Some Notes From Bram's Blog

As long as we're in the NFC Beast we'll commonly be known as a marquee franchise that many players will like to play for.

I'm not worried unless we stop selling FedEx out every week...and you know that's not happening anytime soon.


Yeah I have to agree with that.

1) Everyone hates the Cowboys.
2)The Eagles are the bridesmaids of the NFC-East
3)The Giants only have two superbowl(championships) And were never known as a could be/possible dynasty dominant team.

We are the Washington Redskins and we have a storied Franchise, we have great fans,great players, and a great owner.(not everyone agrees)

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but I believe we are/have been the number 1 franchise in the NFL for a longgggg time. We have 5 total championships[3 superbowls] and 5 superbowl appearances. We have 14 playoff appearances since 1971.

"Three Super Bowl championships and 14 playoff appearances since 1971 make the Washington Redskins one of the NFL's most dominant teams of the past quarter century. But the organization's glorious past dates back almost 60 years and includes five overall world championships and some of the most innovative people and ideas the game has ever known. From George Preston Marshall to Jack Kent Cooke, from Vince Lombardi to Joe Gibbs, from Sammy Baugh to John Riggins, plus the NFL's first fight song, marching band and radio network, the Redskins can be proud of an impressive professional football legacy.

George Preston Marshall was awarded the inactive Boston franchise in July 1932. He originally named the team "Braves" because it used Braves Field, home of the National League baseball team. When the team moved to Fenway Park in July 1933, the name was changed to Redskins. A bizarre situation occurred in 1936, when the Redskins won the NFL Eastern division championship but Marshall, unhappy with the fan support in Boston, moved the championship game against Green Bay to the Polo Grounds in New York. Their home field advantage taken away by their owner, the Redskins lost.

Not surprisingly, the Redskins moved to Washington, D.C., for the 1937 season. Games were played in Griffith Stadium with the opener on September 16, 1937, being played under flood lights. That year, Marshall created an official marching band and fight song, both firsts in the National Football League. That season also saw the debut of "Slinging Sammy" Baugh, a quarterback from Texas Christian who literally changed the offensive posture of pro football with his forward passing in his 16-season career. The Redskins won five NFL Eastern division titles and NFL championships in 1937 and 1942 during Baugh's tenure.

Ray Flaherty was Baugh's first pro coach from 1936-1942 and his 56-26-3 record (.701 percentage) is the best in team history. In 1944, the Redskins formed a radio network to broadcast their games throughout the southern United States. By 1950, all Redskins games were televised over a network of southern stations, thus making Washington the first NFL team to have an entire season of televised games. D.C. Stadium (later changed to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium) was opened in 1961 and the 55,683-seat stadium was the Redskins home through 1996. In 1997 the Redskins moved into the new FedEx Field. A consecutive sellout streak began in 1968 and is still alive today. No other NFL team can claim that long a string of sellouts.

In 1969, the legendary Vince Lombardi guided the Redskins to their first winning record in 15 years but he died of cancer before the 1970 season. Class of 2002 inductee George Allen took over in 1971 and coached Washington to 69 victories, five playoff appearances and the 1972 NFC championship in his seven years. Joe Gibbs, who led the Redskins from 1981 to 1992, ranks as the most successful coach in Redskins' history with a 140-65-0 record that produced eight playoff appearances, five NFC Eastern division championships and victories in Super Bowls XVII, XXII and XXVI. He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1982 and 1983 and elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996.

In 2004, Gibbs returned to the sidelines when he was hired as the team's head coach once again." - redskins franchise history

The franchise has enjoyed winning ways and innovative personalities for much of the time since it joined the NFL as the Boston Braves in 1932. The team won the NFL title in 1937, its first season in Washington, and then added a second world championship in 1942. Since the AFL-NFL merger, the Redskins have added many playoff appearances and three Super Bowl championships to its rich history and tradition.


No matter what bad has happend to us in the past, this is why we are such a desired team to play for. Every player wants to bring the franchise back to that winning tradition and alot of the kids now grew up redskin fans.

The cowboys talk shit about 5 superbowls and forget we have 3 superbowls and 2 world championships and have the ONLY african-american QB to ever win a superbowl. There are so many differen't things you can look at the redskins and say "damn, that team is FULL of tradition"

cowboys - 5 SB's + 0 world championships = 5 championships
Redskins - 3 SB's + 2 world championships = 5 championships


Post Season Play Championships
League Championships 5 - 1937 (NFL), 1942 (NFL), 1982 (Super Bowl), 1987 (Super Bowl), 1991 (Super Bowl)

Conference Championships 5 - 1972 (NFC), 1982 (NFC), 1983 (NFC), 1987 (NFC), 1991 (NFC)

Division Championships 12 - 1936 (NFL East), 1937 (NFL East), 1940 (NFL East), 1942 (NFL East), 1943 (NFL East), 1945 (NFL East), 1972 (NFC East), 1983 (NFC East), 1984 (NFC East), 1987 (NFC East), 1991 (NFC East), 1999 (NFC East)

Playoff Appearances 20 - 1936, 1937, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1999

I'm pretty sure the Giants have won three Super Bowl's also.

It's refreshing to hear that Snyder may be finally learning the value of locker room chemistry. Just look at what this team battled through last year, from all the injuries to Sean Taylor's tragic death. Despite all that the team rallied down the stretch and made the playoffs after they were left for dead at 5-7. That's a team that you don't want to disrupt by bringing in big names with pricey contracts. Snyder said that he learned patience from his time working with Gibbs, and so far it appears that he was telling the truth.

After reading that, it leaves me with the uneasy feeling that the pendulum might actually start swinging the other way. Are we gonna be one of those penny-pinching franchises now that screws up good deals? I hope not but it seems like we would have still been underpaying for Hackett.

I know i know, we are still the washington redskins and just cuz we have had back-to-back frugal Free agencies, doesn't mean that we have completely changed our ways. I guess i'm just being paranoid and if you are dan snyder and the skins FO, u are damned if u do and damned if u don't...

It might seem that the pendulum is on the other side this year, and frankly, there could be some serious truth to the idea that Synder is having cash flow issues.

If you follow the credit markets, and who couldn't right now with the amount of media play they're getting, you would know that the era of cheap cash borrowing is over. Synder, and others like him, made their fortune through HIGHLY leveraged buy-outs. In other words, they borrow heavily to purchase assets, and then recapitalize (by selling) after they have restructured the asset to be more profitable and more valuable. The only way this business model works is when you have access to lots of cash on the cheap. NO ONE on Wallstreet is offering cheap cash right now, so the cost of borrowing money is very high, and your leverage ratio (the amount you owe, vs. the amount of assets you have) must be much lower than in the past.

Synder has historically carried a very high leverage ratio, and if you recall, the league actually made him pay down his debt on the team to a ratio that was more solvent. I would not be surprised at all to find that Snyder is having problems getting access to cash for all of his businesses. That doesn't mean he is insolvent, just that he has to limit his spending to the cash his businesses are bringing in as opposed to spending the banks money and paying it back.

This is all pure speculation, but it seems very reasonable given Snyders previous business dealings and modus operandi.

Yeah I have to agree with that.

1) Everyone hates the Cowboys.
2)The Eagles are the bridesmaids of the NFC-East
3)The Giants only have two superbowl(championships) And were never known as a could be/possible dynasty dominant team.

We are the Washington Redskins and we have a storied Franchise, we have great fans,great players, and a great owner.(not everyone agrees)

Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but I believe we are/have been the number 1 franchise in the NFL for a longgggg time. We have 5 total championships[3 superbowls] and 5 superbowl appearances. We have 14 playoff appearances since 1971.

I know the history of the redskins because I am a fan of the redskins. However, my point is that regardless of our hallowed history, we may not be as appealing to FAs as we think. I don't think some kid who grew up watching whatever local NFL team knows about our history. There is a big "what have you done lately" mentality. Remember that a 26 year old FA was born in or around 1982. They were 8 or 9 when we were last in the Super Bowl! For these players, if we are not going to overpay as in the past, I think it is going to take a few consecutive winning seasons to regain that aura.
Hey, I could be wrong. However, SF has 5 SBs and they have to throw dump-trucks full of cash at FAs to get them to sign as of late, and look at the Raiders and their 3 SB wins. The 49ers, Steelers, Packers, Pats, Raiders, and Cowboys all have 3 or more SB wins with the Giants, Dolphins, and Broncos each at 2. The point is that we do not occupy the rarefied air that we as fans believe we do. A kid who was 9 when we last were in a SB and grew up NOT a fan of the skins, isn't in awe of this organization.
In terms of being the "number 1 franchise", I guess you are referring to revenue. But if you are an employee and you don't get a cut of this revenue, do you really care? Maybe, but if they aren't using the revenue to give enormous signing bonuses as in the past, you probably don't.
BTW, the third highest selling jersey last year was Romo so unless people are buying his jersey to light it on fire, not everyone hate the Cowboys ;)

What gets me are the redskins fans that are ripping Snyder for his catious approach this year.Last year they ripped him for throwing money around...lol

It's refreshing to hear that Snyder may be finally learning the value of locker room chemistry. Just look at what this team battled through last year, from all the injuries to Sean Taylor's tragic death. Despite all that the team rallied down the stretch and made the playoffs after they were left for dead at 5-7. That's a team that you don't want to disrupt by bringing in big names with pricey contracts. Snyder said that he learned patience from his time working with Gibbs, and so far it appears that he was telling the truth.


*I* agree...And I also have the feeling the players have taken notice as well.

Over the past several years many players have been willing to re-work their contracts on more than one ocasion, to help clear cap space in an effort to bring in new players with the hopes of improving the team. When players look at the results of their efforts, and see players like B. Lloyd, and A. Archuletta being brought in to make limited contributions, and in Lloyd's case actually be a locker-room disruption, it's easy to see why the team took the approach they did with DJ Hackett.

The show me first attitude would have been best served in the case of both those players, and as a result of those decisions I believe the foundation has been established for the approach the team seems now inclined to take.

What gets me are the redskins fans that are ripping Snyder for his catious approach this year.Last year they ripped him for throwing money around...lol

Yeah I find that to be quite comical myself.

We've begged them be more patient and cautious for years now. Yet anytime a big name comes up there's plenty of people crying for the Skins to make moves. I don't get it.