A tight end accidentally exposed himself. A running back challenged a former player on the radio and the coach sent everyone to their Yiddish dictionary.
What a weird few days around Redskins Park.
It was reminiscent of 2000 when Deion Sanders and the traveling free agent show came to Ashburn. There were a record three press gatherings on the stairs yesterday plus a handful by lockers.
Chris Cooley could only laugh at himself after a part of his anatomy was wrongly shown on his blog during the game on Sunday. A photo of a quiz from the team’s playbook was resting on his legs, only Cooley wasn’t wearing clothes. Suddenly, 50,000 visited the site in one hour.
Cooley said he was sorry a few times, and genuinely so. Even “Captain Chaos” has his limits and Cooley is a good guy at heart. Maybe he has a fun side, but Cooley also knows plenty of kids read his blog that is very insightful over an NFL player’s life.
“I feel really bad about it. It was an accident,” Cooley said. “I got a lot of jokes about how does that happen, but it’s me.”
Cooley was razzed pretty hard during the team meeting. Someone posted the photo on the screen normally used for game film. There was a player poll on the bulletin board that can’t be politely described. Teammates now have a new nickname for him that also isn’t polite conversation. Several swore they didn’t see the photo, but everyone sure knew about it.
Coach Jim Zorn didn’t sanction Cooley. He didn’t need to during the meeting.
“Coach didn’t get a lot of words in,” Cooley said. “There was more chuckling. We had a good laugh about it that that really happened. What do you say as a head coach — ‘Don’t do this?’”
Maybe Zorn understood after his own poor choice of words on Monday. He joked punt returner Antwaan Randle El wasn’t a “schmuck” following poor play. Turns out it’s a real bad word when taken literally instead of street meaning of jerk. This from a guy who recently asked if he could say “butt” on TV when describing an injury before opting for “rear end.”
Then there was running back Clinton Portis arguing with former Redskin Brian Mitchell, who’s now an analyst for local radio and TV. Portis practically challenged Mitchell to a fight during the John Thompson Show on Tuesday. Portis is a tough guy, but nobody backs B-Mitch into a wall.
Mitchell is an excellent analyst — straight forward with the resume to back it up. Some fans are upset over Mitchell’s brutal comments following losses, but that’s the same intensity those same fans loved when he played for the Redskins from 1990-99.
Portis softened his stance yesterday, but that chip-on-his-shoulder is the runner’s motivation just like Mitchell used. They’re actually more alike than not. Both are great guys and great players. Given a chance, they’d probably be good friends.
Last year was a whirlwind around Redskin Park. Looks like this season will be much the same.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
