Thursday, June 7, 2012

#Redskins: Camp On The Move?

Over the past several years (or decades, however you want to look at it), the world of Washington Sports has been quite the roller coaster. The charismatic figures... the drama... the losing... It's hard to watch the teams compete, but the constant news makes it hard to look away. When Gilbert Arenas was still in a Wizards uniform, yes there were plenty of people who were clammering for him to score 40 points every night. Then there are also those who tuned in to the games not because they were hoping the Wiz Kids would win and score over 100 points so they'd get a half off pizza the next day, but they watched because of the circle of drama surrounding Agent Zero's life.

Likewise, of course there's a plethora of Redskins fans all over the DMV (and the rest of the world). Of course they watch the games because they want to see the team win. Then, there's the other group of fans (and non-fans) who watched the games because of drama surrounding Albert Haynesworth's personal life or his latest decisions on where to take a nap. Forget how many sacks he was capable of racking up. They watched because they were waiting to see what new character C.P. would come up with next... not to see if he'd break 100 yards. They watched to see how well or poorly Donovan McNabb played... not because they wanted to see him lead the team to victory, but because of the poor relationship between he and Shanford and Son.

So then how do we rid the teams of the constant distractions? Cutting players? That never fully worked. Press conferences? Please. Moving training camp out of town? There's a thought.

Earlier this week, Dan Snyder decided to move the team's training camp down to Richmond, VA starting next summer. Some people think this is too far. For me, Ashburn is a long drive for fan appreciation days (didn't stop me from going). And then what about the people who made the voyage to Carlyle, PA for camp during the Joe Gibbs' era. Consequently, the level of distractions was significantly lower during that time. Seems as though the beauty of moving camp away is minimizing media exposure of the players... reducing at-home distractions... allowing the group to work through their on the field and off the field issues apart from everything else familiar to them.

If you ask me, given the track record of this team in recent years, Richmond isn't far enough.

HTTR...

Follow Me On Twitter: @NFLHustleBabe