Greetings Hogs Haven readers, it's Ben from Curly R, I had a chance to attend a special event today with Jason Campbell, I took some photos and video and got a couple of minutes to talk with Jason about the event and I wanted to share. Enjoy!

Last week I was contacted by a public relations firm and invited to an event today at Redskins Stadium sponsored by Powerade, the hydration drink endorsed by Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell. Today I attended that event and it was very much worth my while, this is the account of my trip down to the field at Redskins Stadium and my brief interview with Jason.

Today's event, Powerade's Pro Game Day Experience, invited Virginia, Washington DC and Maryland high school football players to participate in an essay contest, the winning team would be awarded full pro game day treatment, from suiting up in the Redskins locker room to football classroom experience and then practicing on the field. Jason Campbell would serve as honorary coach for the day.

The contest winner was Curtis Robinson of Dunbar High School in Washington DC, Curtis wrote about the difficulties the storied Dunbar football team has had this season, including a losing record.

I arrived at Redskins Stadium and checked in at the front desk, of all the times I had been at this stadium I had never really noticed it had a real front door. There I met Lindsay Raivich, Powerade's coordinator for sponsorship events, it is her job to travel the country and put on these types of events with athletes sponsored by the company. She was outstanding and made me feel right at home.

Along with ABC 7 WJLA's sports anchor Greg Toland and his cameraman, Lindsay took me down from the front desk to the tunnel under the stadium, past the equipment and locker rooms, and walked us out to the field. I really had no idea what to expect and had a hard time coming to grips with actually heading out to the field.

Heading out the giant Redskins inflatable helmet onto the field at Redskins Stadium.

Once we got out there, everybody went in different directions and no one told me where I could and could not go. I separated from the others and just sort of walked around in a daze, looking around at everything from the reverse angle, up and not down. Typically when I go to see a Redskins game I am way the hell up in the top deck looking down, where everything seems so small. I took the obligatory trophy photo of me on the field and emailed it to my wife with the corny subject line, Just me hanging out on the field at FedEx. This blogging thing is cool and all, at the core I am still just a football fan and this event allowed me to pierce the boundary between football fans and the business of football.


Your author standing in the end zone at Redskins Stadium.

The place was pretty well deserted, there were a couple of groundskeepers out attending the field and maybe ten people on the field associated with the event, things would not get started for another half hour or so, I snapped a few photos of my surroundings.


The event sponsor, Powerade, and their Jason Campbell event signage. I still cannot believe the Redskins have not installed high definition, or at least larger video screens. I know the stadium is 11 years old but come on, there are older stadiums with better video in the NFL.


A closeup of the turf in the end zone. Maybe I do not know much about NFL grass turf, the surface did not look so good. Obviously you can see the grass is painted for the lines and logos, look at the turf itself, pop out the photo in higher resolution if you need to, it looks pretty patchy and bare, and like one soaking rain would render it unplayable. I know it is December and getting the grass to keep growing or stay healthy must be tough, I am sure drainage and aeration and fertilization and everything is state of the art and I have no idea what I am talking about. If there are any groundskeepers out there that can educate me on maintaining a grass playing surface into January, please drop a comment or shoot me an email.


The big giant inflatable Redskins helmet the players run through. I was a bit disappointed in the somewhat dilapidated shape of the giant inflatable Redskins helmet, a condition Matt Terl also noticed in one of his first posts as official Redskins blogger. I guess those things are all custom made and you really sweat them before buying a new one.


Sean Taylor's permanent seat at Redskins Stadium.

This was to be a full game day experience for everybody, not just the players. At this point four Redskins cheerleaders came out and began prepping the Dunbar cheerleaders on the player introduction routine.


The four Redskins cheerleaders in charge of prepping the Dunbar cheerleaders.

 
The Redskins cheerleaders lined up at either end of the Dunbar cheerleaders and walked them through the up V, down V line motions when each player is introduced and comes through the giant inflatable helmet.


Prep session over, the Redskins and Dunbar High cheerleaders get ready for the Dunbar football squad to come through the big giant inflatable Redskins helmet.


A little peek behind the curtain, right where we were standing before the Dunbar player introductions there was a panel removed in the padded wall around the stadium ring, as a recovering sound engineer I can tell you those are audio cables, this is obviously a drop for microphones and audio playback originating on the field. Just one teeny tiny detail in what must be a million to keep Redskins Stadium running smoothly.


Another Jason Campbell Powerade placard, there were dozens around the playing field and in the tunnel, along with free bottles of the stuff for all. Of course being a journalist and needing to retain my independence I did not sample the wares (not).

But what that is actually a picture of is the state of decay in which Redskins Stadium finds itself. No I doubt there are any safety violation, we will not have to worry about South American style upper balcony collapse, have a loot at the rusting rail. And the burgundy padding that rings the stadium wall separating the playing field from the stands. The tops are all sun faded white and the main panels themselves look a lot more pink than burgundy. Again I know replacing this stuff must be expensive and maybe it is all on a schedule, it just seems to me that this stadium is an asset that is being sweated as hard as possible with the minimum cosmetic upkeep being applied, that is a sign an asset is either not in your future plans or about to be unloaded. If there was one the team could do to make the stadium look better on TV, I would say new padded walls in a deep burgundy, as it stands right now even close up and standing right on the playing field, everything looks washed out.


Prince George's county medics, on hand just in case anything goes wrong in the practice.


More Jason Campbell Powerade promo materials. Note the colors on the jersey are accurate but the logo has been stripped off. And the NFL has the league contract with Gatorade, I wonder if this creates contractual problems for Jason. I doubt it, it is not like he helped the league negotiate for Gatorade and it would seem unlikely that the sideline guys would be asked to keep Jason's Powerade separate from the team's Gatorade but I digress.


Another vanity shot, I just had to get the hey mom look it's me and the big giant inflatable Redskins helmet shot.

 
At this point Jason Campbell and his entourage took the field, coming down through the tunnel to the great delight of the cheerleaders.


Jason, he was taller and lankier than I thought, yes indeed damn he is tall.


Right as they were preparing to introduce the Dunbar players and coaches a fighter jet roared over, guessing it was from Andrews Air Force Base.

 
At last the Dunbar High School players and coaches take the field to NFL style introductions, it was great.


The sideline box for the team during a game, that is the Dunbar players lined up in front of it. The sideline box was smaller than I thought, given how many people and how much equipment is crammed into it. The field is only 300 feet long, I guess I do not have a sense of scale for all this from seeing so much football from high up or on TV.


Jason projected onto the big screen, there were three or four camera guys there, one from ABC with Greg Toland, one from Fox and one that must have been with the team or the event, constantly streaming shots up to the big board. After the initial warm ups and pep talks from Jason and Dunbar's coaches, the media availabilities began.


Jason talking to ABC channel seven WJLA's Greg Toland, he told me his piece would run at either 5:50 or 6:20 pm tonight (Tuesday). Fat lot of good that does you now huh.


Still talking to Greg, reverse angle. Meanwhile the Dunbar players were whooping it up and were getting ready to start drilling.


The midfield gathering and cheer...


...running sprints on the other side of the field...


...and setting up to run the ladders...


...and some time with Jason, I do not think that football was out of his hands at all the whole time he was working with the players.


The NFL logo at the 35 yard line.


Lindsay Raivich the awesome Powerade show director leading me over to talk with Jason. The things at left are little hurdles the Dunbar players had to high step over or navigate through, depending on the drill.


The helmet logo in the end zone, always a crowd pleaser.

 
Finally I got my moment with Jason, three questions, about a minute and a half, Jason was great and I made sure he knew I would be there in Cincinnati next week.


Official event schwag, don't leave without it. About time to go then I realized I was staring back into the tunnel where the players run.


Note the Geico curtain to prevent fans from dousing players as they run to the locker room. I ran video on my camera as I left the stadium...

 
This is me wandering and narrating through the tunnel as far as the elevator where I got turned around.

 
Upon leaving the elevator I realized I was on the wrong floor and was mildly surprised I was not swarmed with security notified by a proximity warning to the owner's box. Then my camera batteries died, I went through two sets of AA batteries today, note to self, bring more next time, I just upgraded to a 1GB storage card on my Nikon point and shoot and it seems bottomless for both photos and video.

Not pictured: finding the right floor and exiting the stadium then visiting the Redskins store at the stadium, though still not ideal in terms of logo'ed heavy duty winter weather gear, it is easily the best place in the area to get Redskins gear.

A special thanks to Kerri at Catalyst PR for reaching out to me, to Lindsay with Powerade for being a great host and to Jason Campbell for taking time out to talk with me.

All photos and video by me.

Making your picks to loud music is mandatory

For the second week in a row Gonzo failed to post up his against the spread football picks in the Blogger Deathsport pool.  Thanks to the wonders of technology I can accomplish the dual tasks of documenting Gonzo's picks and shaming him for a weak stream performance.  For the second week in a row Gonzo could manage only five wins:

Sunday
ATL @ PHI (-9) (FAIL)

KC @ NYJ (-13) (Yes!)

STL @ NE (-7) (PUSH)

BUF (1.5) @ MIA (FAIL)

OAK @ BAL (-7) (FAIL)

WAS (-7.5) @ DET (Yes!)

ARZ @ CAR (-4.5) (FAIL)

SD (-3) @ NO (Yes!)

TB @ DAL (-1.5) (FAIL)

CIN @ HOU (-9.5) (Yes!)

CLE @ JAX (-7.5) (FAIL)
 
NYG @ PIT (-2.5) (FAIL)

SEA @ SF (-5) (FAIL)

Monday
IND 23 @ TEN 27 (off the board = straight up even) (Yes!)

This is a wake up call to DN readers, do not continue to tolerate weak football picks from Gonzo!

IPod fail from here

A man posts up his picks

Mr. I'm too busy posted up his Blogger Deathsport picks from two weeks ago... on email.  Maybe he wanted them to be a secret, would not surprise me since Gonzo went 5-9 that week:

Sunday
SF @ NYG (-10.5) (Yes!)

PIT (-10) @ CIN (Yes!)

TEN (-8) @ KC (Yes!)

MIN @ CHI (-3) (FAIL)

SD @ BUF (off the board = straight up even) (Yes!)

NO @ CAR (-3) (Yes!)

DAL (-7) @ STL (FAIL)

BAL @ MIA (-3) (FAIL)

DET @ HOU (-8.5) (FAIL)

NYJ (-3) @ OAK (FAIL)

IND (-1.5) @ GB (FAIL)

CLE @ WAS (-7) (FAIL)

SEA @ TB (-10.5) (FAIL)  

Monday
DEN @ NE (-3) - Broncos 27, Patriots 24 (FAIL)

Translation fail from here

That Steeltown work ethic

Blitzburgh did not post his picks for Blogger Deathsport last week, oh he got them in on email, this is a blogger pool, not an emailer pool.  For posterity and scoring purposes here are Blitzburgh's picks from last week:

Sunday
CAR @ TB (-1.5)

STL @ WAS (-13)

CIN @ NYJ (-6)

OAK @ NO (-7.5)

MIA @ HOU (-3)

CHI (-2.5) @ ATL

DET @ MIN (-13)

BAL @ IND (-4)

JAX @ DEN (-3.5)

PHI (-4.5) @ SF

DAL (-5) @ ARZ

GB @ SEA (-2)

NE @ SD (-5.5)

 
Monday

NYG (-8) @ CLE
(24-23 NYG)

Week seven picks are out, will Blitzburgh evolve past email this week?

Airline FAIL from here.

It's not called Emailer Deathsport for a reason

Skin Patrol and TexSkins did not post their picks for Blogger Deathsport last week, oh they got them in on email, this is a blogger pool, not an emailer pool.  For posterity and scoring purposes here are their picks from last week:

Skin Patrol

Sunday
CAR @ TB (-1.5)

STL @ WAS (-13)

CIN @ NYJ (-6)

OAK @ NO (-7.5)

MIA @ HOU (-3)

CHI (-2.5) @ ATL

DET @ MIN (-13)

BAL @ IND (-4)

JAX @ DEN (-3.5)

PHI (-4.5) @ SF

DAL (-5) @ ARZ

GB @ SEA (-2)

NE @ SD (-5.5)

Monday

NYG (-8) @ CLE
Uhhh 35-17

TexSkins

Sunday
CAR @ TB (-1.5)

STL @ WAS (-13)

CIN @ NYJ (-6)

OAK @ NO (-7.5)

MIA @ HOU (-3)

CHI (-2.5) @ ATL

DET @ MIN (-13)

BAL @ IND (-4)

JAX @ DEN (-3.5)

PHI (-4.5) @ SF

DAL (-5) @ ARZ

GB @ SEA (-2)

NE @ SD (-5.5)

Monday

NYG (-8) @ CLE
Final score:  41-21

Week seven picks are out, will Skin Patrol and TexSkins evolve past email this week?

Airline FAIL from here.

Think I'll just stay in again tonight

Because RCR was too lazy to post his week three picks in the Blogger Deathsport against the spread pick 'em pool, I have done so for him from email picks he submitted last week.  RCR finished 8-8, good for 4th out of 10 this for week three, results here.

RCR's picks in bold

Sunday
KC @ ATL (-5.5) (yep)
 
CLE @ BAL (-2) (yep)
 
OAK @ BUF (-9.5) (nope)
 
TB @ CHI (-3) (yep)
 
DAL (-3) @ GB (yep)
 
NO @ DEN (-5.5) (nope)
 
JAX @ IND (-5.5) (yep)
 
CAR @ MIN (-3.5) (nope)
 
MIA @ NE (-12.5) (nope)
 
CIN @ NYG (-13.5) (nope)
 
PIT @ PHI (-3) (nope)
 
DET @ SF (-4) (yep)
 
STL @ SEA (-9.5) (nope)
 
HOU @ TEN (-5) (yep)
 
ARZ @ WAS (-3) (nope) (ed. note: silly silly boy)
 

Monday
NYJ @ SD (-9) (yep)

Lame dude emulating River City Rage from here.

Gregg Williams Home Dentistry, LLC

Greetings Redskins fans, Ben from Curly R here, back in January River City Rage at Big Cat Country invited me to share my thoughts on Gregg Williams as the Jaguars' new defensive coordinator, with Gregg making his first return to Washington Thursday, the Washington Post today, seven months to the day since Gregg was fired from the Redskins, ran the rehash story, we learned a bunch, Curly R's take on it all is here.

We will see Gregg and these Jaguars Thursday!

Gregg Williams:  Phil Coale / AP photo from here.

When asked about Redskins management Gregg reflexively makes himself puke

Greetings Jaguars fans, Ben from Curly R here, back in January River City Rage invited me to share my thoughts on Gregg Williams as the Jaguars' new defensive coordinator, with Gregg making his first return to Washington Thursday, the Washington Post today, seven months to the day since Gregg was fired from the Redskins, ran the rehash story, as a Redskins fan I thought I would share my thoughts on the piece, on what we did not know about Gregg and how everyone moved on, Curly R's piece is here.

See you Thursday!

Gregg Williams:  Phil Coale / AP photo from here.

[Note by Skin Patrol, 07/14/08 8:16 PM EDT ]
Readers are once again encouraged to check out Ben's Redskins Blog, The Curly R, on a daily basis. There is a reason it sits at the top of my Blogroll. Many thanks many times over to Ben for helping tend shop in my absence.

 
Which Brett Favre is still in there?

Brett Favre is coming out of a four month retirement and wants his unconditional release from Green Bay. They do not want to give it to him. Should be interesting.

Via Will at Hogs Haven a week ago a press release from an offshore casino appeared on a free PR site betting that Brett would not land with the Minnesota Vikings but rather with the Washington Redskins.

I think this could work.

Though I may be in the minority. This post at Hogs Haven by mmford10 was up twelve hours after the news and, the comments trended against the idea early and then the thread became about Jason Campbell, not Brett Favre. That was totally predictable.

For the Redskins this could be an historic opportunity. It may play some havoc with the team yes, that is nothing new for Redskins fans. Disruption has been the norm under Dan Snyder, the difference, now before us is a disruption that could be good for the team now and later. Here is my argument:

1. It's Brett Favre. A sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer. No one ever thought he would be available. Now that he is, you talk to him. Just to see what he is looking for. It's Brett freaking Favre. We all know he can still play.

2. The new Redskins offense. What Brett ran in Green Bay and what Jim Zorn brings to the Redskins come from the same source, Mike Holmgren. Brett would have a short learning curve and it would get the new offense humming from the start.

3. The old Redskins offense. The Redskins offense is tooled to win now, it is full of veterans, the line should be healthy back from injuries and if they can play like 2006 that would be great for the running game, west coast offense or not you still have to run the ball in the NFC Beast. Santana Moss, Antwaan Randle El, Chris Cooley and the New Guys are plenty of weapons through the air.

4. The Redskins defense. Turns out the transition from last year to this year should be pretty smooth after all. Even if they slip ten places the team will still be in the top half of the league. A good defense gives new offenses and new players breathing room.

5. It's a tradition. Brett Favre would not be the first high profile Packer to come to Washington. After the 1967 NFL season, Vince Lombardi stepped down as head coach of the Green Bay Packers and after a brief quote retirement unquote from coaching, he took the Packers' general manager position for one season in 1968 before getting restless and coming back to coaching with the Redskins. Prior to the 1969 season the Redskins had not had a winning campaign in 14 years. Under Vince they went 7-5-2, by 1971 George Allen was in place and the team went on to nine straight winning seasons.

The value proposition: it has to cost little or nothing. Ideally the Packers will release Brett after he promises not to sign with a division rival. Frankly I have a hard time seeing Brett play for the Vikings but I digress. If the team demands a trade then it should cost the Redskins not higher than a third round pick, even though it's Brett Favre the team cannot sacrifice any serious portion of the long term future for a player that will give the Redskins one, maybe two shots at the Super Bowl.

The impacts: the elephant in the room here is obviously Jason Campbell, the Redskins starting quarterback, a first round pick himself that cost the team three draft picks in trade to acquire. In the long run, bringing Brett Favre in may be good for Jason Campbell's career. Or it may begin the door closing on what was never going to work out in the first place. Follow me here.

In the first place, there is no shame in being Jason Campbell if you get benched for Brett Favre, that's not a lack of confidence in Jason, that's just taking advantage of an unbelieveable opportunity, if one of the greatest ever in your professional field were suddenly available and your company hired him and he happened to do your job, you could hardly fault the company, it just makes good business sense. Jason is a big boy, if Vinny Cerrato walks into Jason's house this week and tells him Jason will be backing up Brett Favre this year, Jason can not only take it, he may jump up and hug Vinny.

Second, Jason Campbell's position with this team in the long run is still very much open to question. Jason has shown the skills and the potential to be a franchise quarterback in the NFL, he has never lit us up and what we may still be interpreting as growing pains may simply be Jason's limitations. As Randy Cross likes to say on Sirius NFL Radio, that the guy you see early is pretty much the guy you will see always. Players can improve at the edges, rarely do we see a guy go from average to great.

This is not to say Jason is not a starting caliber quarterback. If the Redskins have a good plan they do not need the best QB to make it work. The team could well be successful within Jason's limits, I mean come on this team won Super Bowls with Mark Rypien and Joe Thiesmann, good QBs, not all time greats.

If Brett Favre were to come and wear number four (sorry Derrick Frost, with Durant Brooks and all, this could be a bad training camp experience for you) here in Washington, it would mean Jason would be the backup. It would give him a full year to get familiar with Jim Zorn's offense, I for one along with Rich Tandler and Will-A have plenty of questions as to whether Jason can be a reliable executor of this offense a) now, b) ever. From watching as much football as I have, I am not sure Jason is physically or mentally the type of QB for this type of system. Then again I did not think Steve Young would be successful after Joe Montana and did not envision Donovan McNabb as a west coast quarterback either.

In any event, a full year to learn the system without having to run it on game day might be conducive to Jason digesting the system and being better prepared when his number is called.

True, the Redskins would not get value from Jason's contract this year, which according to PC's awesome contract page, runs through 2010. Brett has a chance to come in and make a run at a title for a season or two then the team gets to decide whether they have seen enough out of Jason Campbell to merit re signing him to a long term deal as the franchise starter.

So this is not just about Brett Favre. All that money and those draft picks spent on Jason Campbell, that's all sunk cost. Jason is either going to be the team's long term solution or he is not, as commenter Allskins at Hogs Haven wrote yesterday, Patrick Ramsey was also a first round pick future of the franchise guy.

The odd man out in this scenario is Todd Collins, who though signed to a two year deal is nothing more than insurance anyway.  Colt Brennan will get a look as number three, he is a Jim Zorn pick and with or without Brett Favre, Colt will be salted away to see if he can run this team.  If he can, if he has the chops to be an NFL quarterback in this type of system, Jason Campbell may be out in two seasons anyway.

This team is ready to win now. The offensive line should be back, how many more seasons do they have in the tank? How about Clinton Portis? Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El are ready to win now. Chris Cooley is in the prime of his career. There is veteran leadership on a defense peppered with young players, stewardship of the team from old to young has to start happening in the next two to three seasons. Two or three seasons I'd rather not see an offense and a QB getting up to speed, getting untracked, whatever.

Jim Zorn's offense would be friendly to Brett. Let's see what it can do now and now wait until 2010.



Compostite image by me. Brett Favre left image from here, Brett Favre right image from here.