Questions for minicamp?

[BrudLee]

My wife is having another son in June this year. Can you find out if Coach Gibbs will be the godfather?

[Skins fan 44]

Just give Coach Gibbs a big welcome back hug for me and tell him how much i missed him. I am the one who wrote in his race shop (when we had Norv-0ctober 2000) and told him to come back to the Redskins. Never got a response though until Jan 7 i guess. LOL

[mizzo skins man]

I just want to know the general attitude of the team. I'm hoping, that like myself, everybody is pumped at the possibility of what could be on the horizon for this team.

[joecrisp]

I just got the schedule for this weekend (it wasn't finalized until last night), and it looks like there won't be as much time for talking to the players individually as I had hoped.

The schedule for Saturday and Sunday is one practice session from 1pm to 2:30pm. The players and coaches won't be made available to the media until 2:30pm, so there's going to be a lot of reporters clamoring for these guys' attention all at once when practice is over.

The marquee players will be doing group interview sessions, so any opportunities I get to talk to players like Portis, Arrington, Brunell, Ramsey or Smoot will likely be limited. That's not a surprise, as that's pretty much how they did it at training camp last year, too. I'll try to grab these guys as they're coming off the field, and get some questions in before they do the full group deals, but they'll likely have assistants with them that will divert the media until they're ready for the group interviews.

I was originally just planning to go on Saturday, but now that I know there's only going to be one practice and interview session each day, I'll most likely go up there on Sunday, too.

Coach Gibbs will be addressing the media at 3:30pm on Saturday, and again on Sunday. Again, my opportunities to talk to him individually are likely very small, so I'll try to get a few questions in during the press conferences.

My plan of attack is basically to target the players or coaches that aren't surrounded by ten reporters from the time they step off the practice field. I'd like to get at least two or three quality interviews each day, where they can answer five or more questions at a time. I had pretty good success with this strategy last year, and was able to get quality interviews from Gardner, Smoot, Morton, Jacobs, Samuels, Bowen, Fiore, Hamdan, and a few others. I could have had Bailey, too (my photographer had corraled him, but I was talking to Bowen at the time-- Doh!!! ) In Bailey's absence, I expect Smoot to be a much bigger media target this year, but he's very generous with the media, so maybe I'll get more than I expect from him.

I'm doing this for you guys, so if you have any suggestions as to how I should prioritize my interview targets, let's hear 'em!

[Daseal]

Personally I'd love to hear Smoot, Portis, Springs, Ramsey, Coles (in that order) for my top 5 guys to get comments from!

[MTK]

I wonder if guys like Smoot and Ramsey will remember you, Joe. You talked to Smoot a few times and Ramsey seemed to be pretty friendly with you.

You're a lucky man, you SOB!

LOL

Are you going to be getting some pictures too?

[joecrisp]

I'm hoping Smoot and Ramsey will remember me, at least enough so that I'll be able to squeeze in a few quick questions with them individually.
I've got a photographer coming with me to minicamp, so we should get some nice pics out of the deal. That will free me up to focus on talking to the players and watching for the small details in practice.

I'm really excited about this, and I feel like this year is going to be really special for The Warpath. Stay tuned...

[diehardskin2982]

Ask Arrington: with all the controversy of the Poston brother’s dealings, not only with his contract but with other teams like Pace and the Rams, has he ever considered finding some new agents. Secondly if the arbitration does not go in his favor has he considered suing his agents for negligence for not giving him the best representation possible to get that extra 6.5 million.

Be careful though i don't won't him to get angry and hit ya in the face or anything like that

[joecrisp]

Originally Posted by diehardskin2982

Ask Arrington: with all the controversy of the Poston brother’s dealings, not only with his contract but with other teams like Pace and the Rams, has he ever considered finding some new agents. Secondly if the arbitration does not go in his favor has he considered suing his agents for negligence for not giving him the best representation possible to get that extra 6.5 million.

Be careful though i don't won't him to get angry and hit ya in the face or anything like that

Don't worry, I had been considering asking him, "At what point do you begin to worry that you might not be able to play up to the value of your contract, making you expendable? Having stated that you want to be a lifelong Redskin, wouldn't it concern you that your cap number for 2006 would have been an unwieldy $18 million with the disputed $6.5 million roster bonus included? Isn't that a little prohibitive to remaining a Redskin for life?"

But I figured that one would earn me a punch in the face...



...of course I've seen a lot of boxers take a punch for less money.

[MTK]

I'd just love to see the look on Arrington's face if you dropped a bomb like that on him, LOL