ABCDE SPORTS thursday, september 16, 2010 COLLEGEFOOTBALL


New field general West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith takes a leadership role just in time for his team's rivalry game with Maryland. D6


Red-zone blues Navy is troubled by its struggles to finish drives after being so successful at it last season. D6


BLOGS,MULTIMEDIAANDCHATS washingtonpost.com/sports First Things First Today, 9:30 a.m. Tracee Hamilton starts your sports day with a chat. Ask Boswell Today, 11 a.m. Thomas Boswell takes your questions on the Nationals and more. The League Are the Cowboys America’s (most overrated) team? Join the debate.


3/31 SALLY JENKINS locker room talk


weird hybrid room, a public space where private things happen, crowded and stinking, littered with dirty adhesive tape that sticks to your shoes, and packed with bodies, starting with the un-deodorized athletes in various states of dress and undress, some of thempicking their feet or putting salve on their back acne, but also including equipmentmanagers collecting sweat- soaked laundry, and TV anchors and radio announcers jostling each other. Anyone who argues that women


A


reporters don’t belong in a locker room because theymight see something private had better kick the cameras and microphones out first. Personally, I don’t interview naked


men. That’s justmy policy; I wait for themto put on pants or a towel. So I can’t really speak to Portis’s comments because I’ve never been confronted by “53men’s packages.” Nor have I ever had a problemin a locker room, which I attribute to the gentlemanly qualities of themen in them, andmy own tact. And I’mnot sure that TV Azteca reporter Ines Sainz had a real problemwith the


jenkins continued on D7 locker roomis not the Lux


Lounge, and it’s not Clinton Portis’s private den, either. It’s a


Once again, too much


PROFOOTBALL


Feeding the Redskins Players turn to personal chefs and the team nutritionist to maintain a healthful diet. Local Living


D EZ SU


Opening day for the 2011 Nationals.MLBmoved schedules forward one week to ease weather concerns during the playoffs. D5


TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST Zach Lederer on his doctor-approved decision: “I didn’t want to live in a bubble and worry about every little thing thatmay happen tomy head.” BILL KOSTROUN/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Ines Sainz, a reporter for the network TV Azteca, had an uncomfortable experience in the Jets’ locker room.


Knowing each other inside out


to meet knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses


BY RICK MAESE In his year away from football, Red-


skinsCoachMike Shanahandidn’t really stay away from football. In fact, there was one teamhemade sure to watch on television every Sunday. On two occa- sions, he even went to watch the Hous- ton Texans, where his son, Kyle, was offensive coordinator, in person last year. The roots of theRedskins’ and Texans’


organizations are tightly entangled. A meticulous planner, Shanahan and his staff know the Texans’ scheme and personnel as well as they do any teamin the league, and they’ll try to take advantage of that knowledge Sunday when the two teamsmeet at FedEx Field. “Does it make it tougher? Yeah, it


makes it tougher,” said Texans Coach GaryKubiak, a former student of Shana- han’s. “But you just got to try to get your guys in the best position to be successful and play solid football. That’s what we have to concentrate on.” Shanahan didn’t have to twist any


arms when he hired his son away from redskins continued on D7


Redskins, Texans prepare


Through football, Lederer lives ‘life to the fullest’


Centennial senior plays despite brain tumor, ventricular shunt in his skull on allmetsports.com


BY JASONMACKEY The easiest thing for Centennial senior Zach


Lederer would have been to suppress this desire, to ignore the urge to play football after undergoing brain surgerywhenhe was 11, an operation that left a ventricular shunt embedded in the back of his skull, running down his spine and into his abdo- men. Doctors are no longer certain the shunt is carrying fluid from his brain, yet they acknowledge it could puncture at any time, requiring yet another surgery. Lederer also had never before played organized football. ButLederer has always been an athlete, obsessed


with soccer, basketball and baseball, and considers football away to conquer his ordeal— three months split between two hospitals, a week in a medically induced coma, radiation — and prove that there wasnowayhewasgoing to let a braintumordictate his life. “I didn’t want to live in a bubble and worry about


FAMILY PHOTO


Lederer, at age 11, receives a visit from Baltimore Ravens tight end ToddHeap. This picture hangs over the door to the family’s game room.


6


Watch video of Zach Lederer at Centennial practice, along with interviews of him and his


parents in their Ellicott City home, and a photo gallery.


every little thing thatmay happen tomy head,” said Lederer, 17, who is listed on the team’s roster as 5 feet, 10 inches and 150 pounds. “I wanted to live life to the fullest.” Lederer remembers being at Johns Hopkins


Hospital, undergoing multiple testsandwondering why nobody could make the pain stop. And at one point, in the middle of a December night six years ago, JohnandChristineLedererweretold that their only son would “take a turn for the worse very quickly.” The next morning, however, the Lederer family


was informed that Ben Carson, a world-renowned brain surgeon, had examined Zach’s tumor — and sawhope. Carson installed the shunt, resulting in a


lederer continued on D10 l Previewing the area’s top games in high school football, which kicks off a day early this week. D8


Showalter, Riggleman a study in contrasts at opposite ends of a parkway “B


uck Showalter JerseyNight” came toBaltimore on Tuesday. To honor their newmanager,


theO’s clubbed theBlue Jays, 11-3, to improve under Showalter to an almost unbelievable 25-15.Weren’t theBirds theworst teamin baseballwhen he arrived? “Have you ever had your jersey given


away before?” someone asked Showalter,who has, over a full quarter of a season, gotten theOrioles to play at a 100-win pace. “Yeah, [every time] I got fired,” said Showalter, who’s gotten the boot three


straight loss.He “addressed the team.” So did every coach.Ahalf-hour chew- out is about 30 seconds less than “eternity” to a big leaguer:And now, a fewwords fromour third base coach. “Got tomake themaware—this is


THOMAS BOSWELL


times. “But a lot of people didn’twant it.”


Two days earlier on Sunday in


Washington,NationalsManager Jim Riggleman called a 30-minutemeeting after his teamlooked flat in a fifth


what I see, this iswhat the coaches see, this iswhat [GeneralManager]Mike [Rizzo] sees, this iswhat the fans see,” Riggleman said. “If anybody in the room thought thatwas acceptable, they need to be awarewe certainly don’t think it’s acceptable.


“It don’t go under the radarwhen you


have lost 100 a couple years in a row. We’re going to figure outwho the keepers are andwho is going to be a part of this club in the future that’s going to help us get out of these doldrums.” TheNats responded, just as they did


last September to a snap of thewhip fromRiggleman, bywinning 6-0 and 4-2 on Tuesday night andWednesday


boswell continued on D5 l Maxwell slams the Nationals to series win over Braves. D3


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