The Washington Redskins were supposed to begin their offseason workouts Monday.
The clinking of weights and the smell of stale sweat should have filled Redskins Park. Instead, the weight room is empty, the players and owners are bitter and nobody’s going anywhere until a judge rules on the labor dispute.
The only people getting any exercise are the lawyers running around and counting their money. Maybe an April 6 court ruling will get both sides back to football, but that’s more of a long shot than the Detroit Lions winning the Super Bowl. The courtrooms probably will be busy for months, and the players will be left to get themselves ready for a season that may never happen.
Will players become JaMarcus Russell disciples and transform into couch potatoes? Surely you’d think they would work out on their own since this is their livelihood, but coaches want players at team facilities because they know in the end that most players won’t.
Albert Haynesworth worked out by himself last year, remember? How’d that go? He couldn’t pass a simple conditioning test for a week.
Redskins fans need to create a neighborhood watch around Ashburn. Block the way to Dunkin’ Donuts and provide safe passage to gyms.
Several players league-wide say they will meet with teammates for light walkthroughs in coming weeks, trying to create some semblance of remembering the playbook. Redskins players have talked about it, too.
But it’s hard for out-of-town players to justify spending their own money to improve a team that has locked them out. There are plenty of hard feelings, some of them deserved, and any team will be lucky to get half its veterans to attend voluntary workouts.
As for free agents, why should Carlos Rogers or Rex Grossman worry about working out with their fellow Redskins when there’s a chance they won’t return? What about Donovan McNabb and Haynesworth considering both are expected to be released or traded?
The 1987 Redskins won the Super Bowl partly because their veterans continued to work out on their own during the three-week strike. But that was much easier because it was in-season; everyone was already there and knew the playbook. It was mostly the same midweek work that they were already doing sans coach Joe Gibbs and his assistants nearby.
That type of unity can’t be replicated in the offseason. At most, local players will work out regularly, scan the playbook and talk some football. That every team will be mostly the same means no one gets an advantage. But if some team bonds with serious offseason workouts, it will likely hold the Lombardi Trophy should the season return.
Eventually, who talks about being a team and who really is one will be proven.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or e-mail [email protected].
