You would think in Washington — with the Pentagon and all the surrounding military installations and personnel — the sports teams would be better at picking captains. The fact is Washington may have some of the worst captains who have laid claim to the leadership position.
How can D.C. teams win when they are seemingly incapable of finding men to lead them to victory?
This came into focus last week when Andray Blatche declared at the home opener at Verizon Center that he was the captain of the rudderless Washington Wizards:
“This is your captain, Andray Blatche. On behalf of myself, my teammates, the whole Washington Wizard organization, we want to say we strongly appreciate you all sticking around all summer. It’s been a long summer. It’s a shortened season, but it’s going to be tough, and we’re going to need you guys — the best fans in the NBA — to be our sixth man. So in other words, let’s get this season started.”
Blatche then led his team to defeat, criticized the coaches for not using him properly and told everyone on Twitter to shut up. Since then, he has disappeared from view on the court while his hapless and hopeless team has opened the season with five straight losses. The Wizards are the only winless team in the league after losing Monday night to the Celtics.
Maybe Blatche’s role model was Captain Lou Albano.
Then there are the Washington Redskins. One of their captains — Santana Moss — took off his helmet on the field to argue a call and cost his team an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty Sunday in the 34-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Instead, he should have been keeping his team under control as they melted down at the end of the first half and wasted a scoring opportunity. And it’s not the first time he has cost his team with a penalty in a key situation.
At least this captain was available. Trent Williams may have been home Sunday — perhaps sitting on the couch, wearing his captain’s hat and watching his team lose. Williams was suspended for the final four games of this season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, failing to pass at least three different drug tests.
That is the Joseph Hazelwood school of captaincy. At least Williams wasn’t steering a ship.
Alex Ovechkin is a captain who looked around at the sinking Washington Capitals and determined he wasn’t going down with them. Someone else needed to take the fall, and it turned out to be coach Bruce Boudreau, who had benched the captain in a key moment earlier in the season.
I don’t think this is what Walt Whitman had in mind when he wrote, “O Captain! my Captain! Rise up and hear the bells.”
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
