Game Girl

OK, so as much as I LOVE training camp (and I really, really do), I don't really like the "cut" days. It's the guilty mom in me, I guess. I just hate seeing all these good players work so hard all off-season, get a jersey with their name and number on the back, broil and sweat in the hot sun during training camp, and suffer through 4 miserable pre-season games, only to be sent packing at the end of it all. It's a brutal business, I know, and I guess these guys are used to it, but it still seems to me to be just a tad rough. Again, must be the female / mommy in me. No room for THAT on the football field...

In any event, it looks like we have a team, finally. After months of preparations, practices, and blood, sweat and tears, the Skins are finally, well...the SKINS!

Looking at the roster, I'm not moved in one direction or the other, really. All the good players we expected to make the team made it, and this year, even the "surprises" (i.e., Banks and Armstrong) got a bid, so we can't really complain too much. There's no Marcus Mason to kick around this year! And our practice squad is filled with all those players who got cut but looked right on the edge of making the team, too, so I'm feeling a little less guilty on their behalf. Especially after I saw that ditty about practice squad salaries -- I mean, hey, sign ME up for the practice squad! Not a bad way to make a living. Beats working (at a "real" job, I mean!)

So now, we wait. It's Dallas Week, which I'll write more about later, and it's the first real week of football, so all is finally right with the world again. I am salivating at the thought of this coming Sunday -- not just to watch the Redskins, which I'm thrilled about, of course -- but to see all our favorite football traditions re-appear. Jimmy, Howie and Terry on the set on Sunday morning. Highlights all day on every channel. And that AWESOME Monday Night Football intro (not Hank Williams Jr, just the old-school intro: dun, dun, dun, DUN!) It's so good, it almost makes me forget my guilt over all those players we cut!