In this week’s Sports Dogs Podcast, Scott Snapp talks the R-Dog off the ledge after the Week One Washington Football Team Loss to the Chargers. If your NFL team lost on Sunday, remember, it’s only one week! Enjoy this edition of the SDPC! RW
A Calming Influence
Greetings from The Booth!
It just got real this week. The annual “Meet The Fall Coaches” event was held Monday night in the Buzzy Plaza between The Wilkins Center and Shentel Stadium at Shenandoah University. Burgers on the grill, beverages, and mingling with fans, athletes, and coaches…what’s not to like about that? And despite a very hot and humid evening, there was that certain something in the air that hinted of the coming Fall football season.
Speaking of football, have you noticed that there has been very little drama coming out of the Washington Football Team training camp this Summer? With owner Dan Snyder’s wife in charge, it looks like the football people are actually being left to do football things. We saw that for the most part last season, and what happened? The WFT went 7-9, but it was good enough to win the NFC East in Head Coach Ron Rivera’s first season with the team.
Rivera has been the calming influence in the middle of a stormy franchise. As talk of the toxic team culture under Snyder and his minions and the name change swirled around the team, all Rivera did was coach the burgundy and gold to a division title, even as he was battling cancer. Unlike the other rare division titles in the last 20-plus seasons, there is even talk by many pro football “experts” of a repeat in 2021. It seems a solid foundation has been laid.
The other calming influence on the field seems to be the (assumed) starting quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who brought his talents, veteran leadership, and trademark beard to DC in the offseason. Fitzpatrick has been there and done that, having played for just about every other NFL franchise in his career. The WFT could have done a lot worse. Fitzpatrick is a solid NFL quarterback who has numerous 4th quarter comebacks on his resume.
Word is that Fitzpatrick has slowly learned the Washington offense, and is developing chemistry with the much-improved talent that was added in the offseason. With a projected top-5 defense filled with stars like Chase Young, things certainly look bright. We will find out soon.
Former team executive Bruce Allen once infamously said “we’re winning off the field.” It finally looks like the Football Team can win on the field.
Until the next visit from The Booth…HTTR and GO HORNETS!
RW
So Long, Comeback Kid
Greetings From The Booth!
A quick nod to Shenandoah University Baseball, which won it’s 20th game Monday (4-19) by beating 3rd-ranked Salisbury 12-1. That is a big feather in the Hornet’s (baseball) cap, and barring any stumbles the rest of the week, should mean a jump in the National d3baseball.com poll. SU Baseball just seems to reload each year.
This week, former Washington Football Team quarterback Alex Smith announced his retirement from football, ending a 16-year NFL career. Before his stint in DC, Smith played 7 years for San Francisco, and 5 for Kansas City, earning Pro Bowl honors 3 times, while throwing for over 35-thousand yards and 199 TD passes.
But he will forever be known for one of the greatest comeback stories in sports history. In 2018, his first year with Washington, Smith was in the process of leading the burgundy-and-gold to a playoff berth at 6-4, when he suffered a horrific compound fracture of his leg in a Week-11 loss to Houston. As he was carted off the field, I’m not sure anyone thought Alex Smith would play football ever again.
Except Alex Smith. After 17 surgeries and a life-threatening infection, he battled back. After missing all of 2019, Smith made his way back to the WFT roster in 2020, albeit as the number-3 QB. because of ineffective play by Dwayne Haskins, and injuries to Kyle Allen, Smith took over and led Washington to a 5-1 record as the starter down the stretch, and into the playoffs, earning him the 2020 AP Comeback Player of the Year honor.
Just to survive and walk again is a miracle in itself. To play at a high level in the NFL is almost inconceivable. Very few players get to leave the game on their own terms. Just ask Joe Theismann, who suffered an injury much like Smith’s, and saw his own career end on a Monday Night game against the Giants on national TV. Usually, a player exits either too early or too late.
This is the right time for Alex Smith.
Until the next visit from The Booth…GO HORNETS!
A Guarantee From Joe Willie
Greetings from The Booth!
Sometimes, it’s as simple as doing the eye test.
Last night, Randolph-Macon invaded the Wilkins Center as the number-one ranked NCAA D-3 men’s basketball team in the nation. You didn’t have to scratch your head and ask “why?” The Jackets quickly pulled away amidst a hailstorm of 3-pointers and the game was over almost as soon as it started. It didn’t help that the Shenandoah Hornets shot 25 percent in the first half, but it wouldn’t have mattered.
What I saw from RMC was a talented, disciplined, well-coached team. Every pass had a purpose, and the Jackets were loaded with dead-eye shooters.
While it’s not fun to be on the short end of a 102-51, I’ll bet most players want to test their skills against the very best. Number One is what you should aspire to be, and Macon provided the measuring stick last night. Sometimes it hurts , though, to get whacked with it.
Changing gears, I’m going to make you feel old. This Sunday is the playing of the 55th Super Bowl, the conclusion of a season like no other. Someone asked me this week what the first Super Bowl was that I remember. That answer is easy: It is Super Bowl III, featuring the upstart New York Jets from the AFL against the heavily-favored NFL Champion Baltimore Colts.
The Colts were a juggernaut and were heavily favored by somewhere in the 18-point range. The game is memorable for the bold “guarantee” made by Jets’ QB “Broadway Joe” Namath in the week leading up to the game. From a chaise lounge in Miami, donning shades and swim trunks, drink-in-hand, Joe Willie guaranteed a win against the mighty Colts, and then delivered with a 16-7 triumph.
But the game is burned into my memory, because Super Bowl 3 was a microcosm of what was going on in the country at the time. 1968 was one of the most divisive years in US history. The Vietnam War, Summer riots, and the assassinations of MLK and RFK threatened to tear the country apart. In addition, the lines were drawn demographically. A youthful, more liberal America was seen as a threat to an older, more conservative USA.
The Jets, with the long-haired Namath as it’s frontman, represented that new, vibrant America. The Colts, represented by the flat topped, high-topped Johnny Unitas, were the face of the “establishment.” And the game itself was seen not just as the AFL against the NFL, but as a matchup of young versus old, liberal versus conservative.
I’m sure that many households were like mine on that January day in 1969, as fathers and sons were glued to their Magnavox console TVs, the dads cheering for Earl Morall and Johnny U, and the sons rooting for Broadway Joe and the underdog Jets.
Super Bowl III was more than a football game, and it will always remain so for me.
Until the next visit from The Booth, enjoy the Big Game, and GO HORNETS!
RW
A Beginning
Greetings from The Booth!
Well, almost.
It was “one and done” for The Washington Football Team on Super Wild Card Weekend, as the burgundy and gold lost to the ageless Tom Brady and the Bucs , as expected, 31-23. But the 7-9 WFT didn’t go down without a fight, and earned the respect of Tampa and a lot of the NFL who thought they didn’t earn a seat at the post-season table.
(At this point, I need to veer off-track with a few random thoughts. Why is the much-heralded Washington front four nicknamed “Maroon-4”? I get the reference to the musical group, but maroon isn’t one of the team colors. I’m reminded of former Redskins coach Jim Zorn, who in his opening press conference upon being hired, asked for “3 cheers for the old maroon and black.”
And, did you see the comparison-photos of 43 year-old Brady and 43 year-old George Blanda from back in the day? Blanda looked 70, while Brady looked 25. I’m pretty sure the reason is that in the late 60s, Blanda had no access to dieticians, massage therapists, and yoga pants. But the difference was striking.)
Anyway, on Saturday night, the WFT acquitted itself nicely, thanks to the efforts of instant folk hero Taylor Heinicke, who in his first start as Washington QB, almost single handedly willed his team to victory. The former ODU signal caller even came back out of the locker room late in the game after a shoulder injury, and in a “Willis Reed” moment, got the WFT within a TD at 28-23.
As disappointing as the loss was, it felt like more of a beginning than an end. In the last 20-plus years of the Dan Snyder regime, the playoff appearances have been few and far between, the post-season wins even more rare. And the playoff exits always felt like the end, rather than something to build on the following year. Even “Joe Gibbs 2.0″seemed like like a magic act performed with smoke and mirrors.
Saturday night’s loss felt different. Much has been written about the exciting young defensive line, led by rookie captain Chase Young. But there are some exciting young stars on the offensive side of the ball, and while this year might be the final chapter of the feel-good story of Alex Smith, and the end of Ryan Kerrigan’s time in DC, there is a lot to be hopeful about in 2021.
In a tumultuous year for the organization on many fronts, head coach Ron Rivera navigated his team through the rough waters of 2020 to a division title and playoff appearance, despite his own personal challenges. For that, he should at least be considered for Coach Of The Year honors.
We all know too well that ownership could mess things up without even trying, but Saturday night felt like the start of something big.
Until the next visit, so long from The Booth. GO WFT, GO HORNETS!
RW
Super Wild Card Weekend
In this week’s Sports Dogs Podcast, I’m joined by Honorary Dog Scott Bradley as we break down some of the games on NFL Super Wild Card Weekend, specifically the Washington Football Team’s matchup against Tom Brady and the Bucs. We’ll also talk about the feel-good stories of Ron Rivera and Alex Smith, as well as our predictions for Saturday night.