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!
***
Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com