Tag: Washington Redskins

‘Commanders’ brand not growing on QB Mark Rypien

Mark Rypien fully supports the new direction of the franchise, but not the name.

Mark Rypien cares a lot about the current state of the franchise for whom he once quarterbacked to a Super Bowl title.

Rypien was in town Monday for a golf charity event for Heroes and Legends benefiting wounded American military warriors. At the event hosting their weekday afternoon show (106.7 The Fan) were Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier. Here is their discussion with Rypien.

The former Super Bowl XXVI MVP expressed his love for seeing the team move back and play its games at the old RFK site. He spoke of how playing at the site would bring back memories for grandfathers, who could then share them with their sons and grandsons at the new stadium.

“It almost hurt ten years ago to come back to the stadium to a Cowboys vs. Redskins game and see more Cowboy fans in the stadium,” said Rypien. “It’s embarrassing. That’s not what we were all about.”

Rypien is certainly aware that “we need to put a product out there that wins week-in and week-out and be consistent.”

Paulsen expressed he was still trying to get used to the name (Commanders) and asked Rypien, “Is it growing on you at all?”

“No,” responded Rypien.

“It never will. I never played for the Commanders.”

Rypien then elaborated in a very respectful manner, “I absolutely support the Commanders and what they’re doing now. But, I never played for them. It’s just this day and age now that we have to deal with.”

“I just hope they don’t lose the fact that we were ‘Redskins.’ That’s all I played for. That’s what I knew, and that’s all we remember.”

“We are going to support these guys because that’s the era we are in.”

“I am not a Commanders’ legend. I am a Redskin. I love my guys.”

“I want to support these guys, this team, and get this Commanders football team back to playing the type of football the Redskins played back in our era.”

Watch: Bucs coach Todd Bowles calls Commanders by their old name — twice

Bowles addressed Washington but didn’t call them the Commanders.

Todd Bowles is entering his third season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach. It’s his seventh season overall as a head coach, having previously served in the same role for the New York Jets.

But before Bowles joined the coaching world in 1997, he enjoyed an eight-year NFL playing career. Bowles spent seven of those eight seasons with the then-Washington Redskins, and was a part of one Super Bowl championship team.

Speaking of Washington, that’s who Bowles’ Bucs open the 2024 season with on Sunday, as Tampa Bay hosts the Commanders. On Monday, Bowles addressed the media and had a slip of the tongue when mentioning his Week 1 opponent.

“I think if you find yourself just facing the rookie quarterback, the other 10 guys are going to kill you, so we’re facing the Redskins, we’re not facing Jayden Daniels,” Bowles said. “They got 10 other guys that we gotta worry about as well, so we don’t look at it as facing the rookie quarterback, we’re trying to beat the Redskins.”

https://twitter.com/JennaLaineESPN/status/1830773269479235645

Not once, but twice, did Bowles mention the name of the team he played for. Fans shouldn’t think too deeply here. It’s probably hard for Bowles to call a team he played with for seven seasons the Commanders.

Former Washington quarterback Colt McCoy officially retires from NFL

Colt McCoy officially retires from the NFL after 14 years. What’s next?

Colt McCoy spent six seasons with the Washington Redskins from 2014-19 during Jay Gruden’s time as head coach. On Monday, McCoy officially retired from the NFL, courtesy of the following video on the Underdog Fantasy YouTube page.

McCoy, who turns 38 in September, was the Cleveland Browns’ third-round pick in the 2010 NFL draft. He spent three seasons in Cleveland and one in San Francisco before his time in Washington.

With Washington, McCoy appeared in 12 games with seven starts. He’s best remembered for leading the Redskins to an upset win over his home-state Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football in 2014. During most of his time in Washington, McCoy served as the primary backup and when he did have the chance to play, he played well, but injuries ruined any long-term chances of starting.

He spent the 2020 season with the New York Giants and played for the Arizona Cardinals in 2021 and 2022.

Overall, McCoy played 14 NFL seasons after a legendary career at the University of Texas. McCoy started four seasons for the Longhorns, finishing with a 45-8 record and passing for over 13,000 yards and 112 touchdowns. McCoy broke almost every passing record at Texas, most of which still stand today.

The Cardinals released McCoy ahead of the 2023 season and he quickly became analyst at Underdog Fantasy, in which he did an outstanding job of breaking down film and draft prospects.

Next up for McCoy is joining NBC Sports for its coverage of Big Ten football. His debut will be in Lincoln, Nebraska on Sept. 7 for the Nebraska-Colorado game.

Congratulations to Colt McCoy on a long and successful playing career.

Remembering former Washington running back Duane Thomas

Looking back at the life of former Washington and Dallas RB Duane Thomas.

Former Washington running back Duane Thomas died last week. Thomas was age 77.

Thomas came to Washington to play for the Redskins under quite unusual circumstances.

Dallas already possessed the talents of running back Calvin Hill, yet when the Cowboys announced their first-round pick of 1970, the name was running back Duane Thomas.

The Cowboys were right; Thomas was better and the starter. At 6-1, 220, Thomas was such a smooth runner that critics sometimes said he wasn’t running hard. Yet, when watching replays, one observes him making people miss and running by many, as he led the NFL, averaging 5.3 yards per carry his rookie season.

Though he led Dallas in rushing his first two seasons and led the Cowboys to two Super Bowls, he was unhappy. For instance, Thomas refused to talk in team meetings and to the press covering the NFL. He referred to then-Dallas head coach Tom Landry as ‘the plastic man.’

Once when a reporter referred to the Super Bowl as the ultimate NFL game, Thomas replied back defiantly, “If it’s the ultimate game, how come they’re playing it again next year?”

Thomas gained 95 yards, leading the Cowboys to their 24-3 win over the Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. However, because of the way he treated the media, they took out their revenge, refusing to vote for Thomas as the Super Bowl MVP.

Landry had endured enough throughout that 1971 season and had Thomas traded in the offseason. However, he would not play for the Chargers or anyone else in the 1972 season.

In 1973 Thomas’ value was plunging, yet Redskins head coach George Allen came to rescue the Chargers. Teams loved trading with the desperate Allen, always willing to over trade draft pick(s) for another veteran.

So Allen traded a round one and round two choice to the Chargers for the troubled, moody Thomas. Then Allen proceeded to continue to run Larry Brown into the ground, cutting his career short, only having Thomas carry the ball 32 times for 95 yards in 1973.

In 1974, Thomas carried the ball 95 times for 347 yards and five rushing touchdowns. But that was it for Thomas, as the Redskins cut him during the 1975 training camp. He never played another NFL game.

Perhaps most interesting was Thomas’s arrival in Washington. He learned no one else was wearing his old number, which he had worn as a Cowboy, so he requested it, No. 33.

However, Washington had unofficially retired No. 33, and no one had worn it since Hall of Famer Sammy Baugh. The story goes that someone from the team informed Thomas that they had contacted Baugh, requesting if Thomas could wear No. 33, but Baugh refused.

Baugh, when hearing of this, strongly rejected the narrative, declaring he had not been contacted and that if Thomas wanted to wear No. 33, Baugh was fine with it. But, Thomas was given No. 47 and wore it both of his two seasons with the Redskins.

 

Jason Wright out as Commanders’ team president

The 2024 season will be Wright’s last with the Commanders and he will serve as an adviser until the team lands a replacement.

The Washington Commanders and team president Jason Wright are parting ways, according to Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post. Wright will move out of his role as team president and assume the role of senior adviser as the team begins an immediate search for a new team president. He will depart the organization by the end of the upcoming 2024 season.

Wright was hired in August 2020 as the organization had just changed its name from the “Redskins” to the “Football Team” after pressure from sponsors. He replaced Bruce Allen in the role, and he was in charge of leading the franchise’s business operations, financing, and marketing.

Washington first came under investigation for its workplace culture under former owner Dan Snyder in 2020. It wouldn’t be the first investigation into Snyder, who sold the team in July 2023 to a group led by Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris.

Two of Wright’s primary goals were to help the team find a new stadium and rebrand the organization. The team still doesn’t have a location for the new stadium, which had more to do with Snyder, not Wright, but the team’s rebranding in 2022 was met with anger from most of the remaining fan base.

There would be other issues, too, from the misspelling of the team’s legends’ names on graphics to the Sean Taylor memorial outside of FedEx Field. These types of gaffes didn’t go unnoticed, and Wright took much of the blame in the eyes of fans. Many of the hires Wright made have since left the organization.

Jhabvala notes that Wright informed the team last week of his pending exit.

Wright released the following statement:

This feels like the right moment for me to explore my next leadership opportunity. I’m extremely grateful to my Commanders colleagues, our fans and this community for all that we have accomplished these past four years, and am looking forward to the start of a very successful season for the Burgundy and Gold.

Josh Harris also released a statement thanking Wright:

Jason has made a remarkable impact on the Commanders organization since he joined four years ago. He stepped in at a time of immense challenge and has led this organization through an incredible transformation that set that stage for everything that is to come. I am extremely grateful to Jason for his partnership to me and the rest of the ownership group over the past year. His guidance has been invaluable and his leadership has helped reshape our culture.

Harris and Tad Brown, the CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, will lead the search for the next team president.

 

Commanders minority owner does not like Commanders’ name?

What does one of Washington’s co-owners think of the nickname?

Washington Commanders minority owner Mitchell Rales is not a fan of the name “Commanders?”

Burgundy Blog (from X, formerly Twitter), as a guest on the “Al Galdi Podcast” this past week, conveyed to Galdi that Rales is indeed not excited about the name “Commanders”.

An acquaintance told Burgundy Blog that at a social event a few months ago, Rales asked a few attendees what they thought of the team’s current name.

The answer he got was extremely negative, and he (Rales) corroborated his feelings of not being excited about “Commanders” either. Rales reportedly then expressed something to the effect of we will see if we can do something about that.

No, this is not confirmed. Burgundy Blog continues to hide behind his anonymity. Nor did he name his acquaintance who conveyed the story to him.

The vast majority of the fan base would certainly love to hear one of the more visible owners (Josh Harris, Rales, Mark Ein) speak negatively about the current name.

But that is not going to happen—at least for a while. The Harris Ownership Group (HOG) wisely keeps its priorities in order and realizes it can wait and see if a winning team changes the fan base’s attitude.

There has been no season with a winning record since Kirk Cousins led Washington to an 8-7-1 season in 2016. The HOG understands this fan base most needs a winning team, period.

But also, Jason Wright’s terrible television rebranding announcement was executed horribly. How did Wright and Snyder not realize Julie Donaldson would have been so much more energetic, experienced, and attractive in front of television cameras?

Head coach Dan Quinn recently wearing the T-shirt containing the “W” logo while also adding the feathers from past Redskins logos ignited excitement in the fan base. Hopes were raised of a change from Commanders.

But for now, we wait…

 

Voice of Commanders remembers how driven legendary Washington coach Joe Gibbs was

The voice of the Commanders discusses the legendary Joe Gibbs.

Bram Weinstein grew up in the DMV, a big Washington Redskins fan.

Weinstein told John Keim of Ampire Media this week of how he grew up attending games at RFK Stadium, home of the Redskins, and they were one of the three or four best teams in the NFL many seasons.

Joe Gibbs coached Washington from the 1981-1992 seasons, leading them to five NFC Title games, four Super Bowls and winning three Super Bowl championships.

So, when Gibbs returned to coach the Redskins in the 2004 season, there was Weinstein, then an adult, a graduate of American University, and a reporter doing his job covering the Redskins.

Weinstein found Gibbs “to be a genuinely nice person, very giving with his time, with the exception on Fridays, when he turned into ‘Friday Joe.’ The game face came on.”

“He was extremely generous with his time Monday through Thursday then Friday would come along. It was like a light bulb went off. It was like he was ready to go into the ring. He became very short and didn’t have time for you anymore. He was just ready to go, and you could see the competitive nature.”

Weinstein also notes that Gibbs was very good at getting to know the people in the media and giving them some time to do their jobs. However, when it was time to double down and just work, he says, Gibbs took it as seriously as anyone I ever saw. You saw the competitive fire literally come out of him.”

During Gibbs’ second tenure, Weinstein says, “You could see why it burned him out the first time. It meant so much; his emotions went to such a place the results ate at him.”

Indeed in nine of his twelve seasons in his 1.0 tenure, the Redskins won over .600 of their games. In those twelve seasons, only one was a losing season, and that was a 7-9 1988 season.

“That’s who he was, and that’s probably why he was so successful. He knew how to handle personalities, how to delegate authority, knew how to motivate. When Sundays rolled around, it was dead serious to him.”

“I think that is why these guys played for him the way they did, the two times they played for him.”

WATCH: Washington legend Darrell Green looks like he can still play at 64

Darrell Green has still got it.

Darrell Green is one of the NFL’s greatest cornerbacks. How hard is it to play in the NFL for 20 years, much less at cornerback, where you are on an island on every play?

Green played all 20 seasons in Washington, won two Super Bowls, was a four-time first-team All-Pro, seven-time Pro Bowler and a member of the 1990s All-Decade Team. Green was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008 — his first year of eligibility.

Throughout his NFL career, Green was also a four-time winner of the “NFL’s Fastest Man” award.

Since his retirement in 2002, Green has often run the 40-yard dash to show everyone he still had the speed he was famous for. In recent months, Green has returned to the Washington organization under new owner Josh Harris and will have his jersey retired this upcoming season.

These days, Green still trains as if he still plays.

On Sunday, Green took to his Instagram to show he’s still got it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9IKSesxiZJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Keep in mind that Green is 64 years old.

The Commanders could use some help at cornerback in 2024.

Former Washington linebacker Brad Dusek dies

Looking back at the career of Brad Dusek in Washington.

Former Washington Redskins starting linebacker Brad Dusek has died.

Sadly, the former left outside linebacker had suffered several years from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dusek, born on Dec. 13, 1950, died peacefully on June 10, 2024.

Dusek was drafted 56 overall in the 1973 NFL draft by the New England Patriots. Just prior to the season, Dusek was traded to the Redskins. Playing all 14 games of the season on special teams in 1974, Dusek became a starter in the 1975 season. For the next five seasons, Dusek played in and started each and every game for Washington. He appeared in every game during the 1980 season, starting 14 of the 16 regular season games. Dusek started nine of his ten 1981 games, ending his NFL career. The former Texas A&M Aggie recovered three fumbles for Washington that he returned for touchdowns.

Dusek had a real nose for the ball, and his hustle allowed him to recover 16 NFL fumbles. In 1977, Dusek not only intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble, but he also registered 7.0 quarterback sacks (a career high).

One of the more memorable moments I recall of Dusek occurred in the 1978 season opener at New England. The Redskins were a 9.5 point underdog and trailed in the final quarter 14-9, when defensive tackle Dave Butz broke through, made a tackle, forcing a fumble when Dusek picked up the fumble and scored from 31 yards, as Washington won 16-14.

At Texas A&M, Dusek displayed well-rounded athleticism as he started games at safety, running back, fullback, and linebacker. He served as team captain his senior season and earned three letters (1970-72). He was inducted into the Texas A&M Hall of Fame in 2014.

A funeral service was held at 11:00 am Thursday, June 20, 2024, at First Baptist Church, 8015 W. Adams Ave., Temple, Texas 76502, and was officiated by the Rev. Gary Baxley.

Dusek was buried at Bellwood Memorial Park in Temple, Texas.

Former Washington linebacker’s son to follow in his footsteps

LaVar Arrington’s son to follow in his footsteps at Penn State.

In 1997, the Internet was nowhere near as popular as today, and neither were football recruiting services. One year later, Rivals.com was born. It was the first online recruiting hub that ranked high school players. But even before social media, when you heard the name LaVar Arrington, you knew he would be a superstar.

With Arrington, you didn’t know if he would be a running back, track star, or basketball. He was a phenomenal athlete.

Arrington also played linebacker at North Hills High School in Pittsburgh. He signed with Penn State—”Linebacker U,” and it was a match made in heaven.

In three years with the Nittany Lions, Arrington did not disappoint. While he was best known for the “LaVar Leap,” Arrington also won the Chuck Bednarik Award, Dick Butkus Award, and Lambert Award. He finished his as a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection and was a unanimous All-American in 1999.

He entered the 2000 NFL draft, where he was the No. 2 pick by the then-Washington Redskins. Arrington’s career got off to a phenomenal start, but injuries and clashes with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and, more importantly, owner Dan Snyder led to a disappointing ending to his time in Washington.

He played for the Giants for one year in 2007 and retired after being injured in a motorcycle accident.

Now, Arrington’s son — LaVar Arrington II — is headed to play college football. And, no surprise, he’s following his famous father to Happy Valley to play for the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Arrington looks a lot like his father. He is a 6-foot-4, 215-pound linebacker prospect from Charter Oak High School in Covina, California. According to 247Sports, Arrington is a three-star prospect and the 570th overall player in the 2025 recruiting class.

Many Washington fans will always hold a special place in their hearts for Arrington, wishing things could’ve gone differently.

Congratulations to the Arrington family.