Robert Griffin III [RG3] hobbled through the Washington Redskins’ locker room on crutches, the kind of scene that has become so familiar.The franchise player was hurt again Sunday, dislocating his left ankle in the first quarter of a 41-10 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The best-case scenario might have him playing again by Thanksgiving, but there’s more than a decent chance he’s taken his last snap of the season.
(Associated Press, September 21, 2014)
It speaks volumes that even The Associated Press is now throwing cold water on the prospect of RG3 ever becoming the hot player my hometown team, the Washington Redskins, gave up so much (in terms of future draft picks) to acquire. But I warned it would be thus:
I fear that, having been unable to take the Redskins back to the Super Bowl this year, RG3 will end up doing no more for them than Vick did for the Eagles (or the Falcons): provide boundless excitement when he plays, but hardly playing because of chronic injuries.
(“Redskins Come Up Lame … Again,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 7, 2013)
The only question now is whether backup quarterback Kirk Cousins can do for Washington what former backup quarterback Tom Brady did for New England: win a Super Bowl or two … or three. I don’t think so.
For, while others were hailing the way he stepped into RG3’s shoes and pulled off that win last week, I was all too mindful that a team (Washington) that won only 3 games last season managing to beat one (Jacksonville) that won only 4 games is nothing to brag about.
Sure enough, even though Washington showed great promise (you know, the kind RG3 shows … when he’s not coming up lame), it came up … short yesterday (34-37) against Philadelphia – a team that won a more respectable and duly promising 10 games last year.
Nobody else in Washington will say it, but the irony is not lost on me that, while Cousins looked every bit as impressive as RG3 (especially with his passing game), he also displayed RG3’s knack for snatching defeat from the hands of victory. Only this explains throwing an interception and a really poor pass in the waning moments of yesterday’s game, which made all the difference.
And so, now at 1-2, a successful season for us might be ending up 4-12 (i.e., one win better than last year).
Therefore, given my informed cynicism about Washington’s prospect, it should surprise none of you that the best part of the game for me was the characters of South Park teasing their new fall season.
After all, they mocked – with trademark irreverence – the ignorance, arrogance, and hypocrisy inherent in owner Daniel Snyder insisting that he will not change the name, Redskins, because he considers it a way of honoring Native Americans. Yes, the same Native Americans who have been pleading with him for years to stop using it because they consider it an offensive racial slur.
Can you imagine an NFL team today being called the Washington Niggers; or, given Snyder’s Jewish heritage, the Washington Hymies…?
Clearly Whites did not enslave Native Americans the way they did Black Africans. But their genocidal killing of Native Americans and confiscatory plundering of their lands were arguably far worse. And granting them licenses to operate casinos on the little reservations Whites deigned to leave them hardly compensates for all that.
Therefore, the least Whites can do today is show them the same politically correct respect they show Blacks, no?
(“Why is Washington Redskins Any More Acceptable than Washington Niggers … or Washington Hymies?” The iPINIONS Journal, October 19, 2013)
Unfortunately, as far as Snyder and his fellow team owners are concerned, the White man still knows best. These, of course, are the same NFL owners who considered their players taking out game-day frustrations and/or roid rage on their wives and girlfriends as just an occupational hazard….
NOTE: The reason for striking out the name is that I have decided to join the shamefully small number of commentators who have decided to treat it the way we treat all racial slurs.