Today the courts are featuring the episode about Jackie Robinson's 1947 integration of baseball. As many times as I've seen it, damn, it's still good.

The jury pool, meanwhile, is only slightly more racially integrated than the 1946 Brooklyn Dodgers.

From what I read, that's been a problem for a while.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Did Dave Donovan used to cover Vinny Cerrato as a media man? D.C. Armor might be one and done, but NFL dreams still alive for its players? D.C. Council to recognize 1954 public school all-stars? Does that mean you're going to write about the 1954 public school all-stars again? Mike Locksley really is landing DCIAA talent all the way to New Mexico?)

***

He was born in a small town. The Daily Times-Herald of Carroll, Iowa, which Dave "Yeah, That' the Ticket!" Donovan once delivered, writes up another profile of a favorite son: the former newspaper boy turned newspaper basher (and Redskins chief operating officer).

The inspiration for the latest piece is outlined in the lede:

Kuemper Catholic High School alum David Donovan, The Washington Redskins top in-house attorney, recently received high-profile billing in a Wall Street Journal story about the team.

Not many folks from Carroll get ink in the Journal.

There's also this bio information:

As a youth David worked as a paperboy here at the Daily Times Herald and also spent time in this newspaper's circulation department. He worked for the former Sernett's department store as well.

At KCHS, Donovan was student council president and editor of the student newspaper, The Charger.

Donovan earned his bachelor's degree in 1980 from Iowa State University in journalism and political science. During his time at Iowa State, Donovan interned for the Daily Times Herald, covering general news and sports under the tutelage of former sports editor Dennis O'Grady.

Kind of humanizes Donovan, a guy who can use some humanizing after all the whoppers he's told this season — the Redskins banned signs for safety reasons, fans aren't acting any differently this season, etc. — in a miserable attempt to protect boss Dan Snyder.

That part about being an Iowa State sportswriter way back when bears greater scrutiny. Being a 1980 grad, that means there was a great chance Donovan was covering the Cyclones when they had a young quarterback named Vinny Cerrato.

The Redskins are being run by the Ames Mafia!

I ask again: What did D.C. ever do to Iowa State to deserve this?

***

Turns out the DC Armor, in the team's brief existence, indeed kept some dreams alive. The Philadelphia Eagles have just signed fullback Joel Gamble to their practice squad. Gamble's recent football background came indoors, with the DC Armor this past season. Here's a highlight.

The Armor, after one season playing before crowds slightly smaller than those the Bremers used to draw at the Grog & Tankard, have reportedly decided to pack it in. The team's website, however, urges fans to "Stayed tuned for the 2010 Season."

***

City Council Chair Vince Gray and Councilman Harry Thomas have introduced a resolution honoring the 1954 D.C. Public School High School All-Star football team.

That's the first integrated team in the DC's schoolboy sports history.

The D.C. All-Stars beat Catholic League powerhouse and all-white St. John's, 12-7, at Griffith Stadium on Dec. 4, 1954. That game has been ignored far too long. So, the more attention the merrier.

***

DCSportsFan.com reports that Coolidge football wideouts Martize Barr and Josh Ford will go to New Mexico to play for Mike Locksley.

Locksley has earned a reputation as one of the top recruiters in college ball over the last decade by funneling DC's best players into whatever program is paying him. He landed Vernon Davis when he was an assistant at Maryland and his brother Vontae Davis when he was offensive coordinator at Illinois.

Both Davises, who grew up in Petworth and played for Craig Jefferies powerhouse Dunbar teams, are now in the NFL. Arrelious Benn, another Dunbar star who was recruited nationally, also went to Illinois to play for Locksley, as did H.D. Woodson QB Eddie McGee.

New Mexico gave Locksley his first head coaching job after last season, and very little has gone smoothly since.Last May, an employee of the New Mexico athletic department accused Locksley with age and sex discrimination. That case was dropped.  Then early in this football season, Locksley got in a fight with an assistant coach that turned physical. He was briefly suspended without pay for that incident.

I spoke with the Davis Brothers a few months ago, and asked if they thought Locksley would be able to work his recruiting magic at such an outta-the-way locale. They said: Sure he will.

"Oh, he's going to bring talent that New Mexico has never seen before now," laughs Vontae. "Let me tell you that!"

Looks like he's right. Last offseason, he landed Coolidge's highly pursued quarterback/receiver tandem of Emmanuel Yeager and Derrell Person.

Yeager later left the team, however, after an arrest in Albuquerque for something called "concealing identity."  He had been pulled over for speeding and told the police that his name was "Emmanuel Yeastraiv." Not quite as catchy as the handle used by Michael Vick's herpes-friendly alter-ego, "Ron Mexico" — though "Ron New Mexico" would have worked well, all things considered.

But "Yeastraiv" seems pretty worldly for a D.C. kid to come up with in the clutch.

Yeastraiv, having reverted back to Yeager, played for Bowie State this season.

***

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Wait just a second... The AMA's...Hmmmm...Isn't that a Dick Clark Productions production?

Why, yes, it is!

And ain't Dick Clark Productions owned by Dan Snyder?

Why, yes, it is!

Well, alrighty then. The world makes sense again...

(AFTER THE JUMP: Jason Campbell's nemesis NEVER started a single playoff game? You can buy a high school football field, but you can't buy a win over DeMatha? Why is everybody talking about concussions now? Mike Sellers is right? Why is the Wall Street Journal talking about the Redskins now? The movement to oust Dan Snyder has not succeeded? So now trucks bashing Dan Snyder will be driving past Dan Snyder's home?)

***

Sonny Jurgensen's still tough on poor Jason Campbell. Earlier this season, during a Redskins radio game broadcast, Jurgensen repeatedly called for Campbell to be benched.

After four games, Jurgensen said the team would be undefeated if the Redskins backup, Todd Collins were in the lineup instead of Campbell.

And the Hall of Famer piled on some more hate in the 3rd quarter of Sunday's game in Dallas when Sam Huff, Jurgensen's former teammate and current partner in the Redskins radio booth, said something nice about Campbell.

"This is the best game I've seen him play!" Huff yelled.

"That's not sayin' a lot," mumbled Sonny.

Awesome Trivia about Jurgensen and Campbell: In his career as a Redskins starting QB, Jurgensen won the EXACT SAME number of playoff games as Campbell has so far.

That would be: Zero.

Awesomer trivia: Jurgensen never even started a playoff game. He made one playoff appearance in his career, as a reliever for starter Billy Kilmer in a 1974 19-10 loss to the Rams. Jurgensen threw three interceptions, including a pick-six on a fourth quarter drive and the Skins down by just a field goal.

That's sayin' a lot.

***

There were rumblings among the local prep football scene that the Good Counsel quarterback's dad bought his son the starting quarterback job. A few weeks ago, in fact, the field at Good Counsel was named Dancel Field after Bernie Dancel, who paid for it.

Along with being a financier and philanthropist, Dancel is the father of Good Counsel QB Zach Dancel.

But now it's tough to say dad's wallet got the son anything that wasn't deserved. Zach Dancel was 10-16 for 186 yards and threw the winning touchdown pass in the fourth quarter as Good Counsel ended DeMatha's long run of WCAC titles with a 14-10 win over the weekend in Annapolis.

It's a huge win for the Good Counsel program. So huge that years from now folks will think Dancel Field was named after Zach, not his dad.

***

Speaking of tough times for DeMatha footballers: DeMatha alum Brian Westbrook sat out his Eagles' game in Chicago last night after getting his second concussion in three weeks. "He's symptom free right now," Chris Collingsworth told the NBC audience last night.

Everybody's talking about concussions lately. I think that's less because everybody's getting concussions than it is that every news organization stole a story idea from the New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell, who did his concussion story last month.

The Washington Post sports page did its big concussion story on Sunday. (Has Kids Post done the concussion story yet? If not, what's up with that?)

But all the talk about concussions got NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to say that players should alert doctors if a teammate looks brain damaged. That gave Mike Sellers, for whom image is everything, the chance to act tough:

"We ain't no snitches over here," Sellers told AP.

Sellers should work more on holding onto a football than foisting that tough-guy act on everybody, but his point is pretty hard to argue with: With all the conflicts of interest at work, a system that depends on players policing players has no chance of working. 'Course, the NFL knows that.

Like Sellers, Goodell's just worried about his image.

***

Another story everybody's done: The Wall Street Journal has just now gotten around to its Redskins-Are-In-Trouble-With-Fans story. This one's gets some small things wrong: The WSJ writer says that under Joe Gibbs the Redskins won "two Super Bowls," while it was really three, and that at RFK during the glory days "the upper decks at RFK Stadium inside the District literally swayed from side-to-side," when the famous movement inside the structure was the lower decks that hopped up and down.

But, as usual, the Journal nails the big picture: "[W]hat this season has exposed, more than anything," the story goes, "is that the team held a special place in the hearts of fans here—one that was once intense and affectionate—and that this bond is badly fractured."

And now I see everybody's already written about the Wall Street Journal story. Get back to typing up Kornheiser/Wise quotes, Steinberg!)

***

Somebody should probably buzz the Wall Street's Journal news desk and let them know how much momentum the once profound anti-Dan Snyder movement has lost lately. It's either the win against Denver,  or a lot of protesters decided, say, reducing global warming was a better cause than needling a lousy football owner.

In any case, the effort to raise enough money to buy Metro ads urging Dan Snyder to unload the Redskins flopped. Despite scads of local media coverage, that effort, spelled out on the web site sellourteamdannyboy.com, netted just $1,421, or a little more than 17 percent of the amount required to actually get on the buses.

Organizer Charles Tomasch isn't giving up the fight just yet. He says he has offered everybody who donated to the cause the chance to get their money back, or to put the funds into another project.

Now, Tomasch is trying to rally the troops to pay for mobile signs.

From his web site:

James Goulden of DC Mobile Ads happens to be a lifelong Redskins fan who is onboard with the cause. He has given us a special price of five 8 hour sessions plus sign production for $1200. This would allow us to still give $160 to MDA.

What’s even better is that he will drive the sign wherever we like. This can include:

1. Danny Boy Snyder’s house
2. Vinny Cerrato’s house
3. Around Fedex Field during a Redskins game.
4. Verizon Center during Caps and Wizards games.

It would be fun to see what happens if the sign truck starts cruising around Snyder's Potomac neighborhood or his stadium on game days.

***

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For years, messages about the wheres and whens of the pep rallies/wakes were posted each week on Dan Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, so fans could celebrate with or lift the spirits of Skins players and coaches as they returned from the road. The gatherings have long been put together by the renowned husband-and-wife superfan tandem known as Pez and Huly.

But, starting with yesterday's game in Atlanta, the couple's announcements will no longer be made public. Turns out that there's just too much hate in the community to let everybody in on the soirees without inspiring fan-on-fan ridicule.

A memo about the shift was posted on the Redskins official message board yesterday:

"Extremeskins Members: Huly and I and other members will continue to hold the Send Off and Welcome Home events at Redskins park. For the rest of this season, we are (tentatively) NOT going to post a thread for it, because we believe that the fans who still want to sincerely attend and support their team should not be attacked within the thread for doing so. We will contact the typical members who normally attend with meet-up times. However, if you would like to attend, please contact Huly or myself.Thanks,Pez

(Pez and Huly happen to be the couple also behind the all-points bulletin for Stephette Hogette, the bogus Hogette, a few weeks ago.)

(AFTER THE JUMP: Skins fans flock to FedUpField South, take advantage of First Amendmentish freedoms denied by Dan Snyder? Will Dan Snyder have the brains to reverse the signs ban at FedEx this week? Will Ron Nolan, an early victim of Dan Snyder's dickishness, return the disfavor? Sam Huff spews the painful truth, and Larry Michael surrenders? Brett Haber has crisis PR advice for Dan Snyder?)

***

The Georgia Dome turned into FedUpField South for the Redskins/Falcons game, as a lot of visitors fans showed up just to vent about Dan Snyder in ways that the owner has banned from his stadium.

The Great Dan Steinberg once again traveled with the insurgency and got a lot of photos of folks with their posters.

***

The animosity thrown at Dan Snyder has waned a bit since John Riggins went from offbeat to ugly with his "dark heart" riff.

Snyder could stem the hemorrhaging even more by pulling the disastrous Redskins sign ban this week, as Denver comes to town, and going back to the old allowances for home games.

What would it cost him? Snyder should have learned by now that the networks limit shots of the Snyder-bashing signs on national broadcasts, since the NFL doesn't want any more harm to come to one of its cornerstone franchises. (How else to explain how few shots of Redskins fans' discontent showed up on "Monday Night Football" two weeks ago or during the FOX network broadcast from Atlanta yesterday? One of the few that made the airwaves from the Georgia Dome: "Skins need a stimulus plan!")

My sense is even the local media is just about burned out on the sign-ban story. From a competition standpoint, Redskins games are already worthless, with half a season to go.

If Snyder doesn't loosen up, the rest of the year will turn into a "How can we humiliate Dan Snyder and get away with it?" contest in the grandstand, both on the road and, especially, at home.

I'm no Eric Dezenhall, but from a crisis PR standpoint, lifting the FedExField sign ban would be the easy and smart thing to do. Snyder's put a world of hurt on his business this season through one tone-deaf move after another.

We've been told since 1999 that Snyder's a marketing genius, with zero proof to back up that reputation. Let's see how he handles this.

***

Not all those who've been screwed over by Dan Snyder will be in the stands this weekend: Denver defensive coordinator Ron Mike Nolan, who held that same position with the Redskins from 1997 to 1999, was among the first guys to whom Snyder revealed his prick side.

During the 1999 season, shortly after taking over the team, Snyder repeatedly delivered vanilla ice cream to Nolan’s office at Redskins Park as a supremely dickish way to say he thought the defensive scheme was too bland. Though involved parties kept that story hushed for years, by now it has become among the most infamous examples of Snyder's mean and horribly unsuccessful managing style.

Nolan's Broncos are 6-1. Snyder's Skins are 2-6. Denver's defense has given up an NFL-low 96 points this season.

If this were pro wrestling, Nolan would ship a pallate of Rocky Road to Snyder's box before the game.

***

Hints of the horribleness from yesterday's various Redskins broadcasts:

*Repartee between Sam Huff and Larry Michael, very early in the second quarter during the official broadcast of the Skins/Falcons game on the Redskins Broadcast Network:

Huff: "I think we're in a heap of trouble."

Michael: "Yeah, we are."

(When Larry Michael lets even the most honest slam of the team go unchallenged, things are bad all over.)

*Al Galdi on the team's postgame show he hosts on Dan Snyder's sportstalker, WTEM: "This season is a necessary evil. There are basic things about this franchise that need to change."

Galdi then quickly added "I'm not breaking any news by saying that."

*WUSA's Brett Haber offered some basic crisis PR advice for Dan Snyder during last night's 11 o'clock news telecast: "Dan: Smile, like once a year!"

It's ugly out there.

***

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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 folks who want tickets but can't get them.

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!

What's going on around here is sorta amazing, ain't it? A "Monday Night Football" game against the hated Eagles — a rematch of the Body Bag Game opponents! — and Skins management feels it has to lie ("visiting team returns," "limited number," etc.) to try to get folks to take tickets?

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.

***

Vinny Cerrato opened his radio station on Dan Snyder's 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 Nixon tag line. And Cerrato sounded crazy while he delivered it.

(AFTER THE JUMP: 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?)

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.

Huh. I thought Snyder posed for photos and talked to the New York Times a few weeks ago.

***

Brian Mitchell 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.

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.

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,

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.

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.

That means Mitchell's appearance might provide the only cheers from Skins fans all night.

***

Before Cerrato's desperate announcement, Rick Snider of the Examiner wrote what everybody's feeling: 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.

***

Ron Jaworski went on "The Tony Kornheiser Show" to talk about the upcoming telecast of "Monday Night Football," where Jaworski still works.

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."

But: Jaworski picked the Skins to cover the spread.

(If I quote one more radio interview, I'm going to have to pay royalties to the Great Steinographer...)

***

Debbie Yow's official University of Maryland bio refers to her as "Dr. Yow." 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 (honorus causa) from the United States Sports Academy and an honorary doctorate for professional achievement from Elon University."

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?

***

Charlie Brotman's 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 drag racer with a colostomy bag and a family that makes its living pulling each other's hair coming to mind first.

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.

***

I got a press release from Brotman's firm today about something called the Gynecologic Cancer Half-Marathon, scheduled for DC on Nov. 8. I gotta say, as noble as the cause is, the race's name is jarring. When's the Scurvy Run-Walk? Or the Crushed By a Metrobus 10K? Or the Trust Me This Is Really the Worst Way to Die Tri?

'Course, I wouldn't have noticed the press release if the event were called the Life Is Great Race. And no matter the name, I ain't entering. No pain, no pain!

***

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These Hogettes aren't happy about the photo that Cheap Seats Daily ran earlier this week, which was supplied by Stephette, real name Steve Rasnikov (though he also goes by a rap name, Snow Rap G, as well as a witness-protection name, Carmine Fischetti, which Stephette came up with to ward off vigilantes and the Hogette Police).

The shot above shows Stephette with other Hogettes (he's in the middle). Stephette says the photo was taken years ago at a Redskins game, and claims that it proves that the other Hogettes accepted him before they went "so corporate" and started hanging out with other sponsored mascot types, including Bird Man of the rival Philadelphia Eagles.

But other Hogettes say the photo means nothing, and that Stephette, who has been wearing his pig snout since at least 1992, when the NY Times wrote about his Skins fanaticism, has acted disgracefully with the ladies during Redskins tailgate parties, and that he has no real affiliation with their gang.

After seeing the shot, Joevette Hogette, behind the snout to the left in the above photo, emailed Cheap Seats Daily to downplay its significance:

"THAT PIX WAS TAKEN ON THE FLY," wrote Joevette Hogette, described as the oldest of the Original Hogettes. "[Stephette] CAME UP BEHIND PORKCHOP AND ME AND HIS BUDDY SNAPPED THE PIC......NOTICE HOW BLURRED AND OUT OF FOCUS IT IS.....DEFINITELY NOT A POSED SHOT."

And Howard Churchill, another longtimer who goes by Howiette Hogette (or, rather, Howiette Hogette®, as he apparently prefers), also threw his pooh-pooh at the photo:

"If being in a picture was all it took to be accepted as a Hogette then there would be thousands of Hogettes," wrote Howiette Hogette®.

Michael Torbert, a founding Hogette whose nom de cochon is Mikey T Hogette, piled on poor Stephette, also: "We take lots & lots of photos with fans (mostly Redskin fans, but fans in general) from all over the world...none have claimed, until now (this one gent) to be a "Hogette". We do not want turkeys claiming to be a Hogette and acting "uncivilized" to other people.  If the subject gentleman wants to remove his hogette-look-alike outfit and say he is a "Redskins" fan, we have no problem with him...But, he will never be a "HOGETTE®."

Even Stephette might agree with that last part, guys®.

Stephette Hogette says he'll be coming down from Brooklyn with his rubber nose and ladies wear and a bottle of booze this weekend, and plans to roam around the tailgate parties in the FedExField parking lots on Sunday.

The old-school Hogettes who want no part of Stephette's act say they'll be there partying, too.

So, come Sunday, the big question, bigger than "Will the Skins lose AGAIN?", will be: Is Raljon big enough for both of 'em?

Somebody posted a notice on Dan Snyder's message board, Extremeskins, alerting fans that a fundraiser will be thrown in Arlington next week to help pay medical bills for Chief Zee (real name Zema Williams).

Time was, such a post in these friendly confines would elicit nothing more controversial than "How much does he need?" But these days, even wins are booed. So the thread immediately disintegrated into an interrogation of the original poster, with some folks wondering why Williams needs another fundraiser—"He can afford season tickets, but not medical bills?" huffed the poster brianm23—and others asking why give money to a guy Chief Zee's age, since he should have all his health care covered by those socialist programs, Medicare and Medicaid.

(AFTER THE JUMP: That blogger called Chief Zee WHAT? Would Justice Scalia cringe at Chief Zee's costume? WJFK's crushing WTEM? It's a good time to unaffiliated with Dan Snyder? The last Guaranteed Win Night of 2009?)

I've met and talked to Chief Zee, and he's a real pleasant, happy old guy. To longtime Skins fans desensitized to the offensiveness of his caricatured costume, Chief Zee is the football fan equivalent of a combat vet: He had his leg broken by Eagles fans in the parking lot of Veterans Stadium after a 1983 Skins/Philly game. Williams described the beating to me a some years ago:

"They treated me like chopped meat," he says. "They ripped off my costume, smashed my eye socket so my eyeball was just hanging out, snapped my leg like it was a twig, and yelled, 'You won't be jumping up and down in this stadium anymore!' They left me lying in my underclothes."

But to pretty much everybody without allegiance to our NFL team, Chief Zee is a feather-and-moccasin-wearing symbol of everything wrong with having a franchise named "Redskins."

As a blogger from stuffblackpeoplehate.com explained last year:

For people who aren’t from the Washington D.C. area, Zema Williams (a.k.a. Chief Zee) is the racist asshole who throws on a warbonnet and beaded warshirt at Washington Redskins games and proceeds to dance around like an unmitigated fucktard. He has become the unofficial de facto mascot of the Redskins, despite the fact that he’s basically Native America’s Al Jolson in blackface.There isn’t enough space on this blog to list everything that’s wrong with what he’s doing, nor is there enough space to explain how offended Native people and I, as a Native person, are offended by this assclown. What possibly sticks in the craw the most is the fact that November 7, 1985 was declared ‘Chief Zee’ day in Washington D.C. – right smack in the middle of American Indian Heritage Month. Fuck you very much whoever’s idea that was.

Now on to the much shorter and more easily explained reason why this, and indeed the very fact that a team called the ‘Redskins‘ is even allowed to exist, bothers me as a black man:

Black people are next.

Perhaps stuffblackpeoplehate.com will present an amicus brief if the Supreme Court hears Harjo v. Pro Football Inc., the lawsuit that challenges the trademark protections enjoyed by Dan Snyder with his Redskins merch.

Or maybe the lead plaintiff in the case against Snyder, Suzan Harjo, should just rent Chief Zee for a day if her case comes up, and just have him walk around the Supreme Court entrance in costume. Even Antonin Scalia would admit have to admit "Redskins" is offensive after a glimpse at Zee's gameday getup.

***

Update on the sportstalk war: DCRTV reports that the Dan Snyder-owned WTEM is getting grounded and pounded by non-Dan Snyder-owned WJFK in the key demographic of 25-54 year old males.

The latest ratings book includes the NFL preseason, which would figure to be the high holy days for Snyder's frequency, what with its total access to the Redskins. But according to a radio industry source, WJFK beat WTEM in every time slot in the Erectile Dysfunction demo they both are going after.

WJFK boss Chris Kinard admits it's a good time to not be affiliated with Dan Snyder.

"Our goal has always been to provide a platform for the fans for whatever they want to get off their chest," says Kinard. "The way things have gone in the last 10 years for the most beloved franchise in Washington, D.C., that frustration was apparent in the stadium last weekend, and that frustration has been apparent on our airwaves."

The WTEM/WJFK feud has already produced off-air entertainment. WJFK brilliantly hired the Redskins cheerleaders to work the press party announcing the station would be flipping to a sports station and challenging WTEM, meaning Snyder's favorite play-toy was used to sell the opposition.

Snyder rebounded from the cheerleader stunt by using backdoor channels to crush WJFK's attempt to open the FanZone, a tailgate friendly parking lot near FedExField that was planned as WJFK's first marketing extravaganza after the flip to sports talk.

Another big chapter in the stations' rivalry will come with the next ratings book, scheduled for release Oct. 8, which will be the first book to include numbers from Tony Kornheiser, who came back to local airwaves after being kicked out of the Monday Night Football booth. If WJFK continues winning that time slot with Mike Wise, it'll be turn out the lights, the party's over for Snyder and Kornheiser as sportstalkers.

***

The Nationals get bombed by Los Angeles, 14-2.  That puts Washington at 51-99.

One tick away from the century mark!

It's been a while since we had an R²D²™ Update! L.A. has now outscored the opposition by a Major League-best 179 runs on the season; Washington has been outscored by a Major League-worst 164 runs.

So, let's take a look at the big board, just returned by Jerry Lewis: The Nats now have a negative-343-run-run-differential-differential with the Dodgers, or an R²D²™ of -343!

Wow! The Nats are to R²D²™ as Hussein Bolt is to the 100 meters, only opposite! Vegas can't be surprised they got blown out by 12 runs last night!

But all bets are off with the squad teetering on still another 100 loss season.

All bets except one, that is! It's time for Cheap Seats Daily's famous Guaranteed Win Night™! That's right, for the last time of 2009, put the mortgage on the Nats to win tonight at Nationals Park!*

And remember, if the bet doesn't come in, the rest of the season is free!

*Don't really put the mortgage on the Nats, dumbass....UNLESS YOU GET PLEASURE OUT OF WINNING LARGE SUMS OF COLD, HARD CASH!

***

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Both these squads got beat by the Redskins this year — the Cardinals in Week 3 and the Eagles in Weeks 5 & 16.

In recent seasons, there aren't many harbingers of Super Bowl success as trusty as taking a whupping from the lowly Skins.

You can look it up.

In 2000, the Redskins beat the Baltimore Ravens, 10-3 during the regular season. The Ravens went on to beat the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV.

In 2002, the beginning of the Spurrier Era, the Redskins beat Tampa Bay, 40-10, in preseason. The Bucs went on to crush the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XVII.

In 2003, the Skins whupped the New England Patriots, 20-17, at FedEx. The Pats went on to win Super Bowl XXXVIII.

In 2005, the Redskins beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-10, in preseason at home. The Steelers crushed the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL.

And last season, the Skins beat the Giants, 22-10, on the road in Week 15. The Giants upset the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

Luckily for Eagles fans, the Giants whupped the Skins in both regular season encounters this year.

And, Phoenix could be on Easy Street, since the Carolina Panthers absolutely destroyed Washington, 47-3, in August in a preseason game.

Vegas, are you listening?