David Alprin had his anti-Dan Snyder artwork, or whatever you want to call the above paper plate thingee, confiscated at the gates of FedExField two weeks ago.
Alprin’s a longtime Skins season ticketholder and was one of many fans who wanted to make a statement about the state of the franchise.
He’d stayed up late the night before the Tampa Bay game crafting dozens and dozens of his statement-makers. But then Snyder’s jack-booted thugs, in the form of the yellow-jacketed FedExField security staff, threw Alprin’s civil-disobedient plates in the garbage before letting him in the stadium.
But while Snyder killed the message, he didn’t kill the messenger. And Alprin’s going back for more of the same this weekend.
“I’m thinking about going stealth and bringing in pens, markers, etc., and making signs in the stadium either on paper we bring or the back of the drink caddies,” he says.
He won’t be alone.
More on the Prague Spring of Redskins fans to come.
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(AFTER THE JUMP: Another installment of BogusHogetteGate? Really? Michelle Rhee thinks she’s god? Really? Coat-tailing on Mike DeBonis’ genius? Really? Melanie Oudin’s coming to town with her mom, dad AND coach? Really? Snyder comes out on top in something? No way! Way?)
In case you missed any of the several dozen installments of BogusHogetteGate™ that have appeared in Cheap Seats Daily lately, here’s a reprise, just to throw a bone to the inferiority complex ravaged print version.
The keeper for me is that along with being an unsanctioned Hogette who goes by Stephette Hogette, Brooklynite Steve Rasnikov is also a rapper who relies on his, um, flow to land the ladies at Redskins tailgates. The guy’s a hoot, whether he knows it or not.
All the clowns in this circus will be at FedExField on Sunday.
Here’s hoping it gets uglier!
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Back to real news: In case you missed it: Amazin’ Mike DeBonis’ latest and greatest find proves that Michelle Rhee not only runs the city, she runs the media, too.
We all already suspected she ran everything, right? The megalomania in the email DeBonis uncovered from the schools Chancellor — yeah, even Rhee’s title is obnoxious — meshes with her behavior throughout my limited and 100-percent-frustrating dealings with DC Public Schools.
Several weeks ago I was trying to deal with Rhee’s office about her handling of last year’s Dunbar/Fort Hill racial incident.
It had been about a year since Dunbar coach Craig Jefferies pulled his team off the field immediately after Dunbar was hit with three consecutive unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, which, based on visual evidence, all seem justified.
Afterwards, Jefferies said he took the drastic action not because of the ref’s calls, but because players from host Fort Hill were using racial taunts, including the “N-word,” on his team.
Suddenly, Dunbar/Fort Hill became a national story.
But while officials from Fort Hill and Allegany County, Md., cooperated in investigations from local, state and even federal agencies, Rhee’s office impeded all investigations into Jefferies charges. Rhee ignored a request from the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, the group which governs high school sports in the state, to assist in its investigation of Jefferies’ allegations. MPSSAA had no choice but to award the game to Fort Hill as a forfeit.
Rhee also ignored a request from the U.S. Department of Justice for a written report on Dunbar’s side of the story.
Rhee’s refusal to cooperate with anybody in any way crushed the investigation: Because only one side, the Fort Hill side, was telling its story, the Department of Justice never released a written report that it told all parties it would be releasing.
With no report, everybody looks bad: The Fort Hill kids are left officially unexonerated, and Jefferies and the Dunbar coaches were left hanging with nobody and nothing to back up their side.
Rhee refused all recent requests from Washington City Paper to discuss any aspect of the Dunbar/Fort Hill situation, including her complete lack of cooperation with the federal government in what was, again, a national story.
She does talk to the press occasionally, of course. A cover story about Rhee from some journal called “Education Next” was linked on City Desk after DeBonis’ gem. The story had a quote from Rhee as she was asked “to name her most significant achievement in her two years in Washington.”
“We have begun—begun—begun—to establish a culture of accountability,” Rhee said.
The kids from Dunbar and Fort Hill know otherwise, Chancellor.
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A little run in a major, and she’s a star: Melanie Oudin, the macho/cute Georgian teen who upset three seeds in the latest U.S. Open, has just been announced as a headliner at this year’s BCF Tennis Challenge, a long-running charity event founded more than 20 years ago by local girl made good Pam Shriver. The tourney is Dec. 9 at the First Mariner Arena in Baltimore.
Wonder if Melanie will bring her mom? Dad? Coach?
I feel dirty. But, heck, she’s a star now. This is what we write about stars.
Tickets are now on sale.
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Via DCRTV: A new round of numbers in the feud between WTEM and WJFK comes out, and for the first time Dan Snyder’s sportstalker is on top: The latest Portable People Meter ratings, which counts the entire audience over 12 years old, have WTEM in 18th place in the market, and rival WJFK in 19th. WJFK would say, “Hey, we only count 25-54 year old males and we’re doing fabulously with those guys!” To which I’d counter: “Absolutely! But can you let Dan Snyder win just one teensy little thing while the papers are saying everything else the guy’s touched has gone to hell?”