A Banner Day For The Redskins

Long time, no talk. Don't worry, season four is coming. But I had to break in to the regularly-scheduled summer programming (of nothing) to talk about this evening's events in Canton. If you are a Redskins fan, this was a night that could only be topped for a Super Bowl win. Not only did Mr. Redskin himself, Darrell Green, take his rightful place among the greats, but the greatest possession receiver in NFL history finally made his way into the Hall as well. For Art Monk, my favorite player growing up, it was about time.

Kudos to Green and Monk for being class acts all the way. More kudos are due to the 15,000 Redskins fans that decended upon Canton and made the evening extra special. If you listened to any of the coverage on ESPN or the NFL Network, none of the commentators could stop talking about the Redskins representation on the podium and in the audience. As a fan, this was better than watching the Redskins win a game. This was a night that was a decade in the making, and it lived up to expectations. The standing ovation for Monk that lasted five minutes was incredible. That had never happened at a Hall of Fame induction before. Canton, Ohio might as well have been Washington-North. No other team's fans had ever done something like that, and no other fanbase will ever do something like that. Truly special...great work by the best and largest fanbase in the NFL.

As important a night as this was for Monk and Green, it was more important to the Redskins organization and the Redskins teams of the 1980's and early 90's. As I've talked about before on this page, because of the 80's 49ers, the Redskins teams from that decade are often overlooked. Nowhere was that more obvious than in Hall of Fame representation. Only Joe Gibbs and John Riggins had been inducted into the Hall from those teams, and Riggins only played on one of the Super Bowl winners. This night was salute to all the players from those great teams. This was for Joe Jacoby and Russ Grimm. This was for Mark Rypien and Doug Williams. This was for Ken Warren and Gary Clark. For Monte Coleman. For Charles Mann. For Jeff Bostic. For Wilber Marshall. This was for the Posse, the Hogs, the Over the Hill Gang, the Smurfs, the Capital Punishment Defense and all the rest that probably won't get into the Hall of Fame. This was a night the Redskins organization needed to remind the rest of the NFL how special those teams were.

That's it for me for now. I'll be back towards the end of the month. Just to emphasize my point, here's some of what was written about this incredible night from the local and national media. Congrats #28 and #81.

From the Washington Post:

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CANTON, Ohio, Aug. 2 -- They came from the District and beyond to see them. Way beyond. Some of the pilgrimages began in Orange County, Calif., and others in Murphy, N.C., where a white-haired couple began driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains some nine hours earlier.

"After all the memories, we had to see them go in," Bill Garrod said as his wife, Nancy, nodded in agreement, hours before Art Monk and Darrell Green were to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

And the moment the last Class of 2008 inductee took the stage, their patience was rewarded for those $4 gallons of gas and hours on sweltering freeways -- just as Monk's patience the past eight years was rewarded.

For 4 minutes 4 seconds before Monk spoke -- an applause lasting nearly three times as long as that for any other honoree -- the steadiest and most reliable wide receiver to play pro football in Washington took in the chants, smiles and unconditional love heaped upon him.

"Thank you, thank you," Monk kept saying, happily unable to quiet the applause from the announced crowd of 16,654 at Fawcett Stadium, about 15,000 of whom wore burgundy and gold...

They overwhelmed this lush, northeastern Ohio town about an hour south of Cleveland with numbers and passion, thousands of fans clad in burgundy and gold hats, jerseys, assorted paraphernalia and, yes, Halloween masks. They dwarfed other Hall of Fame inductees' fans, transforming Canton into a rollicking yet respectful RFK tailgate.

Soon after the national anthem, 2007 inductee Michael Irvin took the podium and was booed long and lustily, as if the former Dallas Cowboys wideout were still standing across the line of scrimmage from Green. According to NFL broadcaster and former coach Steve Mariucci, the crowd was "95 percent Washington Redskin jerseys!"

From Michael Wilbon:

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Few teams in professional sports get to have as grand a day as the Washington Redskins had here Saturday. Any team's fans can buy out a stadium for a big playoff game or be indulged in a civic championship parade. But how many times can a team's fans, more than 15,000 of them, monopolize a sport's Hall of Fame? Not since the old Bulldogs left Canton has the birthplace of professional football so tilted toward one team.

The Redskins and their devotees hadn't had so much to celebrate in more than 16 years, since Darrell Green and Art Monk were in uniform, not coincidentally. Folks who've been coming here for these inductions for 25, 30 years swear no team has produced anything close to the Redskins' Hall of Fame turnout, not to mention their fervor. Their ovations, particularly the four-minute outpouring that greeted Monk, were as heartfelt as any Sunday afternoon praise during their career.

The mayor of Canton took one look at the crowd, painted in burgundy and gold, and proclaimed it "Redskins Day." Every seat on every flight Saturday from National, BWI and Dulles airports to nearby Cleveland was occupied. Thousands more drove the 350 miles. Every one of them seemed to be wearing a Redskins jersey, most bearing either Green's No. 28 or Monk's No. 81. No single Redskin could have caused this stampede; only a pair as already beloved as Green and Monk could pack the house on the road like this.

Every sighting of every Redskin already in the Hall of Fame was treated like a first appearance. Joe Gibbs, Ken Houston, Bobby Mitchell, Bill Dudley and Charley Taylor all were cheered wildly when introduced. Good thing Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff were leading young players through a tour of the Hall at the time, lest their public introduction cause a complete panic.

Hall of Fame Cowboys were unmercifully booed, especially Michael Irvin, whose beaming smile seemed to suggest an acceptance that boos in the context of this particular afternoon amounted to quite the honor. Thurman Thomas, the Buffalo Bills running back who was inducted here last year, told an ESPN interviewer when asked about the passionate outpouring of the day, "I'm glad I'm not a Cowboy."

From Mike Wise:

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CANTON, Ohio, Aug. 2 -- The smoke from the fireworks had long faded into the night behind him, off in the distance, and Art Monk still was not allowed to deliver his speech. Not yet.

Not until the mass of people wearing the team colors of the Washington Redskins were allowed to serenade their beloved wide receiver from the 1980s and early '90s with chants of "We love Monk! We love Monk!" On and on that chant went.

Four minutes and change came off the clock, perhaps uncomfortably for other enshrined members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But four minutes is nothing next to eight years, the duration Monk waited before his moment came along with his teammate in time, Darrell Green.

From the Associated Press:

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CANTON, Ohio -- The Hall of Fame induction ceremony turned Hog wild Saturday.

Darrell Green and Art Monk walked across the stage waving their arms and urged thousands of Washington Redskins fans to give them one more salute. Emmitt Thomas, the former Chiefs player and Redskins coach, simply waved back.

And they applauded the three other inductees without Washington ties -- Fred Dean, Andre Tippett and Gary Zimmerman -- knowing they would have fit in with the Redskins' blue-collar reputation.

"Standing up here on this platform is much different than I imagined," Monk said. "The reality of getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame didn't really hit me till a few days ago. And then to see the magnitude of all of this, and all of you, it's been something amazing."

Almost as shocking was the partisan crowd that turned Canton, Ohio, into a temporary home for the Redskins.

From the burgundy-and-gold clad crowd to the pig's snouts to the responses whenever the Dallas Cowboys were mentioned, the ceremony looked more like a team induction than a league-wide enshrinement.

Fans cheered louder each time Thomas mentioned a Redskins player or coach. They chanted "Dar-rell, Dar-rell" when Green stepped to the microphone, and the continual cheers forced Monk to start speaking while they were still applauding.

Yes, it had everything but the band playing "Hail To The Redskins."