Today Is The Day! Season Opener Against New Orleans Saints!

Preseason football is over, and the real deal is here! 

Redskin fans in New Orleans make a statement.

After summing up their preseason activities - winning three of their four contests - their best score, 30-3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Redskins are anxious to see what their No. 2 Draft pick can do in a professiona, regular season setting at the QB position.

The team has three quarterbacks: Cousins. Grossman. Griffin.

All three showed promise in preseason.  All three got their chance to shine.  But only one is the starter.  Only one has all of the NFL watching.

And so are we.

Redskins vs New Orleans Saints. 

Game time: 1pm.  Fox Network, and on ESPN 980.  Be there!

With RG3 Redskins Win Preseason Opener

If we learn nothing else about the Washington Redskins' win over Buffalo on Thursday night, it's that the team wins with him in the game.    RG3 threw a 20 yard pass to Redskins' new addition, Pierre Garcon, on a screen pass to earn Griffin's first touchdown of his NFL career - his first time out.

"You don’t always have to go out and try to put together the best scheme to the one play to the one route that’s going to be wide open", Griffin said in an ESPN interview. "Sometimes you have got to go out and out-execute the team.”

Out execute, seemingly, is what the Skins did, holding Buffalo to just two field goals on the night, a practice that was synonymous with the Washington Redskins for more than two seasons.
Griffin finished 4 of 6 for 70 yards and a lost fumble. (The team went scoreless the remaining three quarters with Rex Grossman and 2nd string QB, Kirk Cousins).

What did Griffin's NFL coach have to say about his new quarterback's NFL debut performance?
"He did everything you asked him to do," Shanahan said. "He stepped up. Made some plays, some excellent throws. He was very calm cool collected. Excellent for his first game."

The Skins won 7-6 over Buffalo, leaving some (us included) hoping the Skins will be able to score much more points than that in the regular season.

Said Griffin, "Give it time." 

He tweeted, simply:  "Great win.  HTTR."

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Setting a new record.  Comcast Network's highest viewership.
Comcast SportsNet’s coverage, which featured the debut of Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, posted a peak household rating of 10.75 in the Washington market during the game’s first quarter, which equates to approximately 254,000 households and 402,000 viewers. Combined with the Baltimore television market, approximately 470,000 Washington/Baltimore-area viewers watched Comcast SportsNet during the first quarter, even surpassing viewership of the Washington Capitals’ Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 7 vs. Montreal on April 28, 2010.

The network’s highest average household rating for a Redskins preseason game was a 4.24, set during last preseason’s opening game on August 12, 2011, against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In other NFL news.

What Baltimore did.   Up I-95 a ways, the Baltimore Ravens smashed Atlanta, 31-17, making a great combination of preseason wins for the area. 

Yeah, we're claiming B'more too.

RG3 Graces NoVa Mag

So, just when RG3 tells reporters he's done with all the promotional work: - i.e. advertising, commercials, etc., - what do we find? The anointed one gracing the cover of Northern VA Magazine.

RG3 graces cover of Northern Virginia mag.

Actually, the cover was done well in advance of RG3 stating he's relinquishing the lime light to focus on the 2012 season, but it's worth noting that he's on the cover of one the area's premiere magazines.

The August issue, on stands now, talks about where Robert will buy his first house, and tries to cement Robert's status in our area. In an article titled 'Hail to the Redskins, or to the Chief?', writer Dan Friedell, discusses Griffin's first two months in D.C. as Griffin blurs the lines between quarterback and 'candidate'.

Well Friedell, we'll bet two things:
1) RG3 is the best quarterback this team will ever see (this decade), and
2) RG3 is a good 'candidate' for all things good that's continuing to come his way.

By the way, check out RG3, and the rest of the team, coaches and cheerleaders, this Saturday during the 2012 Redskin Fan Appreciation Day. It promises to be one of the most memorable FADs of our time.

No pun intended.

RG3 Media Training Camp Interview

"In a short time we've built great relationships", Griffin said of the camaraderie between he and his new Washington Redskin teammates. 

Griffin completed his first training camp session since officially signing with the team last week.

Robert Griffin, III answers media questions.  Photo/RG3 Watch.

"The leaders are stepping up trying to make this team successful", Griffin said.  (Would that be the same 'leaders' we had the last four years?  Or different leaders?)

On team dedication Robert said that “Throwing with the guys over the break and doing those types of things gets you more familiar with them. And you can really see who’s truly dedicated and who you have to continue to stay on to make sure that they can show the team that they are dedicated. But aside from that, you know, just working with those guys is a great thing.”

We wonder which guys need that little extra 'attention' since there aren't really any team distractions to know of at this point.  (Save for the Redskins PR people who are trying to keep the media from doing their jobs.  Major controversy).

Click here for the complete RG3 interview, including him saying the team should "let your play do the talking."

Hopefully they won't be talking the same thing that they have been for the last 20 years. 

If so, we're all in for another long, painfully laborious-to-watch Redskins football season.

Some Questions Are Just Plan Stupid!

Talk Show Hosts Ask: "Will RG3 Lose His Job Between Now and The Start of the Season?"

While changing the radio dial in my car today I happened upon the two 'other' sports radio jackals - this time over on ESPN - where the question during their 'Redskins At 1:00' segment was 'will RG3 lose his Job before the start of the season?

RG3: The Most Interesting Man in the League.  Official NFL gear. 
Oh how lucky the designer of this shirt is!  But it should be in B&G color.

What?   You're kidding me!  The Most Interesting Man In the League, lose his job?

What kind of idiots would even propose a question like that of a franchise starting quarterback?
It's like Rush Limbaugh saying after the 2008 election that he hopes President Obama fails.

These two guys, in essence, were saying they hope RG3 fails.   Oh, they're good at hiding behind their true feelings by saying things like, "I'm with you, I don't think he would lose his job."  All the while waiting with bated (bad) breath for Robert Griffin THE THIRD to submit to their demise.
This line of questioning is just ludicrous.   Instead of being supportive of the Redskins' new quarterback, they're already wishing him an ill fate.
 
How about for once, actually supporting the Redskins team.  No other city puts down their team as much as Washington does.  We may have had reason to do so, but the fans show up and buy the tickets no matter what. 

I already see fans donning their Redskins jerseys, painting their vehicles burgundy and gold, and displaying the big ol' curly R sticker on their cars.   Washington is ready for Football 2012.  They are ready for RG3, and RG3 is ready for Washington. 
Will you two lose YOUR jobs before the start of the season? Oh, how some wish you would!

Quit with the dumb projections.   If you really want to help the Washington fan base try Weight Watchers; and for the other guy on the show, stop acting like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.

Just shut up, sit back and enjoy the winning RG3 ride!
#HTTR!  #HTRG3!!!

Related
Updated 7/18/2012 ---  

Reported this morning.    Griffin signs a lucrative 4-year, $21M deal with Washington Redskins. Thats roughly $5 million a year, folks.

RG3 Still MIA at Skins Rookie Camp:  Because RG3 still hasn't signed his Contract with the Washington Redskins, he is again absent from the Redskins' rookie training camp currently taking place at Redskins Park. 

No word, yet, on when he will sign his contract with the Redskins.

RG3 isn't the only one yet to sign.  According to the AP:  "Fourteen of the 32 first-round draft choices, including top overall pick Andrew Luck, and 12 of the 32 third-round selections remain unsigned."

Griffin on Extortion Claim

If "pressure make diamonds" then vultures circle high.

RG3 is calling the extortionist, and others who want some of the deep pockets of pro athletes, "vultures".  This after 25 year old Richard Hurd, one of the students at Griffin's Baylor alma mater, tried to dip into the pockets of the RG3 Dynasty, albeit indirectly.

Griffin said Tuesday, "There's vultures out there, people looking to climb on top of all your money."

The incident comes on the heels of Griffin finishing up a rookie symposium that discussed the very topic of people trying to get at highly paid athletes.  (Many of you WISHED you had such a problem).

"There's a fine line between guarding yourself and being guarded," the rookie QB said. "I think I do a pretty good job of guarding myself, even with this situation. It's just something unfortunate that happened so I think guys can learn. It's just something that everyone can learn from and just move on."

Just tell us already what the storyline is Robert.   It's better to get it out now, before the season starts, than be half-way through the seaason and find out.

The Redskins don't need any more distractions about anything negative.   To not have any negativity circling around Redskins Park would suggest a utopian Redskins society, though wouldn't it?

And we know that society doesn't exist.

Stay tuned.

Extort Money From RG3? No Way!

A former Baylor University basketball star, Richard Khamir Hurd, tried to extort money from Redskin quarterback, Robert Griffin III, in attempt to keep what is being called "derogatory information" from being leaked to the media.

254Sports.com is reporting that Hurd was charged last Friday with 'interstate communication containing a threat to injure the property or reputation of another person'.

An affadavit submitted on June 18 shows that Hurd told an unidentified person with the initials B.D. that “he had derogatory information on a client of B.D., and that he intended to release that information to the media to damage or injure the reputation of B.D.’s client unless the client paid Hurd a substantial sum of money.”

Griffin is represented by Ben Dogra of Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Dogra also represents linebacker London Fletcher of the Washington Redskins. 

Dogra ranks 2 out of 10 as the NFL's most powerful agents.



The question to be asked is:  What information does Hurd have about Washington's starting quarterback?

Needless to say, the Washington Redskins who may have faced yet another controversy before the start of the season, are mum on the topic.