Sports: July 2008 Archives

It's here.  The 2008 season and the Zorn-Era has begun.  The Redskins opened training camp this morning in muggy Ashburn, Virginia, home of Redskins Park.  It still seems odd tha the team called the Washington Redskins has offices and practices in Virginia and plays it's games at Fedex Field in Maryland.  Anyways, this the first training camp I have attended in person.  They started all those years in Pennsylvania and I didn't think about going in recent years.  Why, I'm not so sure.  Probably should have done it while Gibbs was still coach.

Although I arrived just after 8 AM, the team was already on the field practicing well before the 8:30 announced time.  And hundreds of people beat me there.  It was interesting, but less organized for fans as I imagined.  Refreshments were not quite as expensive as I thought they were to be.  There was the heckler in the front row who yelled at every player.  BTW - The Sports Freak would be happy as he was wearing a Rock Cartwright jersey. It also appears that some Giants fans took a wrong turn. "Leave the Holland Tunnel, head south on I-95 until you see Burgundy & Gold?"

All this can be viewed in the pictures here.  I did not edit them, so heads and caps can be seen in some pictures.  Hey, when the Redskins set a separate bloggers section, I'll be able to get better shots.

But this brings up the question, really how much practice does the team need.  I think OTA's and training camp are probably necessary.  Especially when trying to learn a new playbook under a new coach.  But 4 or more pre-season exhibition games?  The starting QB only plays two or three of them, so you can cut out at least one game.  And Redskins fans are quite aware of the injuries piled up during exhibition