Jeeez! I have to go away for a day and the thread explodes...
Let me try to clarify some things here:
1. Smootsmack's original posting about a "big-time rumor" does NOT match exactly with the "big-time rumor" that I have heard. They are similar but they are not the same. Frankly, the one he has heard makes a bit more sense to me than the one I keep hearing about - - but who says that everything involving the Washington Redskins has to make sense...?
2. With regard to timing, the rumor I have been hearing has been "hours away from announcement" about three different times in the past week. Yet, it never happened. My conclusion is that if it happens, it will happen in its own time and I am not going to have any real advance notice I can depend on. I do not know if Smootsmack's sources have a better sense of the timing here than my sources do.
Remember the old TV commercial where Orson Welles would intone:
We will sell no wine before its time.
The current state of affairs would seem to be:
We will make no announcements before thier time.
Patience...