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	<title>City Desk &#187; MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL</title>
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	<description>68.3 Square Miles of D.C. News and Opinion</description>
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		<title>Cheap Seats Daily: Did Theismann Pile On Riggins Because Riggins Piled On Theismann?</title>
		<link>http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/11/20/cheap-seats-daily-did-theismann-pile-on-riggins-because-riggins-piled-on-theismann/</link>
		<comments>http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/11/20/cheap-seats-daily-did-theismann-pile-on-riggins-because-riggins-piled-on-theismann/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:19:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dave McKenna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dan Snyder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dave and busters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fedexfield]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[joe thiesmann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[john riggins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JOSH LEVIN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lawrence taylor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[michael oher]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sandra bullock]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sign ban]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the blind side]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington Redskins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WTEM]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/?p=37555</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Commercials running all day on Dan Snyder's sportstalk station, WTEM, are pushing the pep rally that Snyder is sponsoring tonight at Dave &#38; Buster's in Rockville.
Listeners are urged, "Bring your best 'Beat Dallas!' sign and you can win a six pack of club seats!"
I can't wait to see how high the "Worst Owner Ever!" banner [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Commercials running all day on Dan Snyder's sportstalk station, WTEM, are pushing the pep rally that Snyder is sponsoring tonight at Dave &amp; Buster's in Rockville.</p>
<p>Listeners are urged, "Bring your best 'Beat Dallas!' sign and you can win a six pack of club seats!"</p>
<p>I can't wait to see how high the "<a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/11/worst_owner_ever_banner.html">Worst Owner Ever!</a>" banner will place.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Moderators at Dan Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, no doubt emboldened by the see-no-evil clause their boss invoked while banning signs from FedExField, have <a href="http://www.extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=308784">a type-no-insult policy</a> in place.</p>
<p>Posters on the site have been warned not to say anything negative about the team in a thread announcing a send-off that's being organized from Redskins Park for the Dallas game.</p>
<p>The warning:</p>
<p>"Be advised: This is not an opinion or debate thread. Please do not use this thread to verbally attack, make fun of, laugh at, or otherwise belittle any of the participating members or Redskins players/coaches/staff or owner. To do so will result in a mandatory ban."</p>
<p>(AFTER THE JUMP: <em>Why would Dan Snyder sanction such censorship? Why is Slate so mean to Sandra Bullock? Why didn't the Redskins draft Michael Oher? Why did John Riggins jump on Joe Theismann when Joe Theismann's leg was broken? Did you just say John Riggins jumped on Joe Theismann when Joe Theismann's leg was broken?</em>)</p>
<p><span id="more-37555"></span></p>
<p>Before this season, these send-off announcements were posted regularly on Snyder's site. But, the gathering memos were stopped because they only inspired fans to tell the owner just how much they loathe him in follow-up posts.</p>
<p>The situation Snyder has created in this market is unlike anything in all of professional sports.</p>
<p>I've said it before, and I believe it: Even if the Redskins go on a miracle streak and win the Super Bowl this season, when Snyder holds up the Lombardi Trophy at the victory rally, he will be booed.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>In his Slate review of <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2236151/?from=rss">"The Blind Side,"</a> the feature film based on the life of Baltimore Ravens' rookie Michael Oher, friend and hero Josh Levin treats Sandra Bullock as Lawrence Taylor did Joe Theismann.</p>
<p>I only used that simile so I'd have an easy segue into this: I haven't seen "The Blind Side," but I'm told it opens with a clip of one of the most famous plays in Redskins history &#8212; Taylor <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH8SZOqc6Pk">playing wishbone with Theismann's leg</a> in that 1986 "Monday Night Football" game.</p>
<p>Looking at the gruesome clip this morning, I noticed for the first time that John Riggins for some reason jumps on top of the pile with Theismann and his newly restructured leg at the bottom. Riggins had tossed the ball back to Theismann just before Taylor hit him during the flea-flicker gone wrong.</p>
<p>Perhaps that's why Theismann went after Riggins so hard last week after Riggo piled on Dan Snyder. Or maybe it's because Theismann is employed by Snyder.</p>
<p>In any case, Theismann never played another down of football. But, he lived to talk about it and everything else...a lot. If he was a horse, Theismann would have had a curtain around him within a minute and there'd be one less sportstalk host in the DC market.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><em>Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: <a href="mailto:cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com">cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com</a></em></p>
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		<title>Cheap Seats Daily: Jim Zorn Will Definitely Be the Head Coach, Hopefully?</title>
		<link>http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/10/23/cheap-seats-daily-jim-zorn-will-definitely-be-the-head-coach-hopefully/</link>
		<comments>http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/10/23/cheap-seats-daily-jim-zorn-will-definitely-be-the-head-coach-hopefully/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:20:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dave McKenna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[200000?]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[body bag game]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BRIAN MITCHELL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brotman winter fried communications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CHARLIE BROTMAN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cheap seats daily]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dan Snyder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[debbie yow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dr. yow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JIM ZORN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[john thompson show]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PHILADELPHIA EAGLES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ron jaworski]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[THEREAINT200000FOLKSONTHEREDSKINSWAITINGLIST.COM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tony kornheiser show]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[University of Maryland]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[VINNY CERRATO]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WAITING LIST]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WTEM]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/?p=35381</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Another Redskins game that ain't a sellout. Another Redskins game that won't be blacked out.
The graphic above is from the latest installment of the now regular email blasts that precede every home game.
But no matter what your head tells you, remember: Dan Snyder says the Redskins have a waiting list of "over 200,000" names of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-35384 aligncenter" title="wasvsphi" src="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/files/2009/10/wasvsphi.jpg" alt="wasvsphi" width="590" height="482" /></p>
<p>Another Redskins game that ain't a sellout. Another Redskins game that won't be blacked out.</p>
<p>The graphic above is from the latest installment of the now regular email blasts that precede every home game.</p>
<p>But no matter what your head tells you, remember: Dan Snyder says the Redskins have a waiting list of <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/01/16/dan-snyder-dusts-off-the-200000-name-waiting-list/">"over 200,000"</a> names of folks who want tickets but can't get them.</p>
<p>And remember this, as your watching the Skins/Eagles game on local TV and see a sea of empty seats: The NFL has a blackout policy!</p>
<p>What's going on around here is sorta amazing, ain't it? A "Monday Night Football" game against the hated Eagles &#8212; a rematch of the Body Bag Game opponents! &#8212; and Skins management feels it has to lie ("visiting team returns," "limited number," etc.) to try to get folks to take tickets?</p>
<p>How low has Snyder taken the operation? Well, if the Redskins were a dance, you could lay the limbo pole on the floor and Snyder could still sneak his franchise under it.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><strong>Vinny Cerrato</strong> opened his radio station on <strong>Dan Snyder's</strong> sportstalker, WTEM, declaring he wanted to be "perfectly clear" about some things: Jim Zorn is the Skins head coach for the rest of the season "and hopefully into the future." Sure, "perfectly clear" is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Perfectly-clear-Nixon-Whittier-Watergate/dp/0812904052">Nixon</a> tag line. And Cerrato sounded crazy while he delivered it.</p>
<p>(AFTER THE JUMP: <em>Snyder doesn't talk to the media? Did anybody tell the New York Times? Snyder tells Brian Mitchell he's sorry? Brian Mitchell believes it? Debbie Yow wants you to call her Dr. Yow? She's a doctor? Really? Charlie Brotman can tell stories? Ron Jaworski doesn't blame Jim Zorn, either? Why do races get such scary names?</em>)</p>
<p><span id="more-35381"></span></p>
<p>Cerrato also was manic when he said Snyder doesn't have to come out and address the mess he's made of what was once among the top shelf of NFL franchises but is now among the most despised. "Dan has never spoken to the media for a decade now," Cerrato says.</p>
<p>Huh. I thought Snyder<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/sports/football/26snyder.html"> posed for photos and talked to the New York Times</a> a few weeks ago.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><strong>Brian Mitchell</strong> has been declawed. In an interview during the "John Thompson Show" on Dan Snyder's sportstalker, WTEM, Mitchell said he'd just had a conversation with Snyder, and that the owner apologized for cutting Mitchell in 2000 to make room for Deion Sanders.</p>
<p>Mitchell, who ripped Snyder brutally on WTEM for a couple years before Snyder bought the station and fired him, sounded genuinely touched by the words of contrition.</p>
<p>Then again, Snyder needs Mitchell right now a lot more than Mitchell needs Snyder. So during the Eagles game this Monday, Snyder is installing Mitchell into the FedExField "ring of fame" or "hall of stars," or whatever the hell that list of names at the stadium is called now,</p>
<p>Mitchell's appearance on the field should be, like so much about the "Monday Night Football" outing, very odd. Until recently, hardcore Skins fans thought of Mitchell as a turncoat because he was so tough on his former team after Snyder cut him.</p>
<p>But the way the Skins have played this season, what once seemed like hate now just sounds like the truth.  And the fans are so united in despising Snyder, any enemy of the owner is a friend of theirs. So cheering Mitchell is the same as booing Snyder.</p>
<p>That means Mitchell's appearance might provide the only cheers from Skins fans all night.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Before Cerrato's desperate announcement, Rick Snider of the Examiner <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sports/Don_t-believe-the-Snyder-spin-8425267-65694917.html">wrote what everybody's feeling</a>: Jim Zorn ain't gonna make it through the season. Snider's piece is mean and fun, like so much of the Redskins coverage these days.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><strong>Ron Jaworski</strong> went on "The Tony Kornheiser Show" to talk about the upcoming telecast of "Monday Night Football," where Jaworski still works.</p>
<p>Asked about the home team's bizarre off-field behaviors in recent weeks, Jaworski said that he'd "gone through every single play" of Redskins games this season, and came to the conclusion that everybody knows:  "It's not about the play-calling."</p>
<p>But: Jaworski picked the Skins to cover the spread.</p>
<p>(If I quote one more radio interview, I'm going to have to pay royalties to <a href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/">the Great Steinographer</a>...)</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><strong>Debbie Yow's</strong> official<a href="http://www.umterps.com/school-bio/md-athdir.html"> University of Maryland bio refers to her as "Dr. Yow."</a> I didn't know she was a doctor. And, after reading the bio, I still don't. It says she's got a masters degree from Liberty University and "a doctorate <em>(honorus causa) </em>from the United States Sports Academy and an honorary doctorate for professional achievement from Elon University."</p>
<p>Sounds here like Yow just showed up and sat on a stage to get her ceremonial sheepskin. So why would she use "Dr. Yow" as a title? Any psychologists out there explain these behaviors?</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><strong>Charlie Brotman's</strong> PR firm, Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications, held its 40th anniversary party last night. I've stolen a bunch of stories from them over the years, with <a href="http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=15781">a drag racer with a colostomy bag</a> and a family that makes its living<a href="http://restaurants.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=12383"> pulling each other's hair</a> coming to mind first.</p>
<p>At the party, I got Brotman to start talking about the old days, which ain't hard, and in no time flat he told tales about picking up Ted Williams at a local hotel and taking him to a real estate extravaganza in 1969 and working with Ray Leonard before the Thomas Hearns rematch and getting Nixon to sign a ball at RFK (which Brotman still has in his office) and bringing in Tiger Woods when he was 16 years old for a charity function and so on and so on. What a life. I could have listened all night, but Charlie had other duties. He's a DC treasure.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>I got a press release from Brotman's firm today about something called the <strong>Gynecologic Cancer Half-Marathon</strong>, scheduled for DC on Nov. 8. I gotta say, as noble as the cause is, the race's name is jarring. When's the <strong>Scurvy Run-Walk</strong>? Or the <strong>Crushed By a Metrobus 10K</strong>? Or the <strong>Trust Me This Is Really the Worst Way to Die Tri</strong>?</p>
<p>'Course, I wouldn't have noticed the press release if the event were called the <strong>Life Is Great Race</strong>. And no matter the name, I ain't entering. No pain, no pain!</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><em>Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: <a href="mailto:cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com">cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com</a></em></p>
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		<title>Dan Snyder Dusts Off the &#8217;200,000 Name Waiting List&#8217;!</title>
		<link>http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/01/16/dan-snyder-dusts-off-the-200000-name-waiting-list/</link>
		<comments>http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/01/16/dan-snyder-dusts-off-the-200000-name-waiting-list/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:38:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dave McKenna</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dan Snyder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MITCH GERSHMAN]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PITTSBURGH STEELERS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEASON TICKETS WAITING LIST]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TERRIBLE TOWELS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington Redskins]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/?p=13709</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Redskins made a bit of news this week by announcing they won't raise ticket prices for next season.
Anytime "Dan Snyder" and "won't raise prices" can be used on the same page, it's news.
But in making the announcement, Skins management again boasted about the size of the fan base.
Mitch Gershman, the team’s chief operating officer, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The <strong>Redskins</strong> made a bit of news this week by <a href="http://www.redskins.com/gen/articles/Redskins_Hold_Line_On_Ticket_Prices_For_Third_Straight_Season_31075.jsp">announcing they won't raise ticket prices for next season</a>.</p>
<p>Anytime "<strong>Dan Snyder</strong>" and "won't raise prices" can be used on the same page, it's news.</p>
<p>But in making the announcement, Skins management again boasted about the size of the fan base.</p>
<p><strong>Mitch Gershman,</strong> the team’s chief operating officer, was quoted thusly in the press release: “We have fantastic fan support as evidenced by the more than 200,000 people on our waiting list for season tickets."</p>
<p>Mitch, Mitch, Mitch.</p>
<p>After the debacle of the "<strong>Monday Night Football</strong>" tilt with the <strong>Pittsburgh Steelers,</strong> in which a national television audience saw a stadium that looked at least half-full of fans rooting for the visiting team and waving Terrible Towels, and the debacle of the Skins' final home game of the season against Philly, where fans went to Snyder's own <a href="www.extremeskins.com">message board</a> to complain about not even being able to give away tickets, you still have the stones to throw out that "200,000 people on our waiting list" claim?</p>
<p>Not even readers of <a href="http://blog.redskins.com/2009/01/14/wednesday-january-14-some-things-remain-the-same/">your team's own blog want to read that</a>.</p>
<p>Mitch, Mitch, Mitch.</p>
<p>The press release also said "The team’s season tickets have been sold out since 1966."</p>
<p><span id="more-13709"></span></p>
<p>That's a hilariously false claim, given that anybody who calls the ticket office even today will begin to get hounded by salespeople trying to unload the massive number of high-dollar, and so-called "premium seats" at FedExField that are now unsold.</p>
<p>The emptiness of the club level is the cause of so much yellow showing up on your TV screen during broadcasts of a Redskins home game.</p>
<p>But, apparently, there some folks who still believe there's a waiting list for Redskins tickets.</p>
<p>As one 2007 premium ticket buyer by the name of "Slug," who said he's still obligated for several more years of club seat payments, commented on the Redskins blog after admitting he fell for the waiting-list sales pitch: <a href="http://blog.redskins.com/2009/01/14/wednesday-january-14-some-things-remain-the-same/">"Paint me a sucker."</a></p>
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