Bent Corner

The smell of wine and cheap perfume.

Washington Redskins

Redskins bench Robert Griffin III, name Kirk Cousins starter

It’s been a bad couple of months for Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. First, the world finds out that fellow Subway Sandwiches pitchman Jared Fogle is a child porn loving pedophile. Then, Griffin’s signature shoe from Adidas started showing up on the shelves at discount outlets like Ross and Marshall’s. Now, Kirk Cousins has been named the starting quarterback for the 2015 season. Griffin, the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner, and the second overall pick of the 2012 NFL Draft will be either Cousins’ back-up, or more likely, Cousins’ back-up’ back-up.

The Roman numeral three on the back of Griffin’s jersey may just end up serving the dual purpose of identifying his pecking order on the depth chart, as in third-string.

That’s if he doesn’t get cut or traded, not that I can imagine a scenario where another team would trade for Robert Griffin III.

Griffin will earn make $3,269,877 from the Redskins this season. Since that’s guaranteed, the Redskins will be paying him that much whether he’s with the team or not. Plus, his total salary represents $6,719,713 towards this season’s salary cap. That takes into account his base salary and his initial signing bonus of $13,799,344 spread out over four years. When an NFL team cuts a player, the remaining portion of his signing bonus is applied in full against the cap. This is not a factor with Griffin. Since this is the final year under contract, there are no more remaining years to apply to the cap.

Should the Redskins just cut Griffin? Yes. He’s not worth a roster spot. NFL teams are allowed only 53 players on the active roster. Keep Griffin on the team, and that’s one less player that could help the team win games.

Redskins bench Robert Griffin III, name Kirk Cousins starter - Bent Corner
Robert Griffin III sitting on the bench in full pout mode.

If the Redskins need someone to sit on the bench and pout, there’s no reason they need to waste a roster spot for it. They could just hire a 14-year-old girl, assign her a place on the bench, and take away her cell phone. Don’t let a teenage girl tweet or post crap on Facebook, she’ll act very much like Robert Griffin III sitting on the bench.

Hypothetically, she would provide the same value as Griffin, but she wouldn’t waste a roster spot.

The Redskins should just cut Griffin. Even if they don’t mind burning a roster spot on a player who won’t be positively contributing this season, having him stick around creates a problem for Kirk Cousins. At best, Cousins is an average quarterback in the NFL. There’s nothing wrong with being average. It’s just that there will be times when Cousins is going to fail. Keep Griffin on the team and I guarantee you eyes will turn to Griffin sulking sitting on the bench.

I’m not sure how that helps anyone.

The Redskins should just cut Griffin and allow him to go sign with the Oakland Raiders. That’s where first-round draft busts go when they’re cut. They go to Oakland and play on dirt.

Preseason football is stupid

In last night’s preseason opener “win” against the Cleveland Browns, the Washington Redskins lost tight end Niles Paul for the season with a broken ankle. The season as in the regular season.

Paul broke his ankle in a meaningless game in the preseason, something the NFL has had for far too long. The regular NFL season is 16 games long. That’s already far too long to play football, especially when it’s played the way it’s played today. Players are too big, too strong, and too fast to play that many games. The amount of carnage put on most NFL players on a weekly basis, is insane. The millionaires and billionaires that run the NFL ought to be coming up with ways of playing less football, not more.

The first thing they should do is abolish the preseason.

It’s not needed. Not really. College football, America’s second most popular sport, doesn’t have a preseason and it seems to get a long just fine without it. The players in college football are technically amateurs, yet they are somehow able to prepare themselves before the season starts without preseason games. NFL players come from the college ranks, so why do they need a preseason to prepare themselves?

They don’t.

Team owners enjoy the preseason because it makes them a lot of money, money they don’t have to share with the players. They force season ticket owners to buy two preseason home game tickets as part of the season ticket package. They also make a lot of money selling food and drink at each home game, whether it’s the preseason or the regular season. Concession stands charge the same for a beer whether it’s the preseason or the regular season.

Players make very little money during the preseason. Veteran players make a standard, flat-rate $1,600 per diem each week in training camp. Rookies make $850 a week during training camp. Preseason games are part of training camp. Players don’t make their regular paycheck until the regular season begins. Players in the NFL are paid 1/16 of their yearly salary each Monday of the regular season.

If I was in charge of the NFL, I’d abolish the preseason. I’d shorten the regular season to ten games, and I’d require a mandatory 10-day break for between games. This would allow players to recuperate more fully between games. Instead of concentrating most games on Sunday, I’d spread them out during the week. I’d also increase the 53-man roster to at least 70 players.

Preseason football, like all stupid things, will eventually go away. It’s just a matter of when, not if.

The Chargers and Raiders sharing a stadium is stupid

The Chargers and Raiders have presented their plans for a joint stadium to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and a special committee of six owners overseeing the idea of bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles. The shared stadium between the two AFC West rivals would be built in the city of Carson, sandwiched between Compton and Long Beach.

The project is budgeted at $1.7 billion.

This whole idea seems absurd. Even though the concept of two teams sharing a stadium isn’t new, the New York Giants and the New York Jets have done it for years, it’s never been tried with two teams in the same division. The Giants and the Jets aren’t even in the same conference. The Chargers and the Raiders play each other twice a year. Would the Steelers and Ravens ever share a home stadium? How about the Redskins and the Cowboys?

No they wouldn’t.

And it’s not like these two franchises don’t already have a history of bad blood between their fans. Then again, if these two teams move to Los Angeles, I guess each team’s fanbase would start anew.

As stupid as this idea is, the dumbest has to be the special tower. From the Los Angeles Times:

A signature element of the design is a 115- to 120-foot tower that rises through and extends above the main concourse. It would serve as a pedestal for a cauldron that would change depending on the team. When the Chargers play, simulated lightning bolts would swirl behind glass encasing the tower and, if the team were to score a touchdown, a bolt would shoot out of the top. For Raiders games, a flame would burn in the cauldron in honor of legendary team owner Al Davis.

al-davis2
Al Davis

Al Davis deserves no honor, especially from Angelenos. Davis moved the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles, won a Super Bowl, and then moved the team back to the cesspool known as Oakland, like the thing never happened. I know the Raiders have one of those burning cauldrons thingies in Oakland, but I always assumed its true purpose was to remind Oakland Raiders fans that Al Davis was burning in Hell, standing alongside Osama bin Laden and the guy who invented fat-free mayonnaise.

 

How bad are the Washington Redskins?

The Washington Redskins lost at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, 27-7. Before Sunday’s matchup, the Bucs had only won one game.

Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin was especially awful. He threw 23/32 passes for 207 yards. He threw one touchdown and one interception. The Bucs sacked him six times.

In case you’re wondering if the Bucs have a better defense than their record reflects, they don’t. Even including Sunday’s game into the mix, they rank 30th in a 32 team league in pass defense. Before Sunday’s game with the Redskins, the Bucs had only sacked the quarterback 14 times in nine games. As bad as the Bucs’ defense is, the Redskins should have been able to put some points on the board.

One of the biggest problems that Redskins have had is their starting quarterback, Robert Griffin III. He’s clearly lost a thing or two since injuring his knee during his rookie season. Insisting that he be the starting quarterback even though his backup quarterbacks outplay him on the field, just isn’t working. No matter how much the Redskins try, that square peg just isn’t going to fit in that round hole.

The damage the Redskins are doing with their fan base may be unrecoverable. It isn’t as it was in olden times when people were fans of their local team because that’s who they got to watch on TV or go to a game in person. NFL football games have just become too expensive to attend. Ticket prices, parking, and the cost of concessions have all become too expensive. Even diehard fans can’t afford to go to more than one a year. Now thanks to modern satellite, the internet, and cable TV technology, you can watch any team on TV, not just your local team. If going to the game in person has become so expensive that you can only go once a year, you might as well go to support the visiting team, a team you watch every week on satellite or the Internet.

Here’s a tweet by one such damaged Redskins fan, Tony Perkins, former Good Morning America weather broadcaster and current news anchor for the local Fox station:


The Redskins have a problem. If they don’t fix it, they’re going to end of being the east-coast version of the Oakland Raiders.

If you have a problem with the Redskins' name or mascot, I have some advice for you

The Washington Redskins went to Minnesota to play the Vikings this past Sunday and they did what they do best: they lost. The final score was 29 to 26.

Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III made his triumphant return in the losing effort and played fairly well, considering the amount of rust he has acquired sitting on the bench, eating Subway sandwiches, and recuperating the his various injuries. What was even more remarkable than RGIII playing in an actual NFL game, were the thousands of people protesting outside the stadium against the Washington Redskins.

Some claim the team’s name is a racial slur against Native Americans and should be changed to something else. Many of the protesters on Sunday were reportedly of Native American descent. Some were protesting against the name, while others were protesting against the team’s mascot.

The mascot? What’s wrong with the mascot?
redskins
Although I understand how some can argue that the name is a racial slur – I don’t agree with them, but I see how they can come to that conclusion – I don’t understand how anyone can argue the mascot is disrespectful or insulting. The Redskins’ mascot is one of the more nicer looking mascots in the NFL.

The Redskins’ porous defense is insulting, not the mascot.

norseman-article-compThe ironic thing about the Redskins’ mascot is that it’s very similar to the Vikings’ mascot. The Redskins’s mascot is a man of Native American ancestry. The Vikings mascot is a cartoonish man of white European ancestry with an overgrown 1970’s porn mustache. Of the two mascots, the Redskins’ mascot is much more respectful, mostly because it doesn’t include a stupid looking mustache.

My advice to anyone who doesn’t like the Washington Redskins’ name or mascot, is to pick another team to support. There are 32 teams in the NFL. Chances are, there’s at least one or two other teams in the league with names or mascots that you won’t find offensive or insulting to your delicate sensibilities.

Photo: by Jeff Wheeler / StarTribune

'The Daily Show' confronts 4 Redskins fans with 8 Native Americans, hilarity does not ensue

The Daily Show ran a segment this week that tackled the issue involving the name of the Washington Redskins, a name some people claim to find offensive and on the wrong side of history, whatever that means.

In the heavily edited segment, fake-correspondent Jason Jones sat down with four self-described Washington Redskins fans; Kelli O’Dell, Brian Dortch, Maurice Hawkins, and Charles Barr. He asked them questions about the team name and then brought in eight activists of Native American decent to confront the four Redskins fans.

The eight activists stood as they confronted the four fans. There were no chairs for them to sit. Not only were there twice as many activists as fans, the fact that they were standing while the fans were sitting, made the confrontation that more uncomfortable to watch.

The seven minute segment can be seen here.

Needless to say, the four fans never should have agreed to appear on The Daily Show. My guess is that these four people were the only Redskins fans the producer for the segment could find, reportedly on Twitter, who would agree to appear. I think the fact that there were twice as many activists as fans, indicates this.

Evidently the four fans tried to revoke their consent before the segment appeared on The Daily Show, but they were clearly unsuccessful.