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THE SIDELINE N
ot long into the lengthy Daniel Snyder profile that will runonESPNTuesday
night, themuch-discussed topic of Snyder’s childhoodRedskins fandomis raised. “I think fromwhenIwas six, I
startedwearingRedskins gear and belt buckles and all sorts of stuff, and just fell inlovewithit,” Snyder says. Nothingwehaven’theard
there.Butwhenhis interviewer, ESPN’sRachelNichols, thenpulls out a youthSonny Jurgensen jerseywith“Danny” onthe back —andwhenSnyder blushes and tries to toss the jersey away, saying “we’re just gonna put this over there”— well, that’s about the definitionof “howto humanize your owner.” “Don’t embarrassme,” Snyder
pleads as the jersey comes out andhe starts laughing. “I’m gonna killmywife.Okayyyyy. That’s embarrassing.” To produce the 12-minute piece
for “E:60,” its prime-timenews magazine,ESPNconducted three
D.C. SPORTS BOG Dan Steinberg
hours of interviewswithSnyder, talked towell over a dozenNFL figures, and followed themic’ed up Snyder atmultiple events. Muchof thematerial shows a more reflective and relaxed Snyder thanwe’ve seeninrecent years—he jokes abouthis age and inexperiencewhenhe bought the franchise, talks at length abouthis father, explainshis shyness around themedia and repeatedly apologizes for the team’s performance inrecent years. This profile continues a recent
trend inwhichSnyderhas been considerablymore visible.He’s spokenat charity events,
Quick Fix 6Excerpt from
washingtonpost.com/hardhits
Redskinsdelivered
inamustwin Itwas verynice to see the
Redskinsplaywiththe sense of urgency thatwasneededto go intoPhiladelphia andget amuch- neededwin.Let’s look athow successful theRedskinswere in the game’s key areas, starting withthe offense: Establishtherunning game:
Yes.For the first time this season, ClintonPortis andRyanTorain showedconsistency running the ball.They finishedruns and showedthe ability to get through the line of scrimmage andeatup yardage.They combinedformore than100yards andeffectively keptdrives alivewiththeir legs. Involvemultiplereceivers in
thepassing game:Yes. It’s safe to say that everyone atLincoln FinancialFieldknewthat DonovanMcNabb’s favorite target is SantanaMoss, so the Eagles’defensewouldbe keying onMoss all game.McNabb took advantage of the favorable matchupshehadwithChris Cooley andAnthonyArmstrong. He completedjust 8 of 19 attempts, buthemade them count, one a 57-yardconnection withArmstrong anda touchdown pass toCooley early inthe game. Openuprunning lanesand
protect inthepassing game: Yes.Althoughitwasn’tpretty and StephonHeyer is a one-man penalty, the line keptMcNabb upright andcreatedrunning lanes forPortis andTorain. It
must improve going forwardas this teamhas a toughschedule. Nowlet’s look at thedefense: Winthebattleupfront:Yes.
TheRedskinsheldLeSeanMcCoy to 64 rushing yards andknocked MichaelVick out of the game on one ofhis rushing attempts. Stay inlanes tolimit
escapabilityandrunningholes: Yes.AgainVickwas knockedout of the game early,McCoywas kept incheck andKevinKolbhada couple of goodruns but the run was largely ineffective.As far as thepass rush, thedefensedida good,not great, job ofpressuring the quarterback.Theyneedto continue to figure outhowto be more consistent inthis area. Holding calls are okay, buthits on the quarterbackhavemore of an impact onthe game. CoverDeSeanJacksonand
JeremyMaclin:Yes.The secondary cameunder intense scrutiny after apoorperformance against theRams.Boy,didthey bounce back ina bigway,holding JacksonandMaclinto a combined34 receiving yards. Finally, a look at special teams: Solidreturns:Yes.Brandon
Banksprovidedanice spark in the returngame.His firstpunt returnsetupthe first touchdown of the game andmaintained consistency inthe kick return game. Kicking game:Yes.Punt
averagewasnot outstanding at 37.2 yards but itwilldo.Graham Ganowasperfect ontheday. —LaVarArrington
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST Al Groh was Virginia’s head coach for nine years.NowGeorgia Tech’s defensive coordinator, he’ll face his old team on Saturday. Virginia avoids Groh subplot
Cavaliers shrug off looming encounter with former coach Saturday at Georgia Tech
RYDERCUP
“I was really nervous there. I was nervous, wow. It’s a different feeling. It’s just so much pressure.”
—Graeme McDowell, on clinching the point that allowed Europe to take the Ryder Cup back from the United States
TELEVISIONANDRADIO
NBA PRESEASON 8:30 p.m. Washington at Dallas » Comcast SportsNet
COLLEGE FOOTBALL 8 p.m.
Troy at Middle Tennessee » ESPN2 BY STEVE YANDA
charlottesville—Al Groh has gone from the guy in the glass to the man behind the curtain. And just as the characters in “The Wizard of Oz” were instructed, the Virginia football players are paying Groh no attention this week. Not publicly, at least. When last Groh was seen as Virginia’s
head coach—following a 42-13 loss to Virginia Tech lastNovember—he recited Dale Wimbrow’s poem “The Guy in the Glass.” On Saturday, Groh (now Georgia Tech’s defensive coordinator) will face the Cavaliers for the first time since his departure. And while Virginia has prepared for the
only from Comcast. COLLEGEBASKETBALL
Three locals are among 50 Wooden finalists Georgetown senior Austin
Freeman, Maryland sophomore JordanWilliamsandVirginiaTech senior Malcolm Delaney were among 50 players named to the preseason John Wooden Award watchlistMonday. Freeman was the Hoyas’ lead-
ing scorer a year ago, averaging 16.5pointsdespite receiving adia- betesdiagnosis lastMarch. Williams averaged 9.6 points
and8.6reboundsduringhis fresh- man campaign.Delaney averaged 20.2points and4.4 assists. —MarkGiannotto
CYCLING The New York Times reported
that Alberto Contador had eight times the allowable amount of a
Yellow Jackets’ triple-option offense and 3-4 defense for weeks, players are doing their best to ignore an obvious subplot to Saturday’s matchup. Groh, after all, led Virginia the previous nine seasons.
DIGEST
chemical that indicates doping in his systemduring this year’s Tour de France, which he won for the thirdtime. Aurine sample takenonJuly20
showed a plasticizer — found in intravenous bags like the ones used for endurance-boosting bloodtransfusions.Contador test- edpositive for clenbuteroloneday later, and was provisionally sus- pended by the International Cy- clingUnionlastweek. Contador has repeatedly de-
nied doping or having a transfu- sion.
OLYMPICS Nodar Kumaritashvili’s “rela-
tive lack of experience” on chal- lenging tracksplayeda significant
role in the Georgian athlete’s death during a training run hours before the start of the Vancouver Olympics,accordingtoacoroner’s report. The long-awaited report was issued 235 days after Kumar- itashvili crashed. Further investigations into the
fatal crash are not scheduled, though the British Columbia Cor- oners Service recommended “a comprehensive safety audit of the Whistler track” and urged the worldwide governing bodies for luge, bobsled and skeleton to take a hard look at what goes into de- signing, building and certifying tracks.
COLLEGES The Supreme Court won’t de-
cide who really owns the initials “SC” when it comes to college sports: theUniversity of Southern California or the University of
SouthCarolina. The high court refused to hear
an appeal from South Carolina, which wanted to trademark a baseball cap logo with the initials “SC.” The Trojans already have a
trademark on a version of “SC.” The California school said it has sold tens of millions of dollars of apparel with “SC” on it, while South Carolina only wanted to start using those initials on base- ball caps in1997.
SOCCER Coca-Cola will no longer use
Manchester United and England forward Wayne Rooney’s image on cans and bottles following alle- gations overhisprivate life. Following newspaper allega-
tions that he cheated on his then- pregnant wife with a prostitute, Coca-Cola announced that it had
stopped using his image to pro- mote itsCokeZerodrink. . . . FIFA suspended the Nigerian
Football Federation for govern- ment interference. FIFAsaidina statement that its
emergency committee has sus- pendedtheNFF,effectiveimmedi- ately. It said the federation “will not be able to be represented in any regional, continental or inter- national competitions, including atclublevel,andalsonot infriend- lymatches.” FIFA rules prohibit govern-
ment interference with national soccer governing bodies. In Nigeria’s case, several devel-
opments prompted the suspen- sion. The developments included court actions against elected members of the NFF executive committee, the federation’s gener- al secretary stepping down on or- ders from the government-run
National Sports Commission and the decisionof the sportsminister to start theNigeriansoccer league without relegationfromtheprevi- ous season. . . . Nigel de Jong was cut fromthe
Netherlands roster by Coach Bert vanMarwijk after theManchester City midfielder broke an oppo- nent’s leg with a tackle for the secondtime insevenmonths. De Jong’s tackle Sunday left
Newcastle’s Hatem Ben Arfa with two brokenbones inhis left leg. OnMarch 3, De Jong broke the
right legofmidfielderStuartHold- enwith a tackle during an exhibi- tionagainst theUnitedStates. Inaddition,De Jonghadakara-
te kick to the chest of Spanish midfielderXabiAlonsoduring the WorldCupfinal inJuly.
—Fromnews services
“I’mjust going into it as another game,” sophomore linebacker AusarWalcott said. “I’mjust going to look at it as another game. I respect Coach Groh.He’s a real good guy, so I’mjust going to go over there and play like it was any other game.” “We don’t think about it,” junior wide
receiver Kris Burd said. “It’s just U-Va. versus Georgia Tech.We’re just going to go out and play the 11 guys they put on the field.” “Honestly, I’ve never thought about who
the defensive coordinator was when we play other teams,” junior center Anthony Mihota said. “So I’mnot going to start thinking about it now.” What the Cavaliers are acknowledging
is the threat posed by Georgia Tech’s run- based offensive scheme. Led by senior quarterback JoshuaNesbitt, the Yellow Jackets lead the Atlantic Coast Conference —and rankNo. 6 in the nation—in rushing offense (298.2 yards per game). Virginia CoachMike London said his
team spent part of its bye week three weeks ago practicing against elements of the triple option. Defensive coordinator Jim Reid ran an option offense was he was the head coach at division I-AA Virginia Military Institute in 2006 and 2007.
Nesbitt, the ACC’s second-leading
rusher, is averaging 86.8 yards per game on the ground and has tallied six rushing touchdowns.He’ll be of particular concern to the Cavaliers, according to London, especially after a slewof missed tackles led to Virginia giving up 256 rushing yards in a 20-point loss to Florida State over the weekend. “This is definitely an assignment- oriented football game,” London said. “But at the same time, you can have a guy on him, or two guys on him, and he’s good enough to make them miss.” On the other side of the ball, Groh’s
defense is struggling to transition from the 4-3 scheme the Yellow Jackets used last season to the 3-4 alignment. In the ACC, Georgia Tech ranksNo. 8 in total yards allowed (347.8 per game) andNo. 10 in points allowed (25.4 per game). London said the Cavaliers also practiced
against the 3-4 defensive alignment during their bye week, though he expects the way Georgia Tech will operate it Saturday will be far different. “Nothing is like playing a 3-4 team from
a guy that knows the 3-4 defense,” London said. “So that will be a challenge for sure.”
yandas@washpost.com
KLMNO 6
3
appeared onESPN980, sat down withtwowriters fromthe blog HogsHaven, appeared inaPapa John’sTVspotwithDallas owner Jerry Jones and another spot for NFLgearwithhiswife, scored the cover ofMontgomeryLife magazine and beenprofiled at lengthinForbesmagazine. E:60 producers and reporters
had long talked about attempting a Snyder piece, and they got the go-aheadwithinthe lastmonth. BetweencoveringHeat training camp andher ongoing reporting onBenRoethlisberger,Nichols accompanied Snyder to a charity event and conducted two lengthy interviews inhis office, asking the owner about buying the team, the challenge of following JackKent Cooke,his regrets andhis mistakes. “I let people down. I’ve done a
lot of thingswrong . . . ” Snyder says inthe piece. “It’s awfully embarrassing. It’s ahard feeling and it takes a little time to realize that Imade amistake, and a lot of mistakes, and bigmistakes.”
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2010
WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS Football Insider 2010: Download a free iPhone app for Redskins news. Search for “Football Insider” or “Redskins” in the iTunes store.
WASHINGTON POST LIVEWITH IVAN CARTER 5 P.M. ON COMCAST SPORTSNET John Feinstein will be in studio along with former Redskins general manager Charley Casserly .
ESPN opens up a window to Redskins owner’s true persona “He talked aboutwanting to
dive inand fix issues”whenhe first bought the team,Nichols toldme. “Andhe learned it doesn’twork thatwaywithan NFLteam.That’s sort of an interestingwindowtohis first five years, first 10 years,whyhe did some of the things.We’llhave to seehowthey turnout, clearly, but tohim,hiring [Mike] Shanahanandhiring [Bruce] Allenand taking amore long- termapproachis somethinghe learned along theway, something that didn’t comenaturally.” Indeed, Snyder tellsNichols in
ESPN
Long before he was Redskins owner, Daniel Snyder was a fan. Nichols, a formerPost reporter
who grewup intheD.C. area and has beenfollowing theRedskins “since Iwas sentient,”hadmet Snyder several times before this project buthadnever interviewed him. She encountered the same skittishness amongmedia memberswe’ve oftenseen— Snyder repeatedly saidhe didn’t
likewalking aroundwhilemic’ed, and said “every step of theway withthis story therewas discussiononwhathe felt comfortable showing oncamera.” Her goal, she said,was to offer
a “snapshot at this point” of a manwho could be involvedwith this franchise for three or four more decades.
the piece that there’s “no instructionmanual” for owning theRedskins and thathis first instinctwas to find all the things he could fix.And it’s anurge that willnot go quietly. Near the end of the segment,
Nichols asks Snyderwhathis dad would say about recent years. “Wow.What a disaster,” Snyder
guessedwitha laugh. “And then he’d say, ‘Gotta fix it.’ ”
steinbergd@washpost.com
Hot Topic Cavaliers Journal Excerpt from
voices.washingtonpost.com/cavaliers-journal
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