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Amazing column by Tom Boswell (Merged)


haraldjun

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Yeah..it really is a wake-up call. I would like to see the "in-stadium beer sales" stats for the last 13 years side by side with the W-L stats. Do losing teams have higher beer sales than winning teams? What is the average number of beers sold per person per team?

I think the answers might be enlightening...

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This isn't a negative article, this is just a reality check. Really, I've seen it here for a while, people wants everything to turn on now and be just like in the glory days. It isn't going to be quite like that. Fact is, we have made some progress this year, and hopefully, we will make even more next year. If everything goes as planned, we will eventually get there.

And those guys throwing out the Spurrier records and comparing them to Gibbs should read this article. While the record is similar, it doesn't tell the whole story.

Jason

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It's hard to argue with his numbers but he can still bite me for his attitude.

Maybe, it's just the mood I'm in, but I didn't take it as a bad attitude on his part, more like a vert interesting reality-check + an encouraging one, IMO. I knew it was bad but I would have guessed there were 7-10 teams worse than us over that time. Talk about wrong.

Along with expressing my love and hopefulness each season, I've been pretty open in my circle about the "generally we've sucked" deal about the last dozen years (minue one). I thought my pre-season call for a 9-7 record was still optimistic, but now even more so.

But while I think we've improved, I'll keep this article in mind. It won't lessen my hopefulness (carefully chosen word) each season though, but it will help moderate reasonble expectations. That's something I preach anyway.

I like Gibbs' self-chosen five year picture for rebuilding. I just hope our FO takes these team-structure lessons that seem to be slowly working in Gibbs 2, and keeps them in place after his eventual departure.

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Wow, have our standards really fallen so far that this wandering, contradictory piece gets universally praised? When I first read it this morning, I figured I'd find it torn to shreds on ES.

Too tired at the moment to go in depth here right now (long day), but I will at least throw out the obvious:

Let me read your mind. Since you're probably in denial (like me), your first reaction is, "But they're getting better now."

Sorry, they aren't. The Redskins have been even worse in the last four years (.390 winning percentage) than they were in the entire 13-season span (.421). If you're like me, you have to pick your jaw up off the floor after reading these numbers. I dug up this stat because I suspected the Redskins might be surprisingly bad. For the last decade, those who run the team, as well as those who root for it, have lived in a fantasyland, assuming that the team was just a new coach or a couple of players away from contending again. But I never dreamed the Redskins had fallen so far.[/Quote]

This year, the Redskins have already won five games, come within three points (or lost in overtime) in four others and have been outscored by just seven points. If they'd been ridiculously lucky, they might be 9-2 now with five games to play.

This is not called failure. This is called progress.

Whiplash, much? Pick a side, Tom, and stick with it.

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Also ... guys, you need to keep the rule about posting full text of copyrighted material in mind. Thanks ...

10. When posting anything concerning news articles from outside sources, please include a direct link (i.e., URL) to the origination page/site. Please paste the URL directly atop the post, above a small portion of the article's text (for example, the lead paragraph or a particular sentence or two). Such a practice provides credibility and attribution to the source of the information, and allows visitors the option to visit the respective websites. You are responsible for the content you post.

If you are posting a published article from a news source, please title your thread in the following format: "SOURCE SHORTFORM: HEADLINE" (Ex. WP: Redskins Sign CB Shawn Springs).[/Quote]

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Wow, have our standards really fallen so far that this wandering, contradictory piece gets universally praised? When I first read it this morning, I figured I'd find it torn to shreds on ES.

I do agree that it isn't the best written piece in the world, but I think the point is there. I think what he means by "getting better" is thinking that we are a playoff calibur team. It is expectations that we gained when Gibbs arrived here, that the glory days have returned. It is really is a reality check that they have not. While we have gotten better, we aren't nearly there yet, and we need to adjust our expectations.

That's the difference between us and Cubs fans. At least Cubs fans didn't know what it was like when they won championships. I had to explain that one to my wife. It hurts much more that we knew what this team used to be. The Cubs have always been losers in my wife's lifetime.

Jason

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big deal, that might have meant something 10 years ago when there was no salary cap. Now you go from 5 wins to 11 (SD last year, Chi. this year). Hell next year we'll win 12.

It has been a bad decade, that's all, nothing to worry about now. The worse is over.

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Yes, I think Snyder is finally learning after the spurrier mess that you need consistency. Gibbs will get us started and hopefully we choose someone after him with a similar philosophy so that we don't have to re-build the way they want it. Hard to be optimistic with this team sometimes though.

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Tom Boswell tells it like it is.

It's not all negative. Read the end. He says they're getting better.

Exactly my sentiments. He points out how dismal the franchise has been since Gibbs left. He also points out how the team has improved since Gibbs has returned.

I, of course, infer more from these two premises than he does.

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Hopefully, [snyder] will mature emotionally, and let Joe re-build a winning team. I sure would hate to see this project get de-railed, as they ARE showing progress...

I like Gibbs' self-chosen five year picture for rebuilding. I just hope our FO takes these team-structure lessons that seem to be slowly working in Gibbs 2, and keeps them in place after his eventual departure.

This isn't a negative article, this is just a reality check. Really, I've seen it here for a while, people want everything to turn on now and be just like in the glory days. It isn't going to be quite like that. Fact is, we have made some progress this year, and hopefully, we will make even more next year. If everything goes as planned, we will eventually get there.

And those guys throwing out the Spurrier records and comparing them to Gibbs should read this article. While the record is similar, it doesn't tell the whole story.

Jason

I agree with these guys. The point of the article is just to show some patience because Gibbs is rebulding a team that has been stink-o lately.

Boswell discusses how lack of stability has hurt this team. He discusses how Gibbs is gradually improving the team. He just failed to finish with the obvious followup, which is to stress support for Gibbs and his efforts to stabilize the organization.

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Wow, have our standards really fallen so far that this wandering, contradictory piece gets universally praised? When I first read it this morning, I figured I'd find it torn to shreds on ES.

Too tired at the moment to go in depth here right now (long day), but I will at least throw out the obvious:

Whiplash, much? Pick a side, Tom, and stick with it.

When I originally opined that it was an "amazing" column I was strictly referring to the hard numbers offered. I was not praising it for it's journalistic integrity nor was I going to offer that Mr Boswell should be nominated for a Pulitzer for the piece. While Mr Boswell's opinions of progress can be challenged and misinterpreted, the numbers of wins and losses cannot. I believe that what is drawing "universal praise" is his comparison of these numbers to the NFL as a whole..not his opinions of what direction they are heading.

What I now find "amazing" is that only ONE poster was wholly negative about the article. A poster that is affiliated with this ES board which is now a functioning arm of the organization. An organization that is publicly feuding with the Washington Post.

All that being said, thanks for the tip about the copyrighted material....will be more careful in the future. :logo:

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When I originally opined that it was an "amazing" column I was strictly referring to the hard numbers offered. I was not praising it for it's journalistic integrity nor was I going to offer that Mr Boswell should be nominated for a Pulitzer for the piece. While Mr Boswell's opinions of progress can be challenged and misinterpreted, the numbers of wins and losses cannot. I believe that what is drawing "universal praise" is his comparison of these numbers to the NFL as a whole..not his opinions of what direction they are heading.

What I now find "amazing" is that only ONE poster was wholly negative about the article. A poster that is affiliated with this ES board which is now a functioning arm of the organization. An organization that is publicly feuding with the Washington Post.

All that being said, thanks for the tip about the copyrighted material....will be more careful in the future. :logo:

That was my initial reaction as well. However, after considering and re-reading the article, I can see Om's point. Not a great written piece as such things go, though not everyone can wax poetic as Om (I actually don't know what that means, but I hope he'll think I'm smart now). But the facts he presents are intruiging, and worth referencing.

The more objective I'm able to be this year, the more I see we are not one or two plays away. A good friend of mine is a huge OU fan (physically and emotionally). They played OSU last week and I watched part of the game with him, and listened to him yell at the refs, playcalling, etc. And I thought it was silly. Yes, the refs made some horrible calls (apparently they imported the refs from our game against Tampa), but OU also mis-played some keys plays and so on. They did win; however, my friend was and is convinced that there is a conspiracy the Big 12 has against OU. Kind of silly, really, but OK.

It made me realize that we are a good team, but not great. My wife graduated from VA Tech, and we watched the game last night. And in her objectiveness, she was able to say that Tech didn't deserve to go to a BCS Bowl b/c of the way they played last night. I can learn a lot...

Boswell is simply pointing out that we are as "close" as we desperately want to believe. It may be a play here, a call there, whatever. There are plenty of other teams in the league in the same situation that pull those games out, or at least 3/4s of them. We aren't there yet. Hopefully we get there, but not yet.

There has been progress, though. Lots of it. And Gibbs is clearly doing a phenomenal job changing the culture. My Lord. Look at the stats in the article again. There is quite the losing culture there. Next year, with the same staff, plays, players, etc., we may be able to make a substantial jump. We need to finish this year strong, even if we don't make the playoffs.

So, Om, I think Boswell's piece has some very interesting points, and was actually reasonably optimistic. Could be a lot worse (see: Sally Jenkins). We have a lot of work to do, but not nearly so much as we did when Spurrier resigned. We have made loads and loads of progress. And we will continue to do so under Gibbs.

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and people on this board wonder why the media doesn't give us respect.

exactly right. we need to start winning game and look at ourselves before we critize the national media. we suck. we need to turn it around. the first step is to get a real GM.

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Wow, have our standards really fallen so far that this wandering, contradictory piece gets universally praised? When I first read it this morning, I figured I'd find it torn to shreds on ES.

No offense Om, but this attitude towards writers is seriously getting old. On this board, most people tend to ignore facts and therefore any article that says anything negative about the skins is 'bad' and on the other hand, if it says we're good, it get's praise, without fail.

You completely ignored the facts that were pointed out and instead choose to try to find anything you could to try to discount the article. Why don't you instead comment on what was said, discuss what he pointed out instead of just taking shots at him as a writer.

Face it, the Skins have been and are a bad team, you simply can't overlook that, it's our reality. Could they be getting better, possibly, but we won't know for 6 more weeks.

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No offense Om, but this attitude towards writers is seriously getting old. On this board, most people tend to ignore facts and therefore any article that says anything negative about the skins is 'bad' and on the other hand, if it says we're good, it get's praise, without fail.

You completely ignored the facts that were pointed out and instead choose to try to find anything you could to try to discount the article. Why don't you instead comment on what was said, discuss what he pointed out instead of just taking shots at him as a writer.

Face it, the Skins have been and are a bad team, you simply can't overlook that, it's our reality. Could they be getting better, possibly, but we won't know for 6 more weeks.

Amen Aluadan.....great post! As a season ticket holder and fan that has been to about every home game for 30 years (family has tix since the '50's) it pained me as much as any fan that bleeds burgundy and gold to read those numbers of futility in Boswell's column. We as Skins fans remember the good times and every year hope springs eternal but as a franchise we have failed miserably in the W-L column since Joe Gibbs left. Boswell's column came as a shock to many of us "glass is half full" Skins fans. There is not one fan out there that would have guessed that we didn't have a better record than the Lions and Cards over the last 13 years.

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For those whose default position seems to be to assume anything a Staff member says these days must somehow be tainted by the affiliation with the team ... shame on you for not paying attention for the last few months.

My take on this piece was MY take as a fan that it was wholly unoriginal and inconsistent. Had the piece been written by an anonymous poster and not some “big name” journalist, it would quite likely have been assailed in exactly the way I am. Instead, as seems to be the case more and more these days, the fact that it WAS written by an accredited journalist seems to somehow lend it depth and originality in some minds that I contend is simply is not there.

Since this is a game day, I’m not going to waste an hour critiquing it point by point as I’m tempted to now, because frankly I’m just not in the mood, and because I don’t suspect anyone really gives a **** at this point anyway.

But I will make a couple quick observations:

1) I’ve already noted and quoted the cover-all-bases-thus-your-arse contradiction. Boz starts off saying, “they’re not getting better.” He ends saying, “Yes they are.” Like I said, pick a position and defend it.

2) On a larger scale ... there have been literally THOUSANDS of posts on this and every other Redskins message board for the last several years making the exact same point about the won/lost record, and how it compares with other struggling franchises around the league. Thousands. And yet, when a “Boswell” makes the point for the Post, it’s treated as a revelation. Can anyone explain to me why that is? Do we only retain/react to ideas when they come with a label?

3) The article also purports to be a broad-scope, objective piece about the travails of the franchise over a decade and more. And yet it fails to mention, even in passing, the single most earth-shattering change during that time—the one largely responsible for the club falling to the depth it did, and that it is still trying to dig out from. What would that be? Should be pretty obvious, seems to me. The decline and ultimate passing of JKC, one of the strongest, surest owners of any pro sports team ever, which directly led to the rudderless, disinterested stewardship of son John, which ultimately in turn led to the ascension to the owner’s box of a young, brash guy whose biggest fault do date has been that he was too impatient early on to return the team to glory and found out the hard way that shortcuts don’t work.

Serious followers of this team are able to read a supposedly professional broad scope piece about the decline of the Redskins since ‘93, that fails to deal at all with the ownership transition, and no one else finds that problematic?

My main point, for those that missed it, was that we seem to have lowered our standards enough around here to where this kind of piece is hailed as superior work, and that I find that seriously depressing.

As to the suggestion the Redskins need me or anyone else on staff here to fight their fights with the Post or anyone else ... get real. We’re fans—nothing more, nothing less. They day they need the likes of me to speak for them, or fight their fights, will be the day they might want to rethink their strategies. Not to mention the day I make by accountant quite pleased.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

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So after reading Boswell's article i guess we should be happy we are 5-6 because at least we are close to .500.

So maybe everyone on this site should stop whining about our less then average team.

Im going to find the largest tree and hang myself.

Anyone want to buy my season ticket number?

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This article sucks because the writer is ugly and he used a comma instead of a semi-colon in the 5th paragraph of the article. OK, now that the obligatory ES rant is out of the way...:)

Seriously, I can understand your point Om. However I don't know that the gist of Boswell's article required that he go down the ownership change road. The article was much more results based. That is, it in essence said "Here's what the team has actually done regardless of the fans' (and owners') overly high expectations, and their prospects for doing better are looking up." That is all.

Sure many of us have made the same observations. However those of us that do are often treated like Sally Jenkins' illegitimate stepchild (see first paragraph above). However, where is it written that Boswell can't come to the same conclusions many of us have?

I happen to think that there is a common denominator to all our coaches and owners since Gibbs 1.0--poor line play and poor overall drafting. If we don't fix that, we'll continue to wallow in mediocrity...Gibbs or not.

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Coach Joe WILL get us back on the winning track. You can't compare Gibbs to the other loser coaches we've had here in the last 13 years.

It might not happen this year, but in 2006 or 2007 we'll be a force in the NFL again. I'm sure of it. That's not blind faith, that based on what kind of coach we know Gibbs is.

Now with the way he runs this offense :(

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