Yesterday in front of a road crowd and an ESPN audience, Friendship Collegiate Academy made an early lead stand up in defeating one of Cincinnati's top squads, Taft, 12-6.

Yes, big time high school football is now played on Sundays, too, to accommodate national TV.

Closer to home, Friendship's win is huge for one reason: It justifies all the ink Washington City Paper devoted in this week's issue to the hardships Friendship players put up with on the way to becoming what prep prognosticators have tabbed the top football team in the city. Read it all over again here.

If you can't root for these kids —how 'bout those "locker rooms?"—you can't root for anybody.

The current editorial plan is to keep you posted on the team's progress in this space throughout the football season, or at least for as long as they make us look good for jumping on the Friendship bandwagon.

Next stop: The Knights get only three days rest before hitting the road again Thursday for an early-evening tilt at Bowie State against Baltimore's Mount Saint Joseph, as part of something called the I-95 Kickoff Classic.

Yes, high school squads play Thursdays, too, to accommodate promoters.

Dang, I miss "Friday Night Lights."

Disney closed the Inner Harbor and Downtown D.C. outposts in June, as part of a national bloodletting this summer that ended with all but its Southern California ESPNZone points shuttered.

The workers, many of whom lost their jobs overnight, say they were entitled by way of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, an employee rights package, to 60 days notice that they'd be out of work.

"The only reason [Disney] closed these restaurants so quickly was because of a media leak,"  Ashley Hufnagel, spokesperson for United Workers, a Baltimore group that organized the ESPNZone workers, told me at the time of the mass firings.

Disney's failure to give proper notice caused "homelessness, childcare needs and the prospect of dropping out of school" to members of the restaurant staff, United Workers alleges.

"Corporate executives think they can break the law and just get away with it, because harbor developers do not enforce any human rights standards," said Debra Cook, a plaintiff and former ESPNZone cook, in announcing the suit, "but we are human beings and we have the right to dignity and respect."

To get publicity for their cause, the workers will stage a  rally and march on Monday beginning at the Power Plant, adjacent to the site of their now-departed workplace.

John Feinstein doesn't like the way the Redskins complied with the NFL mandate to interview minority candidates before hiring a coach. Feinstein doesn't believe that Dan Snyder ever really thought Jerry Gray, a black defensive coach who reportedly has interviewed for Jim Zorn's job while Zorn still has it, could be a head coach for the Redskins. Gray was already turned down by at least one college, Memphis, before he was used to put the Redskins in compliance with the so-called Rooney Rule.

Feinstein writes:

Gray has as much chance of being the next Redskins coach as Mike Krzyzewski has of being voted Man of the Decade on the campus at the University of Maryland.

Feinstein, while blasting the way the Rooney Rule is administered, takes no position on whether the NFL should adopt the Clooney Rule, the Looney Rule or Soon-Yi Rule.

It's just a joke! Remember?

***

Bring Mike Leach to Redskins Park (cont.): Jerry Gray is from Texas Tech, same as Mike Leach, who would have met the criteria for the Looney Rule. Leach got fired yesterday after allegedly mistreating a player. (Hey, Dan Snyder: The greatest offensive mind in the game is still available, 24 hours after his firing! Get him!)

In today's Washington Post, Sally Jenkins jumps in ahead of the curve and takes up for the deposed coach.

"You can hear the sound of a railroading in Lubbock," Jenkins writes, "and it's not coming from the train station."

Leach had been taking a beating in the mainstream media before Jenkins talked sense here. But when everything comes out, everybody's going to be on Leach's side, or every football coach at every level is going to be fired.

Anybody who didn't love Leach before Craig James got him fired for (allegedly) mistreating the ESPN announcer's son should love him now. While most folks who have millions of dollars at stake keep their mouths shut about their ex-employers until the last check clears, Leach fired away at the school that John Hinckley made infamous.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Leach calls everybody "liar"? Craig James is the real villain in the Mike Leach Story? Craig James is the real villain in the Washington Federals demise? Awesome Trivia™: Craig James is the last white guy to do what? Annapolis' own Travis Pastrana's gonna jump what tonight? Is he crazy? Can the NHL take New Year's Day from college football? Is the NBA heading for a showdown with Jesus?)

A snippet of Leach's goodbye-for-now statement:

Over the past several months, there have been individuals in the Texas Tech administration, Board of Regents and booster groups who have dealt in lies, and continue to do so. These lies have led to my firing this morning. I steadfastly refuse to deal in any lies, and am disappointed that I have not been afforded the opportunity for the truth to be known. Texas Tech’s decision to deal in lies and fabricate a story which led to my firing, includes, but is not limited by, the animosity remaining from last year’s contract negotiations. I will not tolerate such retaliatory action; additionally, we will pursue all available legal remedies.

Not that it would excuse real player abuse if he is indeed guilty, but: Leach also pointed out in his letter that Tech has been to bowl games for 10 straight years, and claimed that the school "has the highest graduation rate for football players of any public institution in the country." ('Course, the same school gave me a diploma, and I didn't even buy a book my last year there, so that stat's worthless.)

The Leach story ain't going to go away, and when all is said and done, I'd bet real money the villain will be Craig James.

Maybe that's just a wish. But all you need to know about James to dislike him: His real name is "Jesse James." DC football fans of a certain age don't even need to know that to loathe him. They remember James as the guy who more than any other player helped quicken the demise of the Washington Federals of the USFL. He was the Federals top draft pick and marquee player in their inaugural year of 1983. But after one horrible season for James and the team, he used an injury to get out of his contract and move to the NFL. He went to the New England Patriots and immediately became the player he never was in a Federals uniform. Awesome Trivia™ about Craig James: His 1,227 yards rushing in 1985 makes him the last white running back to run for more than 1,000 yards in a season.

By then, the Federals were defunct. Thanks, Craig!

I can think of no better payback to Craig James for what he did to DC than for Dan Snyder to hire Leach as offensive coordinator or something bigger. Leach's teams score more points during timeouts than the Skins do in whole games.

***

Like a lot of guys on New Years Eve, Travis Pastrana is gonna get behind the wheel of a car tonight and put his life at risk.

All sorts of sports are claiming holidays as their own. It's getting like dogs peeing on a patch of grass. Tonight comes the latest example, as motorsports daredevils continue their attempted takeover of New Year's Eve: Pastrana, Annapolis' own former motorbike phenom turned suicidal entertainer, will take a long drive off a short peer tonight in Long Beach, hoping to fly a Subaru about 250 feet onto a barge while the television cameras roll. It's all sponsored by caffeine-pusher Red Bull. Last New Year's Eve, Robbie Knievel jumped the fiery fountain (or did he?) at the Mirage in Las Vegas before a national TV audience.

America loves the sports/holiday nexus. For most of the last century the whole country linked Memorial Day Weekend and the Indy 500. Football and Thanksgiving have been paired forever, too, first with high schools and then the pros.

And, as college football stupidly let its grip on New Year's Day slip — the big games won't be played until next week — hockey steps up and says, "Thank you very much":  The NHL makes a power-play for New Years Day, promoting the crap out of a Boston Bruins/Philadelphia Flyers game to be played outdoors tomorrow at Fenway Park.

This is the NHL's third stadium-hosted Winter Classic, and good for Gary Bettman for coming up with an idea that is simultaneously stupid and cool.

But, I see trouble ahead for some sports/holiday pairings. Because America also loves Jesus, here's a New Year's 2010 Prediction: The grumbling about the NBA taking Christmas as a day to hypermarket itself is gonna get louder soon. The NBA started putting a marquee matchup or two on Christmas during the Michael Jordan Era, but really kicked its holiday promotion into overdrive this year, with five games telecast nationally this Christmas.

Even some of its own were blasting this year's tacky tack. "I actually feel sorry for people who have nothing to do on Christmas Day other than watch an NBA game," Orlando Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy told the Associated Press, in a story that appeared in the Washington Post. Van Gundy's complaints were about family issues. I bet if the NBA doesn't tone down its Christmas blowouts, this'll become a Jesus issue. I can't wait!

Though, it's hard to deny that the Christmas games do get basketball attention the game wouldn't otherwise get. Should the WNBA to plan an Easter Eggstravaganza or somesuch? Looking at my sportswatching calendar, Easter's still pretty open.

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

Thankfully, Without Bias, the moving documentary on his life, has finally been released. Unlike the recent Marion Barry doc, this one is loaded with moving interviews with all the major players from his family to the friends who were with him in that dorm room that night. No portrait of Bias comes closer to getting at the truth about Bias' cocaine use and the political impact of his death. [the tragedy played a role in the creation of mandatory minimum sentencing laws].

The documentary  had apparently sat on shelves for years. The movie's trailer has been up on youtube since February 2008. Only late last month did the movie have its premiere on University of Maryland's campus. It's now airing on ESPN. It's a must see.

I like his thinking. Arrington's, that is.

Orakpo signed last night and will be dressed out today. The Sporting News ranked the Redskins as the best fit for Vick.

***

The Vick influence, meanwhile, remains profound. Ultimate fighting opponents for years have tried to keep states from sanctioning MMA by calling it "human cockfighting," a term made famous by Sen. John McCain. But McCain's tag did nothing to stop the spread of the cage matches. So, New York legislators opposed to seeing the sport, or whatever you want to call it, sanctioned in their state have adopted "human dogfighting" as their catch phrase.

***

Speaking of guerilla marketing: Larry Weisman looks more like a brilliant hire for Dan Snyder every day.

(AFTER THE JUMP:New Skins PR official calls team "mediocre"?)

Weisman, a longtime USA Today pro football correspondent, now writes press releases for the Redskins that look a lot like his old-school journalism. And real news organizations that are either lazy or duped have been treating the releases like news stories. (What's up with that, ESPN?)

But, because Weisman was so prolific in his final days as a newspaperman, his pieces are still trickling out as he starts working for Snyder. The Sporting News recently published a state of the team piece that Weisman co-authored before Snyder began paying for his services.

Here's some highlights from Larry's last ride in journalism, headlined "Mediocre Returns on Big Investments":

"The modern Redskins are spring champions and winners of free agency — and not much else...Since Daniel Snyder bought the franchise in 1999, it has one division title and two playoff victories, accolades hardly worth the megamillions Washington has burned through trying to get the best players of the day...An 8-8 team, the Redskins appeared happy to just tread water this year.

The Redskins want to run the ball, but Clinton Portis faded down the stretch in '08. He's a high-mileage player for his age — he turns 28 on Sept. 1 — and lacks a downfield burst at this stage in his career.... The offensive line is past ripe, the quarterback has not matured and the receivers are in transition. They rely too heavily on Portis on offense, and on defense, they'll bank on Haynesworth to elevate everyone's level...Even with all that, this team will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs in the competitive NFC East...Bottom line: The Redskins are a mediocre team."

Tell it like it was, Larry! At the very least, Snyder has to worry about one less guy out there who'll write this stuff.

***

Speaking of spurned ex-Redskins: Mike Wise bottles Jon Jansen's whine about getting cut by Snyder. The team's press release at the time of Jansen's release made it sound like he died comfortably, surrounded by friends and family. The warm and fuzzy vibe ain't nowhere in Wise's fine piece.

***

Nats lose. Big. All the hopes and dreams fans had for the team for those few days in late July 2009 are gone.

Football season?

***

Just hours after President Obama met with Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley at the White House in hopes of converting the brouhaha into a brew-haha, TruthAboutIt reminds us of one of pre-Post-Racial America's funnest pastimes:  Mocking whitey on the basketball court.

The level of racial profiling in Cambridge ain't nothing compared to the amount of profiling on the hardwood.

Truth About It (inspired by a racially charged tweet from the street's favorite white blogger, the Great Dan Steinberg) awesomely provides a list of all the caucasians who've worn a Bullets/Wizards uniform in the last quarter century. And damn if they don't make the case for color. My only problem with this list, and I think Lou Dobbs is with me on this, is it includes foreigners. You take out the Eastern euros, and there's really nobody who ever made a contribution, save Tom Gugliotta. And even with Gugliotta — I'm sure Lou's with me here, too — that last name ain't American.

(So, will  John Stockton will be the last American whitey NBA All-Star? Discuss.)

***

Another milestone on the Road to Ripken yesterday, with the disclosure that David Ortiz, the beloved, wholesome, no-way-he's-a-cheater Red Sox slugger, tested positive for steroids in 2003 with more than 100 other Major Leaguers. Ortiz gave his "I did not have sexual relations with that woman!" speech many times over the years.

I totally get these guys taking steroids. I'll never get taking steroids and then doing interviews bragging about not doing steroids.

I gotta say, I wish it was Curt Schilling who got outted instead. I might start drinking again to celebrate when that day comes. Or maybe start taking steroids.

***

Jimmy Lange tried to escape Fairfax, but couldn't. On Sept. 26, Lange, who could be nicknamed the "Most Successful Junior Middleweight in Boxing History to Never Fight for a Title," will come back to Patriot Center, scene of his last seven fights, to meet Jonathan Reid. Tickets for Lange vs. Reid, priced from $30-$500, are now on sale.

Reid, like Lange, was a cast member on NBC's reality series, "The Contender." Lange has parlayed that appearance into several top-of-the-card fights before big crowds at the Patriot Center. In a previous fight, Reid lost to DC's own William Joppy, a onetime middleweight champ.

So how come Lange never fought Joppy?

However, apparently not anticipating the rush of bobblehead freaks that tarnished Lindsay Czarniak Bobblehead Night last year, club management will not take away fans' civil liberties on Van Pelt's big night, as they had earlier this season for Matt Wieters Collectible Figurine Night.

This disappoints us. So, in the interest of doing anything possible to get Bowie management to restore the wholly Un-American provisions (among them: "Fans will not be able to exit the stadium" while the doll giveaway took place) foisted on bobblehead freaks during MattWietersCollectibleFigurineNightGate™, City Desk has obtained an EXCLUSIVE PHOTO of THE VAN PELT BOBBLEHEAD! And, we will now publish the EXCLUSIVE PHOTO of THE VAN PELT BOBBLEHEAD!

Photo after the jump. (And answer me this: Would the Lindsay Czarniak bobblehead go all ground-and-pound on the Van Pelt bobblehead or what?)