during the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

LOVERRO: Time for RG3, Mike Shanahan to stand together

The SuperBob diva storyline is a runaway train. The questions being asked about Mike Shanahan's future here in Washington in the fourth year of his five-year contract include whether or not SuperBob wants him to stay, and how much influence the embattled quarterback may have with owner Daniel Snyder when that decision is made.

November 24, 2013
**FILE** Pete Rozelle, commissioner of the National Football League, talks at an informal news conference during a break in Washington on May 18, 1966 session of the league meeting in a Washington hotel. (AP Photo/Bob Schutz)

LOVERRO: The NFL games no one wanted to play

Fifty years later, the decision by Pete Rozelle — the man who helped usher the NFL into its place today in America as the national passion — to allow football to be played while feelings were still so raw over JFK's death is still a dark cloud over his legacy.

November 21, 2013
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. The Eagles defeated the Redskins 24-16. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

LOVERRO: For RG3, it’s not the heat, it’s the humility

The interception at the end of the Philadelphia game was as much about the RG3 ego as anything — the voice inside his head that says "I can win the game because that's what I do." Not Sunday — and not most days this year. It's the difference between confidence and arrogance. It's the final chapter of the book of leadership.

November 18, 2013
Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan joins his team on the sidelines for the National Anthem before the Washington Redskins play the Detroit Lions at FedExField, Landover, Md., September 22, 2013. (Preston Keres/Special for The Washington Times)

LOVERRO: Like it or not, Mike Shanahan should remain with Redskins

If you call for the firing of Shanahan after this year, then you are no better than the owner who angered you for years with his meddling and influence. We all know that Shanahan told Daniel Snyder he would need five years to dig this franchise out of the grave the owner had dug for it. You have to give Shanahan that fifth season. You have to see the end of this movie.

November 14, 2013
SMU head coach Larry Brown, left, yells at a referee during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against TCU in Dallas, Friday, Nov. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

LOVERRO: Here’s hoping rule changes can get college basketball in check

The last time we saw college basketball, it stunk. You can drone on about the glory of March Madness all you want, but it was brutal to watch — games like Syracuse's 61-50 tournament win over Indiana, when the Hoosiers shot 33 percent from the field, were becoming the rule, not the exception.

November 11, 2013
Ezra Cooper coached the D.C. Divas women's football team from 2001-2008. He died Oct. 26, 2013, at age 39. (D.C. Divas)

LOVERRO: Remembering Ezra Cooper, a bright spot in D.C. football

Ezra Cooper looked at the 80 women that had assembled at a sandlot field in the spring of 2001. They were there to talk about football – not understanding football so they could share in pigskin joy with their husbands or boyfriends; not powder-puff football or playing the game in their underwear. No, Cooper was about to teach this group of women how to play football – real football, with pads and hitting and blood and guts.

November 7, 2013