Pete Prisco Is A Small, Skinny Idiot

The first post in a several-part series examining the Redskins offseason.

It’s the start of a new season, but some things never change. Like the media hatred towards the Washington Redskins. The media hates Dan Snyder. They hate the fact that he spends more money than anyone else in the league. They hate the fact he’s a young man who has done more in 10 years than most of these writers could accomplish in a three lifetimes. And they hate the fact that Snyder has joined the “old white males” club, and unlike so many other owners, refuses to talk to the mainstream sports media because he knows that whatever he says will be turned against him in some way.

When Snyder gave millions to Steve Spurrier, the media blasted him. Why would you spend so much money on an unproven college coach, they asked. And when the Spurrier era didn’t work out, and Snyder went out and got himself one of the top three coaches to ever set foot on a sideline, the media blasted him again. Why bring back Joe Gibbs? The game has passed him by. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

When Snyder poured millions into Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders and Jeff George five years ago, the media blasted him again. Not because the three players were all over the hill, but because he spent so much money. But when those three old fogies didn’t work out, the mainstream acted like they knew those players would fail all along (even though many of them picked the Redskins to win the Super Bowl in 2000). So the sports writers criticized Snyder for getting old, “fantasy football” type players and not listening to his “football people” in the organization.

Snyder, for his part, wised up. He went out and spent millions again. But this time, he listened to his football people. He listened to the coaching staff. He went out and got several, solid young players that were just beginning to enter the prime of their career. He did everything the media said he should have done five years ago. So after a busy and productive March, you’d expect the media to finally come around. He’s hired a proven coach, with a proven coaching staff. He’s signed young and talented players. He’s got youth, speed and experience on each side of the ball. Surely now, the sports media must recognize that Snyder is quickly learning how to become one of the game’s best owners.

So it should come as no surprise that the media is blasting Snyder and the Redskins again. Here is a quick summary of what writers and broadcasters are saying.

“He’s spent too much money again. I don’t know how he managed to spend all that money under the salary cap. Maybe the Redskins are cheating!”

“Why are the Skins trading away all their draft picks? You can’t buy a championship in the NFL. You need to build through the draft.”

“Snyder spent so much money on Antwaan Randle-El. There’s no way he can be a number two receiver in the NFL.”

“Why would the Redskins trade for Brandon Lloyd? Even the 49ers were trying to get rid of him. He’s a problem waiting to happen.”

“They still can’t win with Mark Brunell. When does Jason Campbell take over?”

“The Redskins can’t possibly win enough games in the NFC East. The Giants, Cowboys and Eagles all improved and the Redskins just wasted their money. “

These ridiculous comments have come from every major organization. ESPN, CBS, Sports Illustrated and just about every columnist from coast to coast have weighed in. They just don’t want to see Snyder succeed. They have too much invested in seeing him fail.

All these above statements come with a bit of hidden irony. All teams in the NFL have problems. There is no perfect team anymore. Yet, the media ignores the problems of most of the other teams and focuses on the positives. But when it comes to the Redskins, and the Oakland Fightin’ Al Davises, the media loves to hate. Let’s go through all these questions and so-called problems for the Redskins.

The first complaint came from Peter King of SI and Pete Shithead Prisco (his actual full name) of CBS. Prisco started it by claiming before the start of free agency that the Redskins would be forced to field a team with 20 rookies on the roster. Which, of course, is just insane. Even if the CBA didn’t go through and the salary cap was around $94 million, the Skins wouldn’t have had to field a team with more than six or seven rookies on the roster. I guess 20 rookies is just wishful thinking from Shithead.

Peter King, who has made a career of single-handedly keeping Art Monk out of the Hall of Fame, took Prisco’s idea and ran with it. He crunched the numbers using that new math we keep hearing about and came to the conclusion that there was no way, even after the CBA agreement, that the Skins could sign all these players and still be under the salary cap. Nevermind the fact that the Redskins invented the position of “capologist” to run the team’s salary cap and have one of the best economics teams in the business in their front office. Nope, according the King, the Redskins must have cheated to get under the cap.

This is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard. This isn’t the NCAA. You can’t get away with recruiting violations in the NFL. There are hundreds of people in the NFL front office that examine each and every contract that is signed. They go over all 32 teams salary situation over and over again to make sure that nothing illegal is done. If Snyder cheated, the NFL would have found out about it immediately. King and Prisco are the leading queen and queen of the Hate Snyder Club.

Next complaint: The Redskins aren’t building through the draft, they’re trying to buy a championship. Good. I hate the NFL draft. I hate all the hype that surrounds the NFL draft. I hate all these people that spend hours examining every single player and ranking all these players and doing all these mock drafts. It’s the biggest waste of time. The fact is, only 25% or so of the players drafted will amount to decent NFL players. What I hate even more are the people who pay attention to high school players and rank them in similar ways. Especially all these “insiders” and scouts that treat high schoolers like pieces of meat. These insiders that can rattle off the names of several high name recruits are absolute scum. They shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the game. My policy: until a college player does something worthwhile in the pros, I don’t care about him. Prove to me you belong. I don’t care about potential. The same policy goes double for college sports. I don’t care about high school athletes. Until they do something in college, it’s not worth my time to even learn their name. And anyone that actually thinks that televising high school games is a good idea should be sent to Nepal.

So the Redskins traded away their draft picks to get free agents. So what? They’ve signed Randle-El, Lloyd, Adam Archuleta and Andre Carter. Now unless you somehow have four of the top 10 picks, how are you possibly going to do better than that in the NFL draft? You can’t. The Redskins are getting PROVEN players. Could Reggie Bush be the next Barry Sanders? Sure. Could he be the next Ki-Jana Carter? More likely. Could Vernon Davis be the next Antonio Gates? Possibly. Odds are he’ll be out of the NFL in the next five years. With free agents, especially young free agents, you know what you are getting. They are a proven commodity. They may be a bit more expensive than draft picks, but they’re usually worth it. The Redskins improved themselves more by using draft picks to get free agents than they ever would using draft picks to take risks in the draft crapshoot.

Then there is the Antwaan Randle-El problem. Most critics, especially Shithead, are saying that there is no way that Randle-El can be a number two receiver in the NFL. The Redskins spent all that money on a specialist that couldn’t catch more than 40 balls with the Steelers. Funny, I remember the same things being said about Santana Moss last year. Especially from Shithead. How did that work out? Didn’t he make the Pro Bowl?

Look, could Randle-El be a major disappointment? Yeah, he could be exactly what most writers expect him to be. Or maybe the Steelers didn’t use him correctly. Just like the Jets never used Moss correctly. The Steelers offense was built around running the ball 35 times a game. And the Steelers had Hines Ward to throw to. There just weren’t enough opportunities for Randle-El to get 50-60 catches. And the opportunity won’t be there in Washington either. But the Redskins needed somebody, anybody, to get the pressure off of Moss and Clinton Portis. And that’s exactly what Randle-El will do. His presence won’t allow other teams to double Moss and still put eight in the box to stop Portis. If they do, Randle-El is definitely good enough to cause problems. And he adds an added benefit for the Redskins in the return game, which is something the Redskins struggled with last year. And if he can be a consistent, dangerous return guy, that would fill a big hole in the Redskins game. You can’t tell me that special teams aren’t a big part of a typical NFL game. Even if Randle-El is a bust…

The Redskins traded for Brandon Lloyd. But critics rallied against that trade as well. Here is a young receiver, who excelled on one of the NFL’s worst teams, and has shown the potential, on the NFL level, to become one of the NFL’s premier receivers. But he had some problems with 49ers management. He’s already labeled as a “headache.”

My question is: who could blame him? He was stuck on the 49ers. He wants to win. I’m surprised he didn’t act worse than he actually did. He needed a fresh start on a team that plays at a NFL caliber level. Not a team that should have been sent to Mexico permanently. By the way, isn’t Terrell Owens considered a “headache?” I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t he had some problems with management? But when the Cowboys sign him, to a ridiculously large contract, all of a sudden they’re Super Bowl contenders. I’m not comparing T.O. to Lloyd. T.O. is obviously better right now. But he’s also a bigger problem child complete with his own three-ring media circus. Yet, according to the sports media, the Cowboys got much better and the Redskins got worse by trading for Lloyd. There’s some irony for you.

Then there are the comments about Brunell and the Redskins not being able to compete in the NFC East, which is the best division in football. Again, the irony is that the media figures that the Cowboys have improved vastly and are now the favorites in the division and even in the conference. Isn’t Drew Bledsoe their quarterback? Bledsoe and Brunell are basically the same age. They’re both older quarterbacks with a history of injuries. But Brunell is much more mobile than Bledsoe, even at his advanced age. Brunell has three terrific receivers to throw to, a tight end/fullback in Chris Cooley who should have made the Pro Bowl last year, Pro-bowl running back Clinton Portis and one of the best offensive lines in football. Bledsoe has Owens, a decent back in Marion Barber and…and, um…hmm…did I mention Owens? But apparently, if you listen to Shithead and friends, you might as well hand the Lombardi Trophy to Dallas and reserve a place in the NFC East cellar for the Skins. Make any sense to you? Me neither.

And the media wants the Redskins to get Jason Campbell into the mix. While I would love to see what Campbell can do because the Redskins defensive players says he kills them in practice, now is not the time. This isn’t a rebuilding year. The Redskins goal should be nothing less than the Super Bowl this year. Forget just making the playoffs. Campbell could be amazing. But how did Eli Manning, Chris Simms and Rex Grossman do in their first playoff games last year? I’ll take my chances with Brunell this season. If he gets hurt, then by all means, get the kid ready. Until then, Brunell is the choice. This isn’t the season to fool around with a young, unproven quarterback. Plus, with all the new weapons, Brunell won’t have to spend half the game running backwards waiting for Taylor Jacobs and James Thrash to get open. He’ll actually have open, talented receivers to throw to this season.

The hatred towards Snyder and the Skins is unbelievable. Shithead came out with his April Power Rankings, and had the Skins 14th. The Giants, Cowboys and Eagles, minus T.O. or any other offensive weapons, ahead of Washington. Now I don’t know why Shithead felt the need to produce Power Rankings in April with several key free agents still on the market and with the draft several weeks away. But can anyone, even the most anti-Redskins fans (that means you Baltimore residents…get a life already and get used to the Ratbirds posting .500 records), honestly think that at this moment, right now, the Redskins got worse in the last two months? Got worse to the point where they are now last place in the NFC East? If you do, then you’re just as nuts as Prisco. And you can see Shithead’s bias by reading his comments on each team (I won’t link his page because I don’t want that garbage associated with my page, but you should be able to find it easily on the CBS page if you are so inclined). He went out of his way to say something nice about almost every other NFL team, even the 32nd ranked 49ers. But he slammed the Redskins. By the way, at this point last year, the Redskins were 29th in Shithead’s rankings. Again I’ll ask, how did that work out?

The only thing that can stop the Redskins in 2006-07 are the Redskins themselves. Themselves and injuries. They are that good (I’m going to examine their schedule very shortly on this page). The one legit problem facing the Redskins that NO ONE is talking about is lack of depth. Especially among the offensive and defensive lines. You can’t plan around injuries, but you can get depth as a security blanket. So far this offseason, the Redskins haven’t done that. Don’t be surprised that if the Redskins suffer a rash of injuries this year, the media will be chest-beating and yelling “I told you so” at every possible opportunity they have. Even if the Redskins downfall has nothing to do with all the criticism levied upon Snyder and the team. They just hate the Redskins that much.