Contrary to what Sally Jenkins believes, no one is going to win if  Peyton Manning joins the Washington Redskins.  NO ONE.  Not Peyton Manning, not the Redskins players, not the fans, not Dan Snyder…no one, and this is why:

Peyton Manning WILL LOSE BIG TIME

Manning will lose in the biggest way if he ends his career with the Washington Redskins.  It will be like those last two years of Hank Aaron clinging to baseball relevancy with with Milwaukee Brewers, in other words, sad. Why? Because Manning, at 37 and coming off three major neck surgeries, cannot do it alone.  Firstly, he needs an offensive line that is not only strong and agile enough to protect him from further injury but also smart enough to adjust the line calls quickly and accurately as Peyton calls and changes the play right on the line.  The Redskins currently do not have this type of offensive line.  As an example, the Redskins’ best lineman might also be their dumbest as he is one joint away from missing an entire NFL season. It only gets worse from there as the rest of the line, save for Chris Chester, was essentially cobbled together from a scrap heap.

Peyton also needs several wide-receivers that can run precise routes, create separation, and catch the ball.  The Redskins’ wide-receiver corps, as it stands right now, just does not play the position the way Manning needs it to be played.  Santana Moss is a great route runner, but his age is catching up with him and he just isn’t a #1 wide-receiver anymore. Moss used to be able to compensate for his lack of size with his speed and precise route running.  Going into his 30s, the breakaway speed he once had has left him and he is best used as a #3 or slot receiver.  Jabar Gaffney is another “veteran” receiver (ie: oldish), but he is no where near the caliber of receiver which Manning is used to working with.  Leonard Hankerson showed a flash of talent in one game last year but subsequently injured himself and never played again after it.  This is not a group of wide-receivers that Manning will want to throw the ball to.  Some will argue that Manning can make the receivers better but there is only so much lipstick you can use on these pigs.

Finally, Manning would ideally like to be in an offensive system that he knows so that there will be no learning curve or drop off in performance as he learns the nuances of the system.  Sadly for Manning, he will not be in an offense that is familiar to him if he comes to Washington. Mike and Kyle Shanahan didn’t change their offense for Donovan McNabb, why would they change it for Peyton Manning? These guys believe in their system and they want their system run their way or not at all. Why on earth would Peyton go to an offense where he would have zero say in how it was run and which would be brand spanking new to him?

So lets sum this up here. 1) Dumb and talent-less offensive line; 2) Crap Wide-Receivers; 3) Brand new offense with zero input into play calling.  TOTALLY MAKES SENSE THAT MANNING WOULD WANT TO COME HERE! If he does make here, there is no way Manning can succeed.

The Entire Redskins Organization LOSES

The Redskins will be losers in this because signing Peyton Manning would be a gigantic step backwards in the rebuilding process which started only 1 off-season ago. Shanahan wasted his first year in D.C. trying to do what many had done prior to his arrival, putting a band-aid on the team and “trying to make a run for it”.  It didn’t work and Shanahan realized throughout the year that he had a team that had no depth and was one of the oldest teams in the league. The next season, Shanahan set out to rebuild the Redskins. He traded down in the draft several times and acquired several productive role players, adding much needed depth to the team. He also did not go for any splashy free agent signing, instead, he signed young players that fit the schemes that the Redskins run.  The team, of course, was horrible, mostly done in by quarterback play, but on both sides of the ball, improvement was noted.  The Redskins need another offseason like the one they had in year two of the Shanahan era. Going out and signing Manning is a repeat of McNabb all over again.  For Manning to be successful they will need to sign expensive, and old, wide receivers and linemen, just to give him a slight chance to succeed.  That is not how one goes about building a team, its another band-aid which only goes to placate the owner and the fans who need to WIN NOW at all costs.

Mike Shanahan will lose because all faith in his “coaching genius” will be lost and it will be apparent that John Elway won those super bowls, not Shanahan.  Dan Snyder will lose because this will be yet another Titanic that he is at the helm of. The current roster of players will lose because they cannot get back the wasted years of their careers that they will spend playing with the living legend that is Peyton Manning.

Signing Manning is short sighted and will set the Redskins back, yet again, and prevent them from being a consistent winner like teams in Pittsburgh, New York and New England. Imitation is the purest form of flattery, it is also smart when something works. If it worked in those cities, it can work here, to quote Axl Rose “All you need is just a little patience.”

The Fans LOSE TOO

The Redskins fans lose because once again the majority of them will be duped by the Dan Snyder hype machine, believing that the Redskins “were only a player away last year!” and that signing Manning magically fixes all the teams’ problems.  This will certainly be The Redskins year to win the Super Bowl in most fans minds.  It won’t happen.  If it does happen, I will not eat meat for a month. Hold me to that. The fans will lose because the Redskins were so close to getting it…then they went and screwed it up by spending money on a 37 year old quarterback coming off of 3 neck surgeries and sitting out for a year of football as his nerves regenerated.

Its just a horrible idea…no one wins with this.  God I hope it doesn’t happen.

Chan Gailey and Tom Coughlin were so stunned by their players lack of performances this week that they offered no excuses for their play. In fact, they pretty much threw them under the bus after the game. Here’s Coughlin first after his Giants dramatic loss to the Vince Young led Philadelphia Eagles :

“My question to them was, ‘Why?’ What did it take to understand what the Eagles were going to be like coming in here? You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that team is 3-6, back to the wall, they’re going to play their butts off. To get where we want to go, we’re going to have to play harder. And better. And we didn’t.”

I mean, isn’t part of being a good coach, at any level, finding ways to get through to your players so they can understand and execute the game plan?  To coach them in such a way that they maximize their talents? Seems to me that Coughlin is kinda passing the buck on this one a bit.  Sure his team played like crap and yes they do share in the blame, but they SHARE in the blame. Maybe Coughlin should’ve found some way to actually get through to his players, surely throwing them all under the bus is not it. For that matter, neither is admitting you couldn’t get your players to play like you want, you know, like a coach is supposed to do.

How about Chan Gailey, head coach of the Buffalo Bills whose once high flying team has lost 3 straight including yesterday’s horrocious 35-8 loss to Miami:

“I wish I could give you an explanation,” said coach Chan Gailey. “I cannot give you an explanation of how we played effectively early in the year and we’re not playing effectively now. We lost that one as a team. Every phases had problems, real problems.

“We’re  not very good right now,” Gailey said. “That’s the bottom line. We’re not. If I knew exactly what the problem was, I’d solve it. It’ s obviously not one thing. It’s things that mounted up on us, and we’re not able to execute the way we were earlier in the year and the way we’re capable of.”

Chan Gailey just admitted to the world he has no idea what is happening with his own team. He has no idea why the team is losing games and he cannot stop the losing because of it. That is your fearless leader Bills players. This man just admitted 1) his team is bad; and 2) he’s not sure why. That is confidence inspiring head coaching there people. His stationary should Chan Gailey, LEADER OF MEN.

Both Gailey and Coughlin should be fired at the end of the year just for statements like these. Their job is to lead and these are hardly the statements of leaders.

If you’re a Redskins fan, like myself, you cannot be happy with six losses in a row. If you’re not, WELL PISS OFF!  Your team likely hasn’t lost 6 GAMES IN A ROW this season (apologies to Colts, Dolphins & Rams fans, you know the pain)! Ahem, excuse me, where was I?  Ah yes, well at least you can remember the good ole days when your team beat the team featured below in the Ballad of the Touchdown Banditos. This pure video gold is from the 87-88 Denver Broncos and features their “Three Amigos” (Vance Johnson, Mark Jackson and Ricky Nattiel) takin’ out all sorts of bad guys and varmits and doing all sorts of other cowboy like things.

I find it disturbing that this trend of making horrible music videos died at some point in the late 90s and 2000s.  I feel like a piece of me died with that trend.  Watch and enjoy ya hear?

After watching my Cleveland Browns beat the Seattle Seahawks in the ugliest football game I have seen in a long time, I was treated to watching the Indianapolis Colts get embarrassed by the New Orleans Saints 62-7. Fortunately for the Colts, they are one more game closer to ending this debacle of a season.

And now news regarding the $4 million rent-a-player, Kerry Collins, that promptly got hurt:

Collins started three games for the Colts, getting knocked out in the third quarter against Pittsburgh. He hasn’t played a down since and has been limited to light individual work at practice since then.

With the Colts, Collins was 48 of 98 for 481 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He has now thrown for 40,922 career yards, 10th in NFL history after passing Joe Montana in Week 1. In 198 career games, Collins was 3,487 of 6,261 with 208 TDs and 196 interceptions.

That leaves Indy with three quarterbacks on the active roster — Curtis Painter, who took over as the starter when Collins was injured; Manning, the four-time league MVP; and veteran backup Dan Orlovsky, who recently re-signed with Indy after getting cut by the Colts at the end of training camp.

Wow, that last statement might have been enough to make Colts fans lose their lunch; or at least their appetite. Oh, who am I kidding? Have you ever been to Indianapolis? I mean, what else are you going to do in Indiana, stock up on guns and gold bullion and wait for the end of days?

Father Time All-world wideout Terrell Owens took a break from his busy VH1 filming schedule to run routes and do drills in shorts for the cameras of the NFL Network yesterday. This would be more impressive but for the fact that absolutely anyone can do this themselves in their spare time, too.

Pass me a Gatorade, ESPN:

The free-agent receiver is unsigned after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament and having surgery in early April. He participated in some drills and caught passes Tuesday in the workout that was televised on ESPN and the NFL Network. He did not run the 40-yard dash.

Well, why would anyone want to see a soon-to-be 38-year-old receiver run anyway? He looks terrific with his shirt off; and that right there is why Vernon Gholston is living in a gated community. To be fair, Owens had 72 receptions and 983 receiving yards last season with the Cincinnati Bengals before having off season knee surgery; which rarely depletes the speed of aging athletes.

Owens said he wasn’t deterred by the fact that no scouts were in attendance and said his workout “speaks for itself.”

“I only need one team,” Owens told the NFL Network. “I only need one chance.”

Owens said he felt good after the workout and that overall, “I probably feel better than I did before when I got hurt.”

Phew! For a second there I thought he was going to tell us how difficult it has been for him to rehabilitate his gimpy knee. Well, since Hue Jackson is in a giving mood, and channeling the ghost of Al Davis; why not sign TO?