Dim WitsGate™ makes it to the front page of the Washington Post! That means the story of Robert Henson's Twittered insults of Redskins fans -- calling them "dim wits" and saying they "work 9 to 5 at Mcdonalds" -- occupies the same real estate where Watergate became the original -Gate!

Bottom line: Cheap Seats Daily's hype of Dim WitsGate™ is validated!

From all the hate going Henson's way on Sunday's postgame shows on local sportstalk stations, I was certain this was going to develop into the biggest Redskins controversy ever generated by an inactive linebacker using new media. Or at least one of the biggest Redskins controversies ever generated by an inactive linebacker using new media.

And now it's on the front page!

Also, it's always nice to see former longtime DC resident the Great Dan Steinberg, the Woodward & Bernstein of Dim WitsGate™, on A1.

(Full disclosure: I still have my 35-year-old "Nixon Resigns" issue of the Washington Post in my paperboy bag in the basement. I'll get 'em out for Halloween. Hence the "-Gate" fetish...)

***

There they go again. Dan Snyder is using his web site to go to war with the Washington Post.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Is Henson being used to take heat off the real Redskins villains? Pravda's Ashburn bureau strikes again? How would you copy-edit multiple Twitters? Leonard Shapiro now using out-of-town newspapers to blast Dan Snyder? The NFL's blackout policy is as big a sham as the Skins waiting list?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Are the Redskins Using Robert Henson to Protect Zorn, Campbell, Snyder, FedEx, Etc…?" »

The Arena Football League ain't ever coming to DC after all.

Sports leagues, like romantic relationships, can't survive taking a break. Last year AFL owners thought they were different, announcing that while they'd be spending the 2009 season apart, they weren't breaking up.

Again: Just need some space. Just taking some time off from each other before getting back together.

Well, this week, several AFL owners leaked to the press the date that they'll be getting back together: The 12th....OF NEVER!

The AFL is dead.

The disbanding means, alas, Dan Snyder won't ever bring us the AFL team he promised back in 1999.

(AFTER THE JUMP: MMA is the next arena football? How many Redskins blogs are out there? Dan Steinberg marvels at whose muscles? The Washington Times toasts Bruce Smith? Michael Vick is partying where? The Nats are still playing?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Washington Warriors Won’t Ever Play in the AFL?" »

The Washington Post runs a Metro story about the fans who spend a day watching practice at Redskins Park. (Lemme quote Allen Iverson: "PRACTICE? We're talking PRACTICE?") One of the fans quoted in the piece is Peter Lalich. Though the story doesn't go into it, Lalich was the Everybody's-All-American kid from Springfield who was headed for stardom as a UVa quarterback before getting booted off the team for a string of teensy crimes that weren't considered crimes a generation ago, before we went to war on the use of even low-level mind-altering substances.

Lalich transferred to Oregon as soon as his run in Charlottesville went to hell, and, because of some weird quirk having something to do with his new school being on a quarter system and not semesters, he'll be eligible to play this season.

If the punishment schedule announced last year still holds, Lalich should get his drivers license back this week from Virginia authorities. It makes sense that Lalich would be on a practice field this time of year, but... Why isn't he in Oregon?

***

Another formerly local athlete in some legal heat, and not dealing real well with it: Antonio Pierce, the ex-Redskins linebacker turned Giant person of interest in the Plaxico Burress thigh blast case, is making enemies with his tweets.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Examiner column calls out Duds? Godly folks are coming after the racist Redskins? Who says Cal Ripken and/or Eddie Murray were juiced? FedExField also sucks for things other than football games? Jeremy Mayfield called his stepmomma THAT? Van Pelt goes for big bucks, but Czarniak goes bid-less?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: FedExField Still Blows?" »

For years, I've wanted to leave my mark on baseball history, as a dog might on a patch of grass. I came up with a name for those years of the game dominated by huge stats and little testes: "The Dead Balls Era."

And I forced it on people.

I put "Dead Balls Era" in print again and again and again and again. I'd search the web every so often, only to get the bad news that nobody was adopting my brainchild. In December 2007, nearly three years after I'd started lobbying for my phrase to become the official name of the all-steroids, all-the-time time in the National Pastime, "Dead Balls Era" was getting nine hits on Google.

NINE!

Read More "Breaking News: ‘Dead Balls Era™’ Uttered By Real Genius!" »

Sally Jenkins rides with Lance Armstrong again this morning. Jenkins, who has written several books with Armstrong, references the druggie rumors more here than in the scads of her previous columns on the most accused drug cheat in the history of sport.

"It's what [Armstrong's] whole comeback is all about really," writes Jenkins, "coming face to face with things, especially the doubters. 'Am I doping now?' his body language seems to say."

And the world, in all sorts of languages, seems to be answering: "Hell, yes, you're doping!" That March incident, where Armstrong stalled French drug testers who'd surprised him as he trained for the Tour de France and asked for urine samples, crushed the odds that the comeback would change anybody's mind. By now Armstrong has the same chance of clearing his name as Michael Jackson.

Dirty pee or not, Armstrong's amazing, ain't he? To paraprahase the old lady in the diner in "Sleepless in Seattle" "When Harry Met Sally": I'll have what he's having.

***

Joel Hanrahan got his first win as a National yesterday, a week after he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates.

AFTER THE JUMP: Chico Harlan lights up the Nats? The Hogettes aren't dead, just broke? Do the Baysox fear the ACLU after MattWietersCollectibleFigurineNightGate™?

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Joel Hanrahan Gets Nats a ‘Victory in the Win Column!’" »

Jason La Canfora goes to work for Dan Snyder?

That's essentially what Pro Football Talk is saying. According to the site, La Canfora has been hired away from the Washington Post by the NFL Network, the future cable powerhouse owned by the NFL, which is run by the NFL owners, none brasher than Snyder.

On some levels, the departure was inevitable. La Canfora was good enough at his job, as the Post's Skins beat writer and the force behind Redskins Insider, the paper's most popular sports blog, to cause the Skins organization to launch a campaign against him. Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, his media mouthpiece, Larry Michael, and his, well, everything else, Vinny Cerrato, all went crazy trying to attack La Canfora.

Michael had "The Sourcerer," a silly feature used on a Skins cable TV show to belittle everything La Canfora wrote. And then things got really ugly when Snyder gave Cerrato, who would "no comment" every question from La Canfora for his Post stories, a radio show on the sports station he owns, WTEM. Cerrato railed against the beat writer as soon as he got on the air.

The lowpoint of the feud came with Cerrato and Michael accusing La Canfora of tattling to the NFL in hopes of getting the league to launch a tampering investigation of the Redskins. (Tampering? Snyder?)

La Canfora fought ugliness with ugliness, calling Cerrato a liar and mocking the organization in emails to detractors. As predicted in this space many times, the beat wasn't big enough for both Cerrato and La Canfora to stay on another season.

Cerrato kept his football job, though the radio gig was such a disaster it can't come back. So it's La Canfora heading off, leaving writing for talking, as all typists aspire to do.

But, working for Snyder?

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily:Will Dan Snyder Sign La Canfora’s Paychecks? Is Joe Biden the Anti-Arnold?" »

A Florida couple busted for running a major steroid operation and selling to pro athletes named the Nats and the Caps as two teams that availed themselves of their services, but they didn't name names.

That leaves anyone the Washington Times has so far got on the horn to speculate. Officially, of course, there's no comment other than, "We'll get to the bottom of this."

But Caps enforcer Donald Brashear has weighed in: "We get tested two, three times a year and there's never been anybody who's tested positive....Was [Thomas] supplying this year? Was it a few years ago when there was no testing...to tell you the truth, if there was, I didn't know. There's no sign of anybody I know who used steroids."

Former Cap and current Panther Steve Eminger is similarly incredulous his former teammates doped up. "No, never, not once---[steroids were] never talked about once...I don't know, you see guys. Guys aren't extremely ripped or anything."

So who's got the Florida hookup then?

Is it just me or is the case against Miguel Tejada a bit small? The former Orioles standout obviously doesn't think so. Tejada just pled guilty to lying to Congress. According to the Post account: "Federal prosecutors alleged that Tejada lied to staffers when he told them he never discussed steroids with other players and didn't know anybody using the substances."

Tejada lied about buying HGH. But he stated that he had misgivings about using the performance enhancer and threw out the drugs. Prosecutors don't have enough evidence showing that he actually used the drug. So he just lied about buying them.

The Post writes:

"Although not charged with taking performance-enhancing drugs or lying about using them, Tejada nevertheless becomes the latest prominent major leaguer to become ensnared in the steroids scandal hammering baseball."

Read More "Tejada Case Seems Small Time" »

Jose Canseco, who will someday be viewed as the Deep Throat of the Dead Balls Era™, is offering fans and anybody else the chance to buy a bat, base, and cleats that back in 1988 factored into his becoming the first player in major league history to steal 40 bases and hit 40 home runs in the same season.

In the sales pitch on his personal Web site, Canseco points out that "Only two players have been able to accomplish this since, Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds."

Quite a club. Canseco, Rodriguez and Bonds will someday be viewed as the Murderers Row of the Dead Balls Era™. (Get used to it!)

Perhaps these items have been on sale for some time, or Canseco's not a student of the game: Ex-Nat Alfonso Soriano pledged the 40/40 frat in 2006.

BTW: The asking price for Canseco's detritus is $9,995.00.