Coach Is Out Of...

It's been a while since I've posted. Life has been a whirlwind. But here we go let's get to it...

Jay Gruden is out of...

Ideas.
These last six weeks combined, they have scored a total of three points in the third quarter. It always seems like every other team comes out making adjustments except the Redskins. Lack of ways to motivate the team, maybe? Lack of innovative play calling? Maybe lack of intuition required to make an educated guess on how the other team will try to attack you in the second half based on the first... Whatever it is, when he gets on the podium, all we ever hear is "We'll have to get better" and "I don't know, I gotta go look at the film."

One Liners.
"The bang-bang plays kill us." "We laid an egg... a big egg." "We're competing." and other lovely anecdotes. Now most of the time all we hear is "I dunno."

Since we just got through discussing one liners...

"Fire in the belly."
Every game this man coaches he gets to looking more depressed, dismal and clueless. One could say that it's a side effect from taking a head coaching job in Washington. But how much more time do you need to learn when in 22 games here, your road record is now 1-10? That's not saying much. And neither is the expression/attitude you give off. Maybe HC is not your calling, bruh. Just throwing that out there.

Excuses.
Not sure how many people keep up with the press conferences after each one of the games but it's really interesting to see who/what Coach Gruden blames the Redskins losses on. Let's take a look at who has been thrown under the Gruden Bus to date:

Week 1 - Lack of attitude (whole team), Kai Forbath. As a result, Forbath was cut.
Week 2 - Win vs Rams, no blame given.
Week 3 - Pierre Garcon's inability to catch a ball thrown behind him
Week 4 - Win vs Eagles, no blame given.
Week 5 - Ryan Grant's slip and fall contributed to the pick 6 vs Atlanta.
Week 6 - Lack of run game (Morris/Thompson) and the wind.

I'm wondering what will be next should they fall to Tampa this weekend. It certainly won't be Kirk Cousins, that we can bet on.

Time.
It's interesting when you look at the chain of events. Gruden hired by his buddy to coach and fix the quarterback situation. Year one, all three quarterbacks noticeably regress. Year two, owner hires new GM. GM hires a QB coach. Gruden continues to try to plug and play QB's into his pocket passer offense and decides he's given up on Griffin and decides to stick with Cousins.

Has anyone ever wondered why if the GM is supposed to find the guys that the coach wants why Griffin is still on this roster? Is it the contract? Lack of trade value? I fail to believe that McCloughan would not have just cut his losses and gotten rid of Griffin if he didn't feel like he had to see the whole picture first before doing something so drastic. So management allowed Gruden to do things his way and gave him just enough rope to hang himself should his plan fail.

And now at week 6 and the former arena football quarterback turned coach has been reduced to blaming the elements. He's just about out of time and is at the end of his own noose. If he keeps up what he's doing right now, he'll be out of a job.

Follow me on Twitter: @NFLHustleMama

Dear Washington Post

Dear Washington Post,

I am a longtime reader. I subscribe to the Sunday section and have it delivered to my home on weekends. I get the coupons/ads I can use, plus I can peruse the paper all week long without the 20 story/month limitation. I'm cool with that.

What I have a problem with, is the content of the newspaper. Now I typically check out the main cover page, metro section and other areas to find out what's going on in the world and in the DMV, but I am an avid sports fan. I read the sports section every day.

The issue in the content lies in the varying stories reported in main sections of the sports page. If you look on the Wizards/NBA page today, currently there is a picture linked to a story about LeBron James degressing as an NBA player. There are a total of eight story headlines in reference to him, his team, etc. This is not including the story posted last week previewing the matchup with the Wizards.

Conversely, if you look at the Redskins/NFL page, there are a total of nine articles mentioning or referencing Robert Griffin, III. The big difference here, RGIII is the franchise quarterback for the team in this area.

As a reader, I don't want to go to the Wizards page and see LeBron plastered all over it. He doesn't play here... as a matter of fact he's at least a 10-12 hour drive away. Then when he came here to play, they got blasted. In case you all have not noticed, we actually have a very good basketball team. Right here. In DC. Why do I need to read eight stories about LeBron???? Why isn't John Wall's pic on the front page? If he pushed hard enough, he would have posted a quadruple double Friday night. Guess that's not as important as LeBron not playing up to his past success.

I know it's your job to post the hottest story lines to keep people informed, but how is a story about someone who does not play here outweigh the success of our own home team who in the past had not played well? It makes me think that the beat reporters and story writers for the Wizards are a group of King James Stans that have to be heard.

Now granted, there are many people who have denounced our local sports teams because of their poor performance. But then when they do well, is this the type of support you expect to see? If I were a resident of a different area, I would think it looks as though the people in DC don't even care about their own team. Which isn't the case... especially if you've been to the Verizon Center recently. The place stays sold out these days.

I know that WaPo is an internationally read paper. But I'm a Washingtonian. I was born and raised here. I remember going to Redskins games as a kid with my dad and seeing the rocking bleachers and feeling the swirling, blistering winds in RFK. I still have Bullets gear. I remember the vote on the new team name and I still don't like the choice (which is why I still refer to them as the Bullets). My family is still a family of Georgetown season ticket holders. I've been rocking the red since I was a kid, changed to that funky teal color when the logo changed, and now back to red. Though when I grew up there was no baseball in DC and we watched the Birds, I support the Nats. I still follow sports at Eleanor Roosevelt through the Post because it's my alma mater.

So when I go to WashingtonPost.com, I want to feel like I'm reading MY newspaper. From MY hometown. Not someone else's.

Hail to the Redskins, Let's Go Caps, hats off to the curly Ws, Go Raiders, and oh yeah, Go Bullets.



Follow Me on Twitter: @NFLHustleMama

Help! I'm Not Offended!

Given the ruling today to lift the trademark of the Redskins team name, despite the native lineage on both sides of my family, I have a few thoughts:

1.       Being politically correct is such a slippery, slippery slope. If you're not offended by something, don't worry: there are enough people to feel offended on your behalf. Then there's others who will tourment you because you don't agree with them, and they believe you should (even though we're all entitled to our own opinions anyway). That's why the majority of the stuff I hear about the name being changed, I generally shrug it off. The entire world has gotten so that it doesn't matter what it is; if one person feels like something is wrong, without ration, the bandwagon gets full. QUICKLY. I've gotten kind of numb to the excessive PC activity, quite honestly. Hard to say what's really important anymore when everyone makes such a big deal about EVERYTHING.
2.      What team is next? Weren't they supposed to change the Cleveland Indians logo? A bunch of people are offended by the "Colts" team name because the organization was stolen from Baltimore. The Colts got their name because years ago because of Baltimore's history of horse racing. What does it have to do with the city of Indianapolis? What about the New England Patriots???? There's a Caucasian dude on the logo but we all know they weren't even here first (to hell with Columbus -- he didn't discover jack). A patriot is defined as someone who loves, defends and fights for their country with devotion (I guess if you steal something away from someone else, it's yours to fight defend smh)... Is the Kansas City Chiefs logo next??? No one cares about the name, apparently, but many Natives are offended by people dressing up in war paint, chicken feathers and what-not on Sunday doing the tomahawk chop in the stands... While we're on the "chop", how bout the 'Noles and the Braves? Are we going to stop people from using the song/arm movement everywhere? FSU has put the song in commercials to invite people to attend school there. What about the Tri-City Blackhawks? Oh my bad, the I meant the Atlanta Hawks... But since we mention the Blackhawks, are they going to change their name and logo like the Hawks did? Because they're offending people too.
3.      To add to the list of things people are offended by, here are some things that offend me: potholes (well, they offend my car, but I paid for my car); sagging pants in public (I don't want to see your undies, neither does anyone else); people who walk up to me and ask me where I get my tracks from (just because my skin looks a certain way doesn't mean everyone that tone has the same type of hair -- beyond popular belief, it DOES grow from my scalp. All cliches aside, I really do have Indian in my family); people who don't take women and/or people of color seriously (get a clue, we matter); ashy feet (it's gross to me -- especially when so much lotion is available); people who try to tell me how I should feel (no explanation necessary). Anyone want to go to Change.org and start a petition on behalf of any of these things? Inbox me, I've got more things that I'm offended by.
4.      Are they going to change the name of the state of Oklahoma, which means "red people?" Oh I guess you can't do that; the government has 33 federally recognized tribes there... Let's move on... (Just for fun, "The Sooner State" was nicknamed after the non-natives who President Cleveland allowed to settle in on unclaimed land prior to the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889.)
5.      Why wasn't this much press started to abolish the n-word? I guess Redskins is more offensive to the big wigs in office. Maybe people should research how and why that word formed. The Africans kidnapped from their own land didn't call each other "black" to describe their own skin color; it was a characterization bestowed on them by the shanghaiers that removed them unwillingly from their own land (n-word is derived from the word "niger" which means black... multiple slave trade records show derivations of the word in the description of the captive Africans). Somehow the FCC still allows it to be used loosely in movies, music, etc because someone considers it "art." (freedom of speech, right?) People buy tickets to movies, people's concerts, some still buy cds/mp3s of "artwork" containing the n-word; no one says a thing.
6.       I guess the financial and social struggles of Native Americans are less important things to fight for (meanwhile Snyder started a foundation to help fight those issues... I didn't really see anyone else trying to attack what the vast majority of natives consider to be the "real" problem in their culture). We'll continue to let Natives be culturally oppressed with poor job, housing, education, etc situations so other people with money can continue to thrive. God Bless America!
7.       Everyone can conclude that the ORIGIN of the name is BENIGN. Everyone also concludes that Europeans tried to kill them off in an attempt to take over America. While the latter prevailed, the prior did not. They tried to eliminate an entire people and use their scalps as trophies but they are STILL HERE. That says a lot. So I can definitely see why there are so many Natives proud of the name and would be upset if it changed. For many, It DOES stand for something to them. It represents for strength and resiliency. It says to the Europeans who in essence did take over the country, "Nice try, we're still here."
8.       Alas, thought #7 doesn't matter because Amanda Blackhorse and Ray Halbritter have rallied up a small group of natives to speak for the 500+ tribes across America. (Meanwhile it's still under debate whether or not Halbritter is legitimately part of the Oneida Nation.)
9.       Wonder who would get paid off of the name change... certainly wouldn't be these politicians on the PC bandwagon or the school systems on the reservations... and it doesn't directly help Natives get jobs or better housing... undoubtedly the money would go to the NFL -- a multi-billion dollar organization. Meanwhile Roger Goodell still made $35M last year and Halbritter is still making lots of duckets being a casino tycoon and paying pennies to his tribe members... (Just putting that out there...)
10.       Whatever happens, there will still be 91,000 fans in FedEx on Sunday wearing the colors and the logo singing "Hail to the Redskins." That my friends, is a fact. Whether or not we (people and/or Americans) will start prioritizing our battles to fight for what's really important, has yet to be seen. 

Follow Me On Twitter: @NFLHustleMama