Midweek Time Killers: D.C. Sports Business

This post revolves around two recent Washington City Paper pieces from Dave McKenna's "Cheap Seats" column. The first piece centers on the Redskins partnersip with liquor conglomerate Diageo. Although Diageo is funding responsible drinking programs (aka using the programs as advertising), it also put out a reward for any NFL player who would strike a Captain Morgan pose after scoring a touchdown. You can read about it here.

Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has quickly gained the reputation as the best, and most fan friendly, professional sports franchise owner in the area. With the Capitals owning the best record in the NHL, the Verizon Center is sold out for most all Caps home games. According to this "Cheap Seats" piece, Leonsis is now reaping additional financial rewards of the Caps success by putting some Caps tickets into a program where fans pay just to have the option to buy tickets at a future date. It seems the program works well for a franchise whose tickets are in high demand, but somehow I can't see the program working for the beleagured Washington Wizards.

End of Year Time Killers

Over the past few weeks, several articles have been published dealing with some of Shedd's Spot favorite subjects: Robert Byrd, Dan Snyder, the Washington Nationals. Seeing that the Shedd's Spot postings have been few and far between lately, I thought I'd share the articles with you.

A couple of days before Christmas, The Washington Post ran this story on the ol' Exalted Cyclops and how important he was to healthcare reform passing in the Senate. Three days after the article was published, The Post ran this brief feedback piece from the literary editor of The Weekly Standard that reminds readers of Robert Byrd's involvement in the Klan.

In early December, the Washington City Paper's Dave McKenna used his Cheap Seats column to sum up all of Dan Snyder's 2009 missteps. Read the column and get a laugh or two here.

On December 30th, soon to be ex-Washington Post Nationals beat reporter Chico Harlan wrote this Nats Journal piece on the 10 biggest Nationals developments of 2009. To me, the post affirms my claim the biggest mistake the Lerner family made since acquiring the team was keeping Jim Bowden as general manager. The team bottomed out in spring of 2009 with the Smiley Gonzalez scandal and, since then, the team has made massive positive changes in its front office. Unfortunately, those changes don't translate immediately to wins on the diamond. But, some of us have faith the team is finally headed in the right direction.

The Chefs, the Skins and Amarillo Slim (the use of "Chefs" was intentional)

Amarillo Slim, who is considered the world's greatest proposition gambler, once said "You can shear a sheep 100 times, but you can only skin it once". For those of you who aren't knowledgable about the world of gambling and cons, that basically means you can play a sucker for some of his money often, but you can only bankrupt him once.

Here in the D.C. area, Dan Snyder has his hunting knife out and is starting to skin Redskin fans. After ten years of finding every possible way to reach into Redskins fans' pockets and pull out a dollar, Snyder is down to what may be his final con, putting the worst Redskins team in decades on the field and asking fans to continue to pay for admission to FedEx Field.

I won't list out all the scams Snyder has pulled over the years, Dave McKenna of the Washington City Paper is making a career of doing that. And, most everyone in the area read the series of articles a few weeks back in the Washington Post about ticket brokers getting first shot at tickets from the Redskins ticket office and the team filing suit against premium seat ticket holders who broke their multi-season contracts. But, none of Snyder's stunts compare to the fact Snyder continues to fancy himself a football operations expert after 10 years of Redskins mediocrity or worse and that he wants Redskins fans to believe it.

Finally, Redskins fans are seeing the light and realizing they are getting skinned. There are more and more empty seats at Fed Up...I mean...FedEx Field and fan reaction in the media outlets is one of disgust. Of course, we won't know for sure if the skinning is complete until those empty seats at FedEx Field are being driven by unsold tickets and not just no shows. Snyder's skinning of the Redskins fan base will be complete when the fans have turned the tide and put some pain in Snyder's pocket the way he has done the fans' pockets the last ten years.

Today's Redskins loss to the Chiefs continues the Redskins trend of helping teams in the midst of losing streaks break them. A couple of weeks back, I was in Missouri the day after the Chiefs got blasted by the Philadelphia Eagles 34-14. I gave the two sports radio stations in Kansas City a long listen that day while I was driving from Columbia to K.C. It was amazing how similar the calls into the station were to the calls received by the sports radio stations here in the D.C. area. There were the recurring themes in the calls of how the team had no direction, no talent and no hope. A common comment that day was "even Lions won yesterday" (the Lions had defeated the Redskins). For a while, I debated calling one of the stations to make a point I thought all those Chiefs fans were missing, at least they had a real football executive running the team since the Chiefs'owners had hired Scott Pioli away from the New England Patriots during the offseason. That alone puts the Chiefs one giant step ahead of the Redskins. Hell, today's game puts them two steps ahead of the Redskins.
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I'm thinking it's about time the Redskins were the subject of a commerical like this one that once used the Chiefs...I mean the Chefs...as the punchline.

Quickies

I'm starting to think I should post weekly links to Dave McKenna's weekly "Cheap Seats" column in the Washington City Paper. McKenna seems to have it in for Dan Snyder and his money grubbing tactics more than I do. McKenna's latest column focuses on Snyder's use of adding "parking fees" to ticket prices for non-Redskin events at FedEx field.

The Washington Nationals announced recently the team had made a record breaking offer to Stephen Strasburg, the number one overall pick in this year's amateur baseball draft. That would mean the offer is more than the $10.5 million the Cubs gave to Mark Prior in 2001. I bolded amateur above to indicate Strasburg has never thrown a pitch above the college level. Still, his agent, Scott Boras, thinks Strasburg is worthy of the type of money paid to established veterans, although Boras may be the only one who believes that. I think many true Nationals fans, and I'm one of them, are to the point where it wouldn't bother us if the Nationals tell Boras and Strasburg to f**k off. Nationals color commentator Rob Dibble had this to say directly to Strasburg via Dibble's MASN blog and I think it summarizes the siutation fairly well. (Dibble reiterated these views during the broadcast of Saturday's Nationals-Reds game, using Drew Storen's negotiations with the Nationals as an example of what a young player should do once drafted.) The deadline for signing Strasburg, and all other 2009 draft picks, is today. My hope is that, if Strasburg doesn't sign, none of Boras' other clients are signed (he is the agent for 5 of the top 13 picks including the top 3) and that Boras loses credibility with amatuer players going forward.

Quickies

Today's Quickies post continues coverage of two subjects Shedd's Spot just can't resist, Stormy Daniels potential Senate run and Dan Snyder screw ups.

I heard on the radio a while back that adult film star, and potential Senate candidate, Stormy Daniels had been arrested on a domestic violence charge for hitting her husband, among other things. (Maybe she's leaving "regular" porn and moving on to S&M porn and she was practicing for a different type of role?) But, besides Stormy's look in the mugshot to right, the strange thing about this story is that Daniel's political advisor in Louisiana, Brian Welsh, had his car blown up. You can read about both events in this New York Post article.

The latest round of bad publicity for Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder actually has nothing to do with the Redskins. Instead, it involves Six Flags, the bankrupt amusement park chain Snyder controls. Shedd's Spot regular reader, "Barton Street", sent me this link to a recent item from the Washington City Paper that discusses Six Flags second quarter results.

Midweek Time Killers...Stupid and Serious Sports Stuff

Many D.C. area residents have probably heard about the awkward in game interview Senator John Kerry gave MASN's Debbi Taylor during one of the Red Sox-Nationals games at Nationals Park last week. I was at the game, so I didn't have the...uh....pleasure of seeing it, but the bulk of it can be read in this D.C. Sports Bog entry. If you dig a little deeper, it's easy to find more examples of Senator Kerry's stiffness and general lack of knowledge when it comes to sports. This Boston Herald column discusses a few of them.

A few weeks after being let go from Dan Snyder owned WTEM radio, Brian Mitchell speaks out about it to USA Today here. (I think it's time Mitchell and ol' CP, Clinton Portis, have it out in a celebrity boxing match. I know a certain fledgling charity in Arlington that would love to sponsor the match and collect the proceeds.) According to this Washington Post piece from a couple of weeks back, the managment of WJFK is planning a jump into full time sports radio. Maybe Mitchell can catch on there.

For a little lighter fare, that is not stupid, check out this WRC-TV website page which features Sonny Jurgensen's 1994 interview with Sammy Baugh.

And finally, "J.D." forwarded me this Jason Whitlock column about the recent HBO Real Sports piece on Jim Brown and Bill Russell. Seeing that Tiger Woods is in town for the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club, it seems appropriate to post a link to the column because part of the column discusses Jim Brown's feelings toward Tiger Woods. That happens, of course, after Whitlock talks about his fascination with strip clubs. Who else would write "Jesus walked with prostitutes. Jason walks with strippers."?

Quickies

First off, Variety reports in this story that Columbia Pictures is scrapping the movie version of Michael Lewis' book Moneyball. The movie was to have starred Brad Pitt as Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane. The A's have a history of fielding competitive teams on a small budgets thanks to Beane's use of statistical analysis which allows the A's find productive young players who do not yet command outrageous contracts.

According to this Yahoo Sports piece, Chicago Cubs manager Lou Pinella doesn't "know a steroid from a reefer". FYI Lou, a reefer is a refrigerated rail car used for shipping food and perishables.

And speaking of Lou Pinella, here is a TV station flashback to 1992 when Pinella was the manager of the Cicinniati Reds and he got into a tussle with then Reds relief pitcher, and now Washington Nationals color analyst, Rob Dibble.

Finally, I've done my share of Dan Snyder bashing here on Shedd's Spot and I believe he has deserved every bit of it and more. In an entry back in March, I mentioned how I had received mailings from the Redskins for a couple of years telling me I had risen to the top of the 200,000+ person season ticket waiting list. Everyone in D.C. with half a brain knows the length of that list is a bigger lie than anything that's ever come out of Marion Barry's mouth. Well, this April snipet in The Washington City Paper further proves it.

Midweek Time Killers

Many of you may have seen last year's HBO Real Sports story about Lenny Dykstra. The story told of Dykstra's financial genius and how he had turned his investment in a car wash into a financial empire. This lengthy ESPN.com piece by Mike Fish follows up on the Real Sports story, but casts Dykstra in a far different light.

A couple of weeks back, I saw the The Washington City Paper had a cover story entitled "Screw U" about sex, or a supposed lack thereof, on campus at Catholic University. I thought to myself "that oughta be interesting". Well, I was disappointed. The article detailed how the student code prohibited most every sex act. But, guess what? The University is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. Would that surprise you? The piece goes on to say the anti-sex rules aren't really enforced. So, in the end, you have to wonder what was the point of piece. I would have found an article on the rules at Bob Jones University much more interesting.

WTEM radio, owned by Dan Snyder, did not renew the contracts of ex-Redskin Brian Mitchell and the hair spray kid, Al Koken. Maybe Mitchell's contract was not renewed because of his heated on air discussion with Clinton Portis last fall. ("CP's pockets is straight" was a classic line although I still have no idea what to hell it means.) Back in Feb., "J.D.", "Vern", "Vern's" son, "D", and I went to the Mason-Madison basketball game at JMU. Prior to the game, Al Koken, who was doing play by play of the game, was in the men's room primping and making sure each hair was glued in place. I made an offer to "D" of $10 if we would go over and mess up Koken's hair. "D", who is 10, was up for it, but "Vern" wasn't. I would have laughed my a** off if "D" would have pulled the stunt. It wouldn't have been hard for "D" considering Koken and "D" are about the same height. Anway, a Washington City Paper blub about Mitchell and Koken's departures is here.

Midweek Time Killers...D.C. Sports Style

First off, The Washington Times' Dan Daly thinks tonight's Game 7 between the Capitals and Penguins is destined to be among the greatest sporting events ever held in the D.C. area. You can read his list here and then form your own opinion on it. Personally, I disagree with the event at the top of his list, George Mason's defeat or UConn in the 2006 NCAA Eastern Region Final, and it pains me to say that. The game was great, but its long term impact on the area was nowhere near the game I would have at the top of the list, the Redskins defeat of the Dallas Cowboys at RFK in the NFC Championship game after the 1982 season. Although, George Allen had started Redskins mania in the 70s, that January 1983 game cemented the Redskins as the sports institution in the National Capital Area. Only now, with Dan Snyder's mismanagement of the team, is the lustre wearing off the Redskins. (On a personal note, I would like to nominate as an honorable mention, the Wakefield High School boys basketball team's 61-56 defeat of Grant Hill's South Lakes team in the 1990 Northern Region (Va.) final.)

In this 1994 column, the dean of Washington sportswriters, the late Shirley Povich, remembers, 70 years later, the Washington Senators' 1924 World Series win.

Finally, you can relive the highlights of the Washington Bullets game seven win over the Seattle Supersonics in the 1978 NBA Champiosnhip and watch some post game interviews in the following clips. By the way, the Big E was THE MAN.

Shedd's Spot 100th Post

It's been a little over four months since I set this blog up and posted my first entry. That entry, celebrating the end of West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd's tenure as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was inspired by my visit to West Virginia over the holidays. During that trip, it seemed every turn I took led me to something named after Byrd, who is one of the all time kings of pork barrel spending.

Since then, I've tried to be informative and funny while trying not to take myself too seriously. There have been quite a few posts on the Washington Nationals, a few lamenting the days of old here in the D.C. area, and a lot of posts on music.

Not surprisingly, two of the most read posts were ones picked up by other blogs or websites. "Frank Goes Nuts" was picked up the L.A. Angels fan blog Three Days of Cryin' while "Music News from Elvis Costello and Bill Kirchen" was linked to by the website Elvis Costello Fans. Another widely read post was "The Godfather Winds Up the Crowd at Wolf Trap" about Chuck Brown's April appearance at the Barns of Wolf Trap.

A post that has been suprisingly popular is the Friday Frolics post featuring Junior Samples. It has made its way around the world wide web a few times via email. Who knew there were that many Junior Samples fans out there?

One thing I have noticed is that if you mention the NCAA in a post, someone with that organzation is going to read it. Every mention of the NCAA here on Shedd's Spot has garnered at least one hit from a PC (or Blackberry) on the NCAA's network.

I want to thank a few folks for their help so far...Tadcranky for his blogging tips, same for "M.K. in Portand and "J.D." in Richmond for his topic suggestions. Most of all, thanks to all of you for reading, even the reader who called me a "big p*ssy fair weather fan" in an anonymous comment on my post "With Eight Tickets You Get a Haynesworth" that criticized the Washington Redskins for signing Albert Haynesworth. As long as y'all keep reading, I'll keep posting.

Quickies

This week's Quickies post is a day early in order to make room for a special Shedd's Spot post on Monday.

Sports Illustrated recently ran this piece listing the five best and worst owners in each of the four major professional sports. Not surprisingly, two local owners, Dan Snyder and Ted Lerner, made the worst lists for their respective sports. All regular readers know how I feel about Redskins owner Dan Snyder. How anyone whose only football playing experience is smear the queer as a child (and I'm guessing he was the queer) can have a big enough ego to think he can be the end all when it comes to player personnel deccision is beyond me. As to Lerner, I'm still drinking the Kool-Aid and believing the Nationals will turn it around in the next couple of seasons. Ted Lerner's biggest mistake, and it was a HUGE one, was keeping Jim Bowden as general manager when Lerner took ownership of the team in 2006.

Regular readers may remember a post a few weeks back mentioning the state of Delaware was consdering legalizing a form of sports betting. The orginal bill died, but a revised version passed the state's lethe Clock"gislature last week. Here is a story on the updated legislation. By the way, the NCAA is still opposed to the bill.

55 years ago today (May 10, 1954), "Rock Around the Clock" was released by Bill Haley & His Comets. "Rock Around the Clock" is considered to be the first rock and roll song to make #1 on the pop charts, although it did not make #1 until 1955, after its inclusion in the movie Blackboard Jungle. Haley died of natural causes in 1981, but there are several stories of very bizarre behavior in his final days. Haley's life and death was the subject of Dave Alvin's song "Haley's Comet" which was released on Alvin's 1991 CD Blue Boulevard.

So Many Sports Items, So Little Time

Over the past week or so, I heard or read about several sports items I thought would be interesting to the sports minded readers of this blog. So here goes...

Today, USA Today ran this piece on the effect the World Baseball Classic has on the pitchers who participate in it. Being a Nationals fan, I saw the effect first hand when Luis Ayala, one of the Nationals' best relief pitchers, blew out his elbow during the 2006 WBC and was lost for the entire season. Prior to the injury, Ayala never had a season with an ERA over 2.92. In fact, his his 2004 and 2005 ERAs were 2.69 and 2.62, respectively. He managed a respectable 3.19 ERA upon his return in 2007, but he did not seem to have the same stuff he had in 2005. The 2008 season was a disaster for Ayala as he posted ERAs in the high fives both here and with the Mets. I saw several of his appearances in person last year and, at times, it looked like he was pitching batting practice.

Today's Washington Times featured this article on the struggles many sports museums are having in these harsh economic times. After reading this, I really wondered what effect the economy would have on Dan Snyder's plans for a Redskins hall of fame and museum and the NASCAR Hall of Fame which is presently being constructed in Charlotte and a sports museum I almost visited, The National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. (Almost you ask? Well, I was in Chicago and stumbled upon the NIASHF while in Litte Italy for a street festival that featured a Smithereens concert. I was going to take a short tour, but the Hall closed early that day to prepare for a lecture by Tommy Lasorda. By the way, the lecture wasn't on baseball. It was on wine. The lecture was followed by a wine tasting and sale that featured wine from a vineyard Lasorda was involved in. And, before moving on from Tommy Lasorda, here's a medley of some of his best tirades, complete with plenty of F bombs.)

Back to today's USA Today, this piece details the Mountain West Conference's recent proposal for an eight team national championship playoff in major college football. Talk about being idealistic! I can't see how the BCS conferences would ever allow a playoff to happen. And, if the NCAA has anything to do with a playoff, I'm sure they would screw it up as they often do the Division I-AA playoffs (the subject of a future post as football season draws nearer). Seeing everyone has an opinion on a playoff and this is my blog, here is my propsoal...

Have a 16 team playoff which gives an automatic bid to all eleven conferences in Division I-A (I refuse to call it FBS). The other five spots would be at large berths. The 16 participating teams would be seeded 1 thru 16 and a traditional tournament would be held. The higher seeds would host first and second round games with the semi-finals and finals to be played at bowl sites. Yes, this format would include some teams that would have no chance in hell of winning (i.e. the Conference U.S.A, MAC and Sun Belt champions). But, those teams would at least be able to say they have a chance at the national championship while being cannon fodder for the top seeded teams.

Daily we hear about the effects the poor economy are having on everything from the stock market down to man on the street. It seems a constant barrage of bad news is all you hear, so normally this story about the how economy is effecting the Quail Hollow Golf Championship wouldn't have caught my attention. Honestly, and for good reason, I had never heard of the Quail Hollow Golf Championship until I heard a discussion about it on the radio. Up until this year, the tournament was named the Wachovia Championship, after the bank which paid $3 million per year to sponsor the tournament. This year's name change has nothing to do with Wachovia (now a part of Wells Fargo) pulling its sponsorship. But, it has everything to do with PR. Wachovia/Wells Fargo is countractually obligated to sponsor the tournament thru 2014, but the bank does not want the negative publicity associated with what the public may consider a frivolous expense after the bank took government bailout money.

And finally, Nationals pitcher Shawn Hill missed his scheduled spring training start today because of soreness in his pitching arm. I guess some things never change....poor guy.

With Eight Tickets You Get A Haynesworth

There is always a day in early March when the nation's capital is a buzz. It has nothing to do with anything at the White House, on Capitol Hill or on the Mall. The buzz is about what happens at Redskins Park in Ashburn, where the Redskins are almost always a contender to win the Free Agency Bowl.

After a year of modest activity in free agency, we should have known the Big and Little Enos Burdette of the NFL, Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato, couldn't sit still. They went immediately for the big splash. One made by the biggest fish in the pond, both literally and figuratively, Albert Haynesworth. It's reported Haynesworth, is about to sign a seven year/$100 million contract with the Redskins. That is a very big investment in a player who, when motivated, healthy and in shape, is considered the best defensive tackle in the game. But, those are three giant qualifying factors considering Haynesworth have never played a full season. In fact, according to this piece by The Washington Post's Jason La Confora, Haynesworth has never played more than 65% of the snaps in the season. Given the Redskins' history in signing big name free agents, I think I'm bound to see Haynesworth down at the Weanie Beanie ordering a dozen chili dogs at a time and talking smack with the locals....and eating his way out of football.

If you're wondering how the Redskins think they are going get the money to pay this $100 million to Haynesworth and the $55 million pledged to D'Angelo Hall earlier today, I have your answer. They think it's me. That's right, for the third year in a row, I have received a letter from the Redskins telling me I have the "once in a lifetime opportunity" to buy up to eight Redskins season tickets. (Geez, I'm lucky. How many times does someone get a "once in a lifetime opportunity" three times?) Unfortunately for the Redskins, I'm going to wait for a fourth "once in a lifetime opportunity", hoping the fourth opportunity is me meeting a super model who is smart, funny, perpetually horny and who loves Shedd more than anything in the world. I'll save my money for our honeymoon and never give another thought to those Redskins tickets I don't have.

But seriously, I retired as a Redskins fan in the summer of 2008, the day Darrell Green and Art Monk were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. All through the 1990s and up to the 2006 season, I had Redskins tickets I had purchased from a family friend or from a person who had worked for me. Meanwhile, I waited for my name to come to the top of what I was told was a 90,000 person season ticket waiting list. I was thinking it would really be cool to have tickets in my own name so I wouldn't be dependent on other people for tickets.

Up until 2005 or so, I really enjoyed going to the games, although the Redskins were never good. I had the good fortune of being part of a good sized tailgating group. Some Sundays we would have 25 or 30 people and we always had good food and cold beer. But a few years ago, things began to change. Ticket and parking passes steadily increased in price while the product on the field never got any better. Slowly, our tailgating group got smaller as, one by one, ticket holders in the group got frustrated with the Redskins' play and the feeling that Dan Snyder was looking only to make money, not to field a winning team. I attended my last game in 2007. By that time, our tailgating group had shrunk to five people and getting to and from Fed Ex Field was just a labor, not a labor of love.

So, now that I've written this blog entry, the letter telling me I have risen to the top of the now 200,000 person waiting list and giving me the chance to see Albert Haynesworth from somewhere in the upper regions of Fed Ex Field, is going into the trash can next to my desk. My fandom for the Redskins has been there for a quite a while.

Snyder & Cerrato Ready to Star in Smokey & the Bandit Remakes

Washington Redskins' owner Dan Snyder and Vice President Vinny Cerrato have agreed to star in five remakes of Smokey and the Bandit.

These movies will be set on a football field as Big & Litltle Enos Burdette, played by Snyder and Cerrato, wager large contracts to a long line of coaches playing the Bandit. The wager to Norv Turner, Marty Shottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, Joe Gibbs & Jim Zorn is the coach can turn around a franchise that Snyder destroyed and continues to meddle in while not ruining the coaches' individual reputation.


Rumor has it this was the lone creative project to come from Snyder's brief joint venture into Scientology with Tom Cruise. Meanwhile, Shedd's Spot has learned there is no truth to the rumor former senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson has signed on to play Sheriff Buford T. Justice.

(Pictured at the top are the original Big & Enos Burdette as played by Pat McCormick and Paul Williams. Just above are the new Burdettes, Snyder and Cerrato.)

Why are the Eagles in the Playoffs and the Redskins Sitting at Home? Two Word Answer...Akeem Jordan

It seems every year about this time, the Washington Redskins are either in some sort of turmoil or they are already looking forward to spending large amounts lot of money on flashy free agents in the coming spring, or both. I've heard the comment multiple times on sports talk radio that the Redskins win the free agent championship every March, but they never win a football championship on the field in the fall. And, except for an occasional limp into the playoffs, that fact has been true since Dan Snyder purchased the team.

There's no need to recount the many free agent signings and bad trade busts the Redskins have made during the Snyder regime. (Plus, I don't have the time to write a blog entry the supposed length of the Redskins 200,000 person season ticket waiting list.) But, it easy to assess the Redskins' basic problem, especially in comparison to the teams that are competitive on a year to year basis. Teams like the Steelers, the Patriots and, yes, the Philadelphia Eagles.

These organizations continue to build the core of their team through player scouting, the draft and player development. Then, these teams use an occasional big name signing to help them take the final step toward a deep run in the playoffs (e.g. the Patriots signing of Randy Moss). While the Redskins continue wallow away in the glitz of free agent signings, trading away mid round draft picks for busts, and drafting flash over substance in the early rounds of the draft (two WRs in the 2008 draft), teams such as the Eagles are scouting colleges at every leval and in every area of the country and signing players like Akeem Jordan.

The Philadelphia Eagles signed LB Akeem Jordan in the days following the 2007 NFL Draft as undrafted free agent rookie out of James Madison. Jordan made the Eagles' roster at the end of training camp, but days later was cut by the team and then signed to their practice squad. Jordan remained on the Eagles' practice squad for the the first half of the 2007 season, earning the practice squad salary of $5000 per week.

When the Eagles' linebacking corps was decimiated by injuries in the second half of the 2007 season, Jordan was promoted to the active roster. He immediately exceled on special teams and, because of even more Eagles injuries, he was starting at outside linebacker by the final game of the season.

Jordan made the the Eagles' 2008 roster as the Eagles' fourth linebacker and as a speacial teams standout. During mid-season, Eagles coach And Reid and Defensive Coordinator Jim Johnson decided to shake things up in their defense and benched starter Omar Gaither in favor of the quicker Akeem Jordan. Jordan has started since then and should start Sunday as the Eagles take on the Cardinals for the NFC Championship.

Now, obvisously one linebacker from a Division I-AA school, making the league minimum salary, is not the reason the Eagles have a top three defense this year and are competitive most every year. But, when you team Jordan with two mid round draft picks at the other linebacker spots, you begin to see a trend. The Eagles also start Chris Gocong and Stewart Bradley at linebacker. Gocong and Bradley were both 3rd round draft picks in 2006. Bradley was drafted out of Nebraska, while Gocong came from Caly Poly-SLO, of all places.

On the surface, when and where a player comes from may all seem irrelevant. But, when you dig into the financial and salary cap aspects of it, it's an entirely different ball game. The 2008 base salaries for the Eagles starting LB corp are:

Stewart Bradley $370,000
Chris Gocong $445,000
Akeem Jordan $370,000

The total you ask? As Big Enos Burdette once said in Smokey and the Bandit, "chicken sh*t money" of $1,185,000.

Meanwhile, Dan Snyder, who thinks himself to be the Big Enos Burdette of the NFL (I guess that makes Vinny Cerrato Little Enos), is paying the Redskins' linebackers base salaries of:

Marcus Washington $4,4250,000
London FLetcher $1,240,000
Rocky McIntosh $445,000

Those total base salaries of $6,110,00, bought the Redskins one certified bad a** (Flectcher), one nice guy who is on his last leg...literally (Washington), and a young player who was benched mid game during a loss to the Bengals (McIntosh).

The comparison of the two teams linebacking corps is even more shocking where the rubber meets the road, the salary cap. The Eagles trio of LBs comes in at:

Stewert Bradley $541,000
Chris Gocong $644,630
Akeem Jordan $1,476,360

Even with Jordan receiving other bonuses, which are not signing bonuses, the Eagles cap number is $2,661,990.

Out at Redskins Park, Big and Little Enos Burdette had to work out the salary cap issues with a linebacking group who had these cap numbers:

Marcus Washington $6,445,416
London Fletcher $3,440,000
Rocky McIntosh $ 1,520,000

That's a not so chicken sh*t total of $11,405416, or over four times the salary cap charge the Eagles are taking for their three starting LBs.

So Redskins fans, feel free to brood over the reality that is the Snyder led Redskins as you watch Akeem Jordan from "little James Madison" (as John Madden used to say about Gary Clark) play in his first NFC championship game. And, try to forget the Eagles are playing in their fifth NFC championship game since 2001.