Game Girl

When was the last time you felt good about a situation that didn't look good?  I know, it seems like a strange question to ask.  But humor me.

It's first and ten on the Redskins 1-yard line with about a minute and a half left in the game.  Down by a touchdown, the Skins have to march down almost the entire field in order to tie the score and put the game into overtime...or go for two and win the game outright (which would normally be so far out of the realm of possibility it wouldn't even be worth mentioning!)

Impossible.  Skins have been in this position countless times over the past, what, 20 years, right?  No way to overcome the odds.  No way to get a first down, much less imagine tying the game.  And winning it?   Well, forget it.  Too hard.  No way.  Not gonna happen. 

How have these scenarios played out over the past multitude of miserable seasons?  You know how.  The Skins go 3-and-out.  Shank a punt.  The opponent gets the ball on their own 40, score a touchdown, and we lose by 14. 

Or, we manage to eke out a first down -- by hook or by crook -- and call a timeout when we don't actually HAVE a timeout.  Throw a challenge flag when we don't have one to throw.  Misjudge the leg of our kicker and miss a field goal.  Fumble a snap and don't manage to kick the field goal at all.

Any number of disasters could befall us.  And they have.  Over and over again.  Year after miserable year.

Except this year, we've got RG3.  And the impossible suddenly doesn't look so impossible anymore.

RG3.  He's in complete control.  He lines up under center on his own 1 yard line and starts moving the offense down the field.  Quickly.  No huddle, no stress, no fear.  No confusion.  He just gets our team moving and off they go.

OK, so we didn't actually score the touchdown.  There WAS some confusion, a false start penalty on what looked to be a go-route into the end zone, and some bizarre unsportsman-like conduct flag that I STILL don't understand.

But so what?  Didn't you feel, for the first time maybe ever, that with RG3 in charge, that winning the game was totally possible?  Maybe even probable? 

I did.  Three games into the season, this team is in a totally different situation than they've been in a long, long time.  We have a captain at the helm who can beat the odds.  With his arm.  With his feet.  With his smarts.  His calm.  His leadership.

So, don't be discouraged about yesterday's loss.  I know, I know, the defense is a mess.  Special teams ain't looking so special right now.  But with RG3, remember, ALL things are possible!

What a debacle!  Yesterday's slate of NFL games were some of the worst I've ever witnessed. Fights between players.  Missed calls.  Non-calls that SHOULD have been calls.  Flags thrown, then picked up.  Beanbags thrown because a ref couldn't FIND a flag in his own pocket.  Interminable wait times between plays.  Frustrated players, fans, coaches and TV broadcasters.  It was, as Chris Ryan put it on the FOX Redskin broadcast I was watching, "A mess.".

I concur.

I'm wondering what Roger Goodell's endgame is here.  Is it to prove a point?  What point?  That the replacement refs can change the outcome of a game?  I would hope not, but it's too late for that.  Seems they've already burned that bridge.  Just ask Baltimore, or DC, or any number of other teams yesterday who found themselves in totally unacceptable situations that turned the course of their games.

Why is he keeping these unskilled, untrained, in-over-their-heads replacement refs -- whom I'm sure are all very nice people but who are CLEARLY not ready for the bright lights of the NFL season -- in these games?

What is it going to take for Goodell and the NFL to relent and pay our real refs what they deserve so we can move on from this disaster before any more damage is done?  OK, it's a typical labor/management stand-off, and I do understand the logistics of negotiations.  Going through a pretty ugly one myself right now, and I know all about waiting for the other guy to blink first.

But in this case, it's not going to be about who blinks first.  I'm fearful it's actually going to be who breaks a LEG first, or worse, sustains a horrible injury, before things turn around.

It's unsafe to have these replacement referees out there officiating these games when they clearly can't protect the players.  We are a tragic injury away from things getting totally out of hand.  And when they do, Goodell is going to have a really serious problem on his hands.

And then it won't matter who blinks.

Yup, it's time!  With training camp and all its sweaty fun behind us, tonight is the night.  The night we all come back to life as die-hard football fans.  The night we can all breathe a sigh of relief, knowing the interminable wait is finally over.  The night we welcome Al Michaels and my all-time secret crush Jon Gruden back into our living rooms for the season. 

We're back, baby.  We're back.  Sigh of relief. Football is BACK.

What else can I say?  Even with two of my least-favorite teams playing tonight (God, I hate the Cowboys!), I can't wait! Can't wait for the best song EVER sung by a long-haired hippie redneck country star to put me in the mood.  Yes, my friends, I AM ready for some football.

I'm ready for major football.  I'm ready for 24-7 football.  I'm ready for good football, bad football, and semi-crappy football.  I'm ready for fantasy football.  Foorball pools.  Football jersey Fridays at my kids' school.  Football arguments in the bank line.   Those awesome football balloons in the grocery store.  Even those dumb football cupcakes they sometimes sell (often in Ravens purple, much to my dismay) here in my town.

We've endured another long off-season.  Another draft.  Another set of mini-camps, training camps, cut-down days, and that awful fourth pre-season game even I don't ever watch.

So, now it's time.  We've been patient, and it's paid off.  We deserve it, so enjoy.  And get ready for another great season of the best game ever played.