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hen Artis Hicks came to visit the Redskins during the offseason,
his dinner party included Kyle Shanahan. The team’s first-year offensive coordinator asked Hicks about Cedric Griffin, his former teammate with the Vikings who tore his ACL in the playoffs a year ago. “He should recover; he
should be fine,” Hicks said. “Yeah, I played with Ced at
Texas,” Shanahan replied. Hicks is a grizzled NFL
veteran. Griffin is 27 years old, and has played four seasons in the NFL. “I was like, ‘What?’ “ Hicks
recalled thismonth. “I said. ‘How old are you?’ He toldme he was 30. I felt so old. I’ve never been older thanmy
Quick Fix
6Excerpts from
voices.washingtonpost.com/sports CHATREWIND
ThomasBoswell:onO’s underBuckShowalter I think I’vewrittenfive times
inthese chats that theO’s aren’t that bad, that their young pitching ispromising andthat, whentheyhit, they are far from theworst teaminbaseball.But, of course, they’renot this good—8-1 witha 48-33 run-differential— either.They’re 3-0inone-run games, 2-1 intwo-rungames and havehadthreewalk-offwins underBuck so far.Whenthey blowa lead, they come back and win. . . . This is aperfect example of
why youchangemanagers.Teams lose their self-belief inawful seasons andit feeds onitself.We sawitwiththe “Natinals” last year.Partly you’re badandpartly youhave the losingdisease. Withinaweek ofRiggleman
QUOTABLE
‘Well, I want him to make sure that he puts my name on that list.’
—Charles Barkley, in an interview with a Dallas radio station, responding to LeBron James’s well-publicized tweet that he was keeping track of people who have been critical of him. Barkley proceeded to rip James’s decision to leave Cleveland and how he announced it.
TELEVISIONANDRADIO MAJORLEAGUEBASEBALL 7 p.m.
7 p.m.
NFL PRESEASON 7:30p.m.
GOLF 1 p.m.
TENNIS 7 p.m.
BOXING 9 p.m.
arriving, theNatshada 6-2 run, then, at exactly this time last year —Aug 2-10—theNatswon EIGHTina row!Wow, that Rigglemansure is a genius!And they evenendedthe yearwitha 7-0streak.That stilldidn’t keep themfromhaving theworst recordinbaseball. TheOrioleshavemore talent
nowthantheNatsdidlast year, in my opinion, andI think they’ll soonpass thePirates and, eventually,maybe Seattle, too. I think thatNo. 1 overallpick inthe ’11draftwill be gonepretty soon. Thatwon’thelpScottBoras in
theBryceHarpernegotiations withtheNats.One ofhispoints is that, if theNatsdon’t signHarper this year, thentheOriolesmight get theNo. 1picknext year and draftHarper,producing a longPR nightmare for theNats. I’dsay the chances of thathave goneunder 5 percent.
DAN STEINBERG D.C. Sports Bog
offensive coordinator. That mademe feel like I was 63.” Truth be told, Hicks should
have figured out the age difference by looks. The younger Shanahan hasn’t exactly mastered the grizzled look. “That’s a blessing, to be 30
and look like you’re 21,” Hicks said. “Imean, I wish I had that problem.” Yes, this is the second Kyle-
KLMNO 6
3
Shanahan-Is-Young! article The Post has run this week. Sally Jenkins covered the ground perfectly wellMonday, talking to Kyle about growing up around football and immersing himself in the profession. But, as someone nearly a decade older than one ofmy editors, I was curious how the team’s veterans have dealt with the age gap. Shanahan is younger than six of the 11 offensive starters, in some cases significantly. “No, not significantly,” 35-
year oldMike Sellers said. “I’ma little older than him.” “He looks likeme, you know,
so yeah, he looks young,” 32- year old Casey Rabach joked. “Good Lord, he’s been around football his whole life. He’s probably gotmore football
FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2010
WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS First Things First: Join columnist Tracee Hamil- ton weekday mornings at 9:30 to discuss the hottest topics from the world of sports.
WASHINGTONPOST LIVEWITH IVAN CARTER 5 P.M. ON COMCAST SPORTSNET Antonio Freeman and live guests from the Bills-Redskins game at FedEx Field join The Post’s Mark Maske and GeneWang.
Kyle Shanahan is young, but players say he knows what he’s doing with his offense
experience than half the coaches twice his age.” While you’re working that
one out, consider this: Starting wideout Joey Galloway ismore than eight years older than Shanahan. This would be like a 14-year-old coaching rookie tackle TrentWilliams. But the offensive veterans said Kyle Shanahan didn’t have to do anything to establish his authority other than open his mouth. “It took fiveminutes of him
talking about his offense for everyone to say that he’s great, we’ll listen to what he says,” Chris Cooley said. “Kyle knows his stuff, better than almost anyone I’ve ever had. He is sure of his offense.” “When you’ve been around
football as long as he has, you can just sense it,” Hicks agreed. “He knows his game. Imean, he knows football.When you first meet himyou can sense that, you can just feel it coming out of certain people.” “He knows what the heck he’s
talking about,” Sellers toldme. “Once you establish that, it’s automatic that you get the respect.” And so Shanahan never
mentioned his age inmeetings. He didn’t worry about establishing control, and has yet to pull any yelling-and- screaming, you-will-respect-me stunts. “He’s not a jerk or anything;
he’s cool, he can relate,” said Derrick Dockery, Kyle’s college teammate. “If somebody’s
slacking they’ll get you out of here; that’s what Coach Shanahan’s here for.” Yes, Dockery still refers to the
headman as “Coach Shanahan.” Kyle, though, is just “Kyle.” Titles seemto come with age. When Cooley first joined the Redskins, the offense was run by Joe Gibbs, whomhe referred to as “Coach Gibbs” until late in his first season. (“But that’s Joe Gibbs, Joe Gibbs is grandpa- aged,” he noted.) But Cooley said he would never think to call Kyle Shanahan “Coach.” “Imean, when I stop and
grab coffee, I [BS] with himlike we went to high school together,” Cooley toldme. “But when he’s running ameeting, he’s good. He’s very good.”
steinbergd@washpost.com
Hot Topic Washington Capitals
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
ArizonaatWashington»MASN2,WXTR(730AM),WFED(820AM, 1500AM) Baltimoreat TampaBay »MASN,WTNT (570AM)
BuffaloatWashington»WRC(Channel4),Comcast SportsNet,WWXT (92.7 FM), WWXX (94.3FM),WTEM(980AM)
PGAChampionship» TNT WesternandSouthernFinancialGroupOpen» ESPN2 “FridayNight Fights,”ChrisArreolavs.ManuelQuezada» ESPN2
LITTLE LEAGUEWORLDSERIES 11 a.m.
5p.m. 8 p.m. 11 p.m.
SOCCER 3p.m.
BY KATIE CARRERA
Mid-Atlantic regionsemifinal » ESPN2 Westernregionsemifinal » ESPN2
Southeasternregionchampionship» ESPN Westernregionsemifinal » ESPN2
BayernMunichvs.RealMadrid» ESPN only from Comcast. DIGEST TENNIS
Top two seeds are bounced out in Cincinnati Top-seeded Jelena Jankovic
and second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki were knocked out in third-round upsets at the Cincin- natiWomen’sOpenonThursday. Qualifier Akgul Amanmurado-
vausedadecisive serve advantage to upset the second-ranked Jank- ovic, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, shortly after 16th-seeded Marion Bartoli won eight straight games onherway to beating the third-ranked Wozni- acki, 6-4, 6-1. Justoneof thetopnineseeds—
No. 4 Kim Clijsters — and five of the 16 remained alive through the early session on the fourth day of the$2milliontournament. Sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva
fell to 11th-seeded Flavia Pennet- ta, seventh-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska was eliminated by 10th-seeded Maria Sharapova and eighth-seeded Li Na lost to 12th-seeded Yanina Wickmayer. . . .
InToronto, third-seededRoger Federer advanced to the quarter-
for Madrid. Team USA will also play in Lithuania and Greece be- foretheWorldChampionshipsbe- ginonAug. 28 inIstanbul.
finals of theRogers Cupwith a 7-6 (7-2), 6-3winoverMichael Llodra. Federer, who won the event in
2004 and2006,nextwillnextplay No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych, who edged Alexandr Dolgopolov, 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-4. Top-seeded Rafael Nadal, sec-
ond-seeded Novak Djokovic and fourth-seeded Andy Murray also posted victories tomove on to the final eight.
PROBASKETBALL Wizards center JaVale McGee
is about to hit the floor for Team USAintheWorldBasketballFesti- val showcase at Radio City Music Hall.McGee has a second chance withthe team,but this couldbe an extendedstay. USAManaging Director Jerry
Colangelo said he plans to bring all 15 players along until the team makes its final cuts by Aug. 26. ThatmeansMcGeewill likely join the team when it leaves Monday
—MichaelLee LeBron James, Carmelo An-
thony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paulwere among the playerswho attended a negotiating session be- tween the NBA and the union in Manhattan. Players’ association executive
director Billy Hunter said 14 play- ers participated in the meeting. The sides agreed to hold another session before training camp. The current collective bargaining agreement expires June 30, 2011.
MISC. Rebecca Bross ran through
four terrific routines to take a big lead heading into the final at the
U.S.gymnastics championships in Hartford, Conn. Bross finished with 60.4 points in the opening round, good for a 2.2-point lead overMattieLarson.
While Bross was dominating
the all-around, Alicia Sacramone kept her comeback on track, scor- ing 14.85 on beam and landing solidly on both her vaults for a 15.65 and15.35. . . . David Beckham will reject
making one final soccer appear- ance for England, a person famil- iarwiththe former captain’splans said.
Coach Fabio Capello an-
nounced Wednesday that the 35- year-old Beckham was too old to continue playing competitively for England, but offered him an opportunity to say farewell to fans inanexhibitionmatch. Beckham, who is recovering
from an Achilles’ tendon injury that denied hima trip to a fourth World Cup, has played 115 times for England, second only to goal- keeper Peter Shilton on the coun- try’s all-time appearance list. And the Los Angeles Galaxy
midfielder has said that he wouldn’t retirefromEnglandduty while stillplaying soccer. . . . A federal appeals court has re-
fused to reinstate a defamation lawsuit disgraced ex-baseball
JOHN SOMMERS II/REUTERS
Akgul Amanmuradova slices a return during her three-set upset of top-seeded Jelena Jankovic at the CincinnatiWomen's Open.
pitcher Roger Clemens filed against Brian McNamee, the for- mer personal trainer who claims he injected Clemenswith steroids andhumangrowthhormone. In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge
panel of the 5thU.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreedwith aHouston federal district judge’s dismissal last year of most of Clemens’s claims againstMcNamee. —Fromnews services
AnNHLsource confirmed Thursday
that free agent center Eric Belanger has agreed in principle to a one-year, $1.85 million deal to return to theWashington Capitals for the 2010-11 season. The agreement has been in the works
for some time, the source said, adding that the team is waiting to formally announce the signing after the Capitals make
Eric Belanger (18), acquired at the trade deadline fromMinnesota, finished the season ninth in theNHLin faceoff win percentage. Belanger returns to Capitals
Source says center has agreed to one-year deal
additional roster changes. The Globe and Mail first reported that Belanger would return to the Capitals and according to that account,Washington may be exploring trade options to possibly bring in a defenseman. Capitals GeneralManager George
McPhee declined to comment through a team spokesman on the situation. Belanger, who finished the 2009-10
regular season ninth in theNHLin faceoff win percentage (59.4), is expected to compete withMarcus Johansson, Brooks Laich, David Steckel, Boyd Gordon and Mathieu Perreault for ice time behind first-line center Nicklas Backstrom. In 24 games with the Capitals after being acquired from theMinnesota Wild
at the trade deadline this past season, Belanger, 32, recorded two goals and five assists.
Signing Belanger at $1.85 million would
leaveWashington with one spot remaining under the maximum roster size of 23 players and just more than$3.4 million in space under theNHL’s $59.4 million salary cap, according to calculations on
Capgeek.com. It remains unclear what other deal the
team may be trying to finalize before announcing Belanger’s return, but according to The Globe andMail’s report, Tomas Fleischmann, who signed a one- year, $2.6 million contract this summer, may be in the mix.
carrerak@washpost.com
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