D.C. Sports Bog - By The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg - November 14, 2010

Keiland Williams wearing Silly Bandz

With Ryan Torain officially out for Sunday, you have to figure that Keiland Williams will be a significant piece of the offense against the Titans, whether Clinton Portis starts or not. And here's one thing you need to know about Keiland Williams: he apparently wore Silly Bandz during his...

By Dan Steinberg | November 19, 2010; 4:50 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Redskins
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Michael Wilbon calls leaving The Post "traumatic"

player.render('fileUrl=http://cbswjfk.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/wise111910_seg-_05.mp3&name=11/17/10 Segment 5 Michael Wilbon&artist=Mike Wise Show with Holden Kushner&stationID=114&configFile=config.xml&buttonColor=0xd20000&buttonOverColor=0xa80000&backgroundColor=0xFFFFFF&guid=65B819F12EC7'); I was writing about Braden Holtby's eccentricities Thursday when the news broke that Michael Wilbon was leaving The Post and becoming full-time at ESPN. I didn't write anything then, and I still haven't figured out what to say about all...

By Dan Steinberg | November 19, 2010; 3:51 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (32)
Categories: Media
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Haynesworth, to Dylan

Reader Todd sends across this Dylan-inspired version of the Albert Haynesworth play. I find it almost hypnotic. If you want a more optimistic view of things, here's the latest from Black Boo....

By Dan Steinberg | November 19, 2010; 2:34 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Redskins
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Lorenzo Alexander's special teams hit

When the Monday Nightmare ended and I was compiling my best and worst list from the game, this was the play I settled on as the Redskins' best. It was still the first half. The Skins had just scored 14 unanswered points. Being down by 21 was bad but...

By Dan Steinberg | November 19, 2010; 8:21 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Redskins
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Braden Holtby on his Holtbyisms

Braden Holtby may be a 21-year old with all of two NHL starts (and another soon to come), but he already has spawned a new hockey word: Holtbyisms. The goalie's pre-game and in-game routines became sort of legendary in Hershey last season, and they've already earned admirers during his...

By Dan Steinberg | November 18, 2010; 9:49 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Caps
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About Matt Bradley's dirty goal

Matt Bradley celebrates. (By Nick Wass - AP) The Washington pro sports teams that wins most of its games won again on Wednesday night, with major contributions from several grinders. Both Matt Bradley and David Steckel scored goals, and the work done by the Bradley-Steckel-Chimera line earned wide praise....

By Dan Steinberg | November 18, 2010; 2:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Caps
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Orakpo guarantees dominant defense

Brian Orakpo has been one of the many Redskins who've talked about the "embarrassing" way the the team played on Monday Night. But Orakpo has perhaps gone further than his teammates in guaranteeing a change. During an unusually candid interview with Rredskins Nation on Wednesday, Orakpo busted out the G...

By Dan Steinberg | November 18, 2010; 12:56 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Redskins
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Smoot on Haynesworth and the Redskins

Fresh off telling me of his plans to be the Black Ryan Seacrest, Fred Smoot took his talents to Comcast SportsNet on Wednesday, appearing on multiple shows to talk about the state of the Skins. Because his name is Fred Smoot, he was quotable. "It was bad," Smoot said, of...

By Dan Steinberg | November 18, 2010; 9:58 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Kornheiser on working for Dan Snyder

Tony Kornheiser and Daniel Snyder were both panelists at Wednesday night's Shirley Povich Colonnade Reception, put on by the University of Maryland journalism school and the Maryland Colonnade Society. Rick Maese covered the heck out of the event, and has several dispatches at Redskins Insider. He also passed along Kornheiser's...

By Dan Steinberg | November 18, 2010; 9:08 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Haynesworth, friendly fire and the phantom whistle

This was covered hours ago on Redskins Insider, but it was covered without the screenshot treatment, so I'll step into the void. The video of the now-infamous Hayneworth play is above. The relevant portion of this play lasted about seven seconds. Here's one screenshot for each of the seven...

By Dan Steinberg | November 17, 2010; 4:47 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (51)
Categories: Redskins
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Marcus Johansson in Backstrom's gloves

Wednesday night, Marcus Johansson is expected to replace Nicklas Backstrom on the Caps' top line, at least to start the game. But if Johansson follows his recent dress code, Backstrom will still be represented between Alex Ovechkin and Mike Knuble. Reader Leslie sends along these screen shots from Sunday's...

By Dan Steinberg | November 17, 2010; 3:55 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Caps
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Riggins compares Redskins to a pyramid scheme

Chad Dukes's rant about the state of the Redskins on Tuesday has gathered a fair amount of national attention: a prominent link on SI.com, a Twitter mention from Questlove to his 1.4 million followers, the lead sports headline on Fark.com, and so on. The main attraction of Dukes's rant was...

By Dan Steinberg | November 17, 2010; 2:53 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Brooks Laichs's workout video

Here's Brooks Laich, doing a commercial for local exercise equipment dealer Fitness Resource. The ad, sent to me by Reader Reuven, was apparently shot in Laich's house in Arlington. This is not exactly like Alex Ovechkin flying to Miami to do a spot for CCM. "Welcome to my would-be...

By Dan Steinberg | November 17, 2010; 1:53 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Caps
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Larry Michael on the media "garbage"

When news of Donovan McNabb's contract extension broke, just about the first thing I did was point out that the experts had said two weeks ago there was no chance this would ever happen. Patting myself on the back like that was juvenile and petty, and I pretty much immediately...

By Dan Steinberg | November 17, 2010; 11:21 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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This would be a good week to join the Redskins waitlist

Now, this offer was sent to my friend on Tuesday evening by StubHub, not by the Redskins. So blame them, I guess. Still, it seems like an awfully insensitive time to be asking Redskins fans to sign up for the waitlist. A waitlist that, lest you've forgotten, has 200,000...

By Dan Steinberg | November 17, 2010; 10:56 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Redskins
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Daniels says Haynesworth play "will be addressed"

Albert Haynesworth's time on the ground Monday night has continued to be a hub of fan discontent, discussed on radio and TV shows, on the Internet, and at the men's civic organization meeting I addressed last night. "Michael Vick was running around at the time and throwing a touchdown, another...

By Dan Steinberg | November 17, 2010; 10:32 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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LaRon Landry's pillow gestures

This is Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia's Eagles reporter Derrick Gunn, demonstrating the gesture he was told LaRon Landry and DeAngelo Hall made to DeSean Jackson on Monday night, precipitating the pre-game scuffle. The Eagles, of course, later credited Landry with firing them up for the game. Gunn was one of,...

By Dan Steinberg | November 17, 2010; 9:37 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Caps fans rescue a stranded Josh Godfrey

Godfrey in 2007 (By Marc Serota - Getty Images) As the Caps have morphed from near-irrelevance into perhaps the region's most beloved team in recent years, another love story has simmered under the radar: between Caps fans and the team's minor-league affiliates. Caps fans now run blogs devoted to...

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 5:43 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Caps
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Atlantic 11 Week 1: Georgetown Reigns

(By Ann Heisenfelt - AP) Some of us have been voting on this basketball poll for the last few years, known as the Atlantic 11. See the archives here. All 27 Division I men's teams in the District, Maryland and Virginia are eligible. Georgetown has finished first three of...

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 4:26 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Atlantic 11, College Basketball
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Cooley says he's "repulsed" and "disgusted"

(By Jonathan Newton - TWP) If you want to hear a Redskins player sound like a Redskins fan is feeling, you might want to listen to Chris Cooley's Tuesday appearance on the LaVar and Dukes show. Cooley was oozing pain through the radio waves. Words: "I've never had something...

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 3:23 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Chad Dukes Sledgehammers the Redskins

player.render('fileUrl=http://cbswjfk.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/chads-rant1.mp3&name=111610 Seg. - Chads Rant on the Redskins&artist=LaVar and Dukes&stationID=114&configFile=config.xml&buttonColor=0xd20000&buttonOverColor=0xa80000&backgroundColor=0xFFFFFF&guid=56A6D071DAC0'); I'm choosing to take a ho-hum attitude about Monday night's debacle, for a variety of reasons. Others are being less ho-hum. Chad Dukes, for example, went stark raving bonkers on the entire organization during the opening segment of his 106.7...

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 3:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (52)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Football Insider Live: Eagles recap, McNabb contract and Titans preview

Dan Steinberg and Rick Maese joined LaVar Arrington and host Jonathan Forsythe on this week's webcast to talk about Monday's night's rout, Donovan McNabb's new contract, the Titans game this Sunday and...skulls. You can also download the podcast of this show or subscribe to the podcast....

By Washington Post Sports | November 16, 2010; 2:00 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Donovan McNabb, Redskins-Eagles, Redskins-Titans
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Ovechkin DVD highlights

As previously mentioned, Alex Ovechkin's DVD comes out this week, with a launch party Monday night, an autograph signing Tuesday from 6 to 8 at the Best Buy in Sterling, and a zillion media appearances. The DVD presents a side of Ovechkin not always seen in the media, at...

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 1:06 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Caps, Media
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Snyder: "The franchise is in good hands"

Daniel Snyder still talks to the media rarely enough that every time he talks, it's sort of news. Monday afternoon, he talked to ABC 7's Britt McHenry during an ESPN event to promote that night's broadcast. The quotes come out kind of unfortunately 24 hours later, but news is news....

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 11:55 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Haynesworth lying on the ground

Plenty of Redskins used the word "embarrassed" Monday night and Tuesday morning. Mike Shanahan. Keiland Williams. Anthony Armstrong. DeAngelo Hall. The ESPN Monday Night Football crew, though, seemed most embarrassed for Albert Haynesworth, just excoriating the defensive lineman for this play, on which he fell down and did not...

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 11:26 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (34)
Categories: Redskins
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Who had the best and worst weeks in D.C. sports?

Note: Show postponed till about 1:15 p.m. The worsts are a litte harder to judge than the bests, admittedly (how do you choose?). Among the choices for best: Gilbert Arenas, Jason Clark, John Erskine, Pe'shon Howard, Donovan McNabb, Alexander Semin, Torrey Smith, John Wall, Jordan Williams and Keiland Williams. And...

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 10:49 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (1)

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The Eagles react to LaRon Landry, strongly

Paul Tenorio did a nice job summing up the storm around LaRon Landry from Monday Night's game, but the Philly media produced so many quotes on his pre-game incident with DeSean Jackson that it's hard to find all of them. (Thanks to 700 Level for this video, by the...

By Dan Steinberg | November 16, 2010; 8:36 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Redskins-Eagles, Best and Worst

Best and worst from the Redskins' 59-28 loss to the Eagles. Worst Start, Part I: Ryan Torain was injured in warmups, leaving the Redskins with just Keiland Williams (and I guess Darrel Young) in the backfield. Then LaRon Landry got into a pre-game skirmish with DeSean Jackson. Worst Start,...

By Dan Steinberg | November 15, 2010; 11:59 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Redskins
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Kornheiser, Wilbon on McNabb contract extension

(By Matt Terl - Redskins Blog) This is Donovan McNabb's agent, Fletcher Smith, addressing the media in the FedEx Field press box on Monday night. I guess this is sort of a big deal. Also, a couple of PTI hosts talked about the contract extension. "You said there was...

By Dan Steinberg | November 15, 2010; 7:59 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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In praise of John Erskine's mustache

(Photos by Toni L. Sandys - TWP, Greg Fiume - Getty and via Caps 365.) Over the past week or so, John Erskine's mustache has grown from cult favorite to mainstream star. Thus, six mustache images, and six mustache observations. 1) The image above is from Erskine in the...

By Dan Steinberg | November 15, 2010; 4:02 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Caps
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Experts wrong on McNabb contract extension

So I guess Donovan McNabb is staying in Washington? But, but, but.... David Aldridge, Nov. 1: "Donovan McNabb is not gonna re-sign here. That's over. You have now wasted two more draft picks on somebody that's not gonna be here." Michael Wilbon, Nov. 1: "I don't believe for a second...

By Dan Steinberg | November 15, 2010; 3:54 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Cooley on how to beat the Eagles

(By John McDonnell - TWP) Remember when the Redskins went to Philadelphia in Week 4? That was after the loss in St. Louis, when everyone was convinced the Redskins were gonna start their season 2-5. Here are ESPN's experts picks from the week. All 10 experts chose the Eagles...

By Dan Steinberg | November 15, 2010; 1:33 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Mike Tirico on McNabb, John Wall, Jon Gruden and the swinging gate

(AP file.) For the third time in the past 13 months, Mike Tirico will be at FedEx Field this week to call a Monday Night Football game between the Redskins and an NFC East opponent. The three-man ESPN crew is already in town for production meetings and a chalk...

By Dan Steinberg | November 15, 2010; 11:57 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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Steven Page mangles national anthem

When the Caps played the Rangers in Madison Square Garden last week, there was lots of online chatter about how Steven Page -- former frontman of Barenaked Ladies -- had done a number on the national anthem. Well, via @vtmercuria, I can now confirm that yes, Page did not...

By Dan Steinberg | November 15, 2010; 10:59 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Caps
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Ovechkin's tattoo about his brother

Alex Ovechkin's Chinese back tattoo spawned dozens of blog posts two summers ago, with curious readers trying to figure out what he was trying to say. No such mystery about his torso tattoo, which is clearly visible in the trailer for his new authorized DVD, "Alex Ovechkin The GR8,"...

By Dan Steinberg | November 15, 2010; 10:39 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Caps
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McNabb Benching Story Enters Final Day

Took the weekend off. In the final 72 hours of Donovan McNabb's Cardio Affair, these things happened. * Town Hall in Glover Park put up this ad in the bathrooms. Not exactly sure whose side they're taking. I'll go with "everyone's." * Jay Glazer went on Fox's Sunday pre-game...

By Dan Steinberg | November 14, 2010; 9:34 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Media, Redskins
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D.C. Sports Bog: November 14, 2010 - November 20, 2010