Go See Watchmen

Original fanboy

I have just returned from seeing Watchmen, a movie I have been waiting twenty years to see.

It is long and somewhat ponderous if you are not an ophile, and it is definitely not a superhero movie.

It is an outstanding movie.



Yes those are my original first run mint condition limited series Watchmen books from 1986 and 1987 in mylar bags with acid free backing.

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Happy Birthday Jon Jansen

Hog for life

Please join me and the entire staff of The Curly R in wishing a happy birthday to Redskins right tackle Jon Jansen, Jon turned 33 back on 28 January.

The Redskins drafted Jon out of the University of Michigan in the second round of the 1999 NFL draft, 20 spots ahead of teammate right guard Randy Thomas, selected by the Jets. Jon was a two time All-Big Ten player at tackle and a first team All-American his senior year in 1998.

He cracked the starting lineup with the Redskins immediately, starting all eighteen games his rookie year in 1999, sixteen regular season plus the playoff games against Detroit and Tampa Bay. That year Stephen Davis gained more than 1400 yards on the ground. Jon continued his streak in 2000, starting all sixteen games and helping to block Stephen Davis to 1318 yards. Jon's third year in 2001 was more of the same, Jon started all sixteen games, Stephen Davis rushed for what was then a team record 1432 yards.

Becoming something of a cliche, 2002 was another solid season, Jon started all sixteen games again and despite the turmoil of Steve Spurrier's first season which saw three different starting quarterbacks and a platoon of tailbacks that gained more than 1800 yards on the ground. Can you guess what Jon did in 2003? If you guessed start all sixteen games and play well on a mediocre team as the Steve Spurrier era came to an ignominious end then give yourself a gold star.

The Redskins played the Hall of Fame Game in Canton Ohio to kick off the 2004 preseason, in the first quarter of that game against the Broncos, on the first play of the Redskins' second possession Jon tore his left Achilles tendon and was lost for the year. Already then, five years ago, the Redskins longest tenured player (op. cit.), Jon was lost for the season, ending his 82 game starting streak, Jon had never missed a game in his pro career.

Jon rehabbed and came back strong in 2005, once again playing every game for the sixth time in seven seasons and helped fuel the Redskins for a two game playoff run. On the strength of Washington's offensive line tailback Clinton Portis gained a franchise record 1516 yards on the ground. Jon missed one game in 2006, game fourteen against the Saints, Jon had broken his thumb, again, the previous week and that is also the week we learned Jon had torn his calf muscle... five weeks earlier and was playing through pain. That season Ladell Betts gained over 1100 yards in relief of Clinton Portis. The team had nothing to play for on the way to a 5-11 season but Jon wanted to stay in the game.

Jon suffered his second serious injury in the first game of the 2007 season against the Dolphins, a dislocated right ankle in the second quarter. He would not play again that season.

Come the 2008 season and new head coach Jim Zorn, Jon was pitted against second year tackle Stephon Heyer, Jon lost his starting job before regaining it after three games. The offensive line, particularly the right side, struggled at times in 2008 though it was plenty good enough to send Clinton Portis through for a near franchise record 1487 yards on the ground and protected Jason Campbell well enough that he threw only six interceptions all season.

Jon had a tough season last year to be sure, now step back and look at his tenure with the Redskins and tell me he is not one of our all time greats.

Happy birthday Jon!



Jon Jansen: Washington Post photo from here.

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Happy Birthday Randy Thomas

Hard to remember when he wasn't here

Please join me in wishing Redskins right guard Randy Thomas a happy birthday, he turned 33 back on 19 January (sorry I am late on this one Randy, I get lazy in the offseason too).

Randy was drafted by the Jets in the second round of the 1999 draft out of Mississippi State and cracked the starting lineup immediately. He started all 16 games in both 1999 and 2000 and was part of a unit known for run blocking (Curtis Martin, 1464 yards in 1999), pass blocking (245 passing yards per game in 2000) and protecting the quarterback (the Jets offensive line allowed 20 sacks in 2000 and 19 in 2001).

Randy's rookie contract was up at the end of the 2002 season, he was a Pro Bowl alternate that year, it was a 2003 offseason priority of the Jets to keep Randy, they could not as Randy signed a seven year 28 million dollar contract with a seven million dollar bonus, a veritable steal in today's dollars, with the Redskins. That year, 2003, Randy was a Pro Bowl alternate once again on a line that blocked the platoon of Trung Canidate (600 yards), Rock Cartwright (411 yards), Ladell Betts (255 yards) and Chad Morton (216 yards) to 1482 yards on the ground.

Since then Randy has been a solid player for the Redskins, Clinton Portis gained over 1300 yards in 2004, a franchise record 1516 in 2005 and Ladell Betts 1154 on nine starts in relief of an injured Clinton. In that four season period from 2003 to 2006 Randy only missed three games.

In the 2007 offseason the team gave Randy an extension in a classic cash over cap deal, giving Randy a ten million dollar bonus and locking him up through the 2011 season. Sadly though Randy was lost to a torn triceps in the second game of the 2007 season against the Eagles, sitting out the next ten games before coming back in game thirteen to help the Redskins beat the Bears without Jason Campbell, Randy hurt his elbow in that game and the team had to shut him down to injured reserve to end the season.

In 2008 Randy was back to his regular spot, he started all sixteen games last season and had a solid if unspectacular season, despite questions about the right side of the line all season Clinton Portis still managed to gain 1487 yards and Jason Campbell had time to throw for over 3200 yards with but six interceptions.

Randy will be back and ready to gor for 2009, the Redskins are solid at right guard.

Happy birthday Randy!



Redskins right guard Randy Thomas: Charles Dharapak / AP photo from here.

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NO. EFFING. WAY.

Just say no to burgundy and gold

The Dallas Cowboys released receiver Terrell Owens today and I am pleased, despite never having found a second Pro Bowl caliber receiver to complement Santana Moss, the Redskins have shown no interest. Verruh verruh pleased.

Keep this guy the hell away from my team.

We have already read this story before, its name was Deion Sanders. I hated Deion Sanders in Dallas, I hated Deion Sanders in Washington and I still hate Deion Sanders.


Besides, what number would Terrell wear in Washington?



Terrell Owens composite from 49ers, Eagles and Cowboys from here.

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"You can't buy a championship"

Goes without saying but bears repeating

This morning on the Sirius NFL Radio morning show Opening Drive hosts Bob Pappa and Randy Cross were talking to regular caller Bennie from the Bronx, Bennie is very knowledgeable about football overall and is a 49ers fan, he was lamenting the notion that if Eddie DeBartolo was still the team owner Kurt Warner never would have left San Francisco without a contract.

In 1998 Eddie was implicated in the corruption case of former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, governor Edwards had demanded 400 thousand dollars from Eddie to grant Eddie a Louisiana riverboat gambling license. Eddie ultimately pled guilty to failure to report a felony, paid a one million dollar fine and as a result was fined by the NFL and barred by the league from running the 49ers for one year. The next year in 2000 Eddie sold his interest in the team to his sister Mary DeBartolo York and is out of the football business.

Randy Cross, a three time Pro Bowler and three time Super Bowl champion with the 49ers from 1976 to 1988 and former employee of Eddie's, disagreed with Bennie in a deliberately ironic fashion, noting that if Eddie were still in charge of the team there would already have been a franchise quarterback in place and the team would not have been scrambling to rent a gun for a year or two at fifteen million per.

Bob, Randy and Bennie then went on to discuss Eddie's free spending ways and then Bob and Randy compared the old way of spending in San Francisco (and in the league in general before a salary cap) to Redskins owner Dan Snyder's profligate ways, comparing Dan to a bank with bad habits and in need of a bailout, and of course they referenced Washington's tendency to make the biggest free agency splash every couple of years, have a look at 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

After some good crosstalk Randy came to the point every football knows and every Redskins fan must live with:

You cannot buy a championship. You can buy players and you can buy talent. But championships are not for sale.



Redskins owner Dan Snyder: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP photo from here.

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Dancing Somewhere Else Next Year

Wrong again

A very short chapter in Redskins history has been completed, the Redskins cut defensive end Jason Taylor yesterday. He was here for a total of one seasons.

I thought this was a pretty good deal at the time, something needed to happen with two defensive ends, starter Phillip Daniels and backup Alex Buzbee, both going down on the same day, and Bill Parcells having put Jason on the trading block days earlier. Jason it seems was unhappy about the Dolphins heading into yet another year of rebuilding, Bill Parcells or no Jason was 33 last summer, starting to contemplate the NFL sunset and what he would do afterwards and wanted to win.

Bill Parcells, newly hired as Dolphins general manager, on the other hand was a bit miffed (op. cit.) about all the time Jason spent on Dancing with the Starts and in trying to break in Entourage style to Hollywood.

So it seemed like a good deal, Washington's second rounder in the upcoming 2009 draft and a sixth rounder in the 2010 draft was the cost.

But it never really worked out. As a number of people said and wrote, Washington already had a speed edge rusher in Andre Carter and trading Phillip Daniels for Jason Taylor was trading run stoppage for pass rush. Already tragically unable to stop the run lo these last few years, the team acquired a guy they already had and ignored what they really needed. To make matters worse they asked him to switch sides in deference to Andre Carter.

Then Jason sprained his knee in the preseason debacle against Carolina, that would have been only a minor setback, but then after getting kicked in the calf in game three against the Cardinals, Jason had pain overnight and then emergency surgery to relieve acute compartment syndrome, a buildup of pressure in a group of muscles in the arm or leg. The initial recovery time for the twenty minute surgery was projected at one week to seven months, Jason wound up missing two games but was nearly invisible for the rest of the season, totaling a whopping 29 tackles and 3.5 sacks for the year, down from 58 tackles and 11 sacks for the Dolphins in 2007, continuing a three season decline.

After the season Jason was unsure about whether to return and openly questioned himself as to whether he was worth eight million dollars to the Redskins in 2009. After a period of reflection Jason decided he was back in the game and was going to return and be ready for the season.

=====

The team though I think had other plans and I question how this whole thing looks. Apparently the show stopper was a workout clause the team wanted to add to Jason's contract that would have mandated Jason attend 75 percent of offseason workouts, beginning this month and going right up to the start of training camp. In exchange for attending these workouts the team was going to add a 500 thousand dollar workout bonus to Jason's contract.

Jason said no, he did not want to spend any more time away from his family than necessary, after spending the entire 2008 season in Washington by himself, his family makes their home in Miami, he wanted to be with his wife and three daughters.

Have a look at the mechanics of this situation.

Seventy-five percent of the workouts is 39 sessions. Fourteen of them would have been mandatory, between organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamps. That leaves 25 workouts to attend in thirteen weeks. To hear Vinny Cerrato describe it, Jason could have come in Tuesday, worked out Wednesday and Thursday and flown home Thursday afternoon. Seems reasonable to me, why would Jason not agree to this?

Then look at the flip side. After Jason agreed to honor his original contract with no changes and the team agreeing to that notion, the team now suddenly is asking Jason to come to town every week for the whole summer.

Me? I do not see a problem with that and was a bit disappointed when former coach Joe Gibbs agreed to let players work out on their own after the 2006 season, I would like to see year round gym rat football players that need to be shooed away from the facilities and not entitled pros that think February through July is their time.

Understanding that I know only what I have read in the last 18 hours, it seems a bit hypocritical for the team to let players cruise as recently as 2007, specifically Sean Taylor, Shawn Springs, Clinton Portis, Brandon Lloyd and Santana Moss, then suddenly decide Jason cannot be a part of this team because he is not willing to train here in the offseason.

My theory? Both parties were unhappy and not communicating all that well and this was the thing that the team could use to get rid of Jason.

Think about it, if Jason gets twelve sacks in 2008 no one gives a shit where he trains. Even if you say you are worried about his injuries and Jason rehabbing from them, look at his career. He has taken excellent care of his body over his whole career and as a football fan I have no reason to question his training regimen.

This smells like the team ginning up a bullshit excuse to bury a mistake.



Jim Zorn and Jason Taylor from Jason's introductory press conference in July: Getty Images from here.

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Seven Shot, One Killed at LaVar Arrington's Restaurant

Bad things in a part of town that is supposed to be getting better

In a story that has not yet even made the Washington Post (ed. note, this story was reported Monday morning by the WaPo. -Ben), seven people were shot late last night outside Sidelines Restaurant, a sports bar in Largo Maryland owned by former Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington. The restaurant is located at The Boulevard at Capitol Centre, the town center style monstrosity that was built on the site of the Capital Centre / US Air / US Airways Arena which was demolished in 2002*

According to NBC 4 in Washington (just saw the report on the 6pm news) and MSNBC (op. cit.), an argument started between two groups inside the restaurant, when it spilled out into the lot guns were drawn and seven people were shot, one died. Two were treated on the scene for serious injuries and the other four, get this, drove themselves to the hospital. After getting shot.

According to this blog post from February 2008, men are not allowed to wear athletic gear into Sidelines, including tennis shoes, there is (or was) a pat down or other type of personal search of patrons entering the establishment and there was tons of security inside this cavernous sports bar.

=====

For those that need a refresher LaVar Arrington was drafted out of Penn State by the Redskins with the second overall pick in the 2000 draft. After making the Pro Bowl three straight years in 2001, 2002 and 2003, LaVar signed an eight year 68 million dollar contract extension intended to to keep LaVar in Washington for his entire NFL career. However a dispute over a 6.5 million dollar roster bonus that would have been payable before the third season of the new contract, 2006 that is, a bonus that did not make the final draft of the contract, and a knee injury soured LaVar's relationship with the team. Ultimately LaVar's agent was found responsible for the dispute and barred from representing NFL players for two years.

Gregg Williams, then the Redskins new defensive coordinator in 2004, managed to field a top squad without LaVar and got used to life without the star linebacker. LaVar was forced to buy his way out of his contract before the 2006 season, then signed a seven year 49 million dollar contract with the New York Giants, even admitting in an interview later that he kept the Redskins playbook after departing the team. LaVar was not spectacular in New York then blew out his achilles tendon midseason and was cut after the 2007 season. While still rehabbing from the achilles injury LaVar crashed his motorcycle in suburban Maryland and never came back to football. He has appeared on local media and, as we now know, owns a local business.




* The destruction of Capital Centre was witnessed over early morning beers by me and lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery on 15 December 2002, we were on our way to the Redskins at Eagles game that day and the scheduling of the destruction was fortuitous for us, we pulled over at Redskins Stadium and stood on the nob overlooking Cap Centre and watched it go down, I saw many a Capitals game, Bullets game and Grateful Dead show at that venue. The Eagles game that day was the seventh in eight Eagles-Redskins games for us and the fifth rivalry game in a row for me, a streak we have continued and that now stands at nineteen of the past twenty and seventeen in a row for me.

LaVar Arrington in front of his retaurant: uncredited image from here.

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