(photo by Brian Murphy)

The last time I saw Saint Nick, he wasn’t exactly in the jolliest of moods. In fact, he appeared fairly miserable while watching the hometown New York Giants self destruct against the Washington Redskins.

He wasn’t shouting obscenity-laced tirades like the bulk of the other fans in attendance at MetLife Stadium last weekend, but he clearly wasn’t thrilled with the effort being shown by a wannabe playoff team against a divisional rival whose fans have begun openly rooting for losses in hopes of securing a better draft pick.*

*Those fans are still morons, but that’s a story for another day.

But that was then and this is now. Hopefully Santa had a chance to drown his sorrows in a tall glass of eggnog or maybe he’s decided to join a winner and become a Redskins fan. Either way, on behalf of the big guy, let me take a moment to wish all of you a merry Christmas.

And if you don’t do the whole Christmas thing, that’s cool too. Enjoy your Chinese food and we’ll catch up with everyone in a few days.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

Ladies and gentlemen, back by popular demand, it’s time for another round of “caption this.”

The game is fairly simple, as you hopefully know by now. I supply the photo and you bring the witty reader-submitted captions. You might not win any cool prizes, but you’ll be formally recognized for being better than your peers and will get some love here on the blog.

Here’s my humble offering for this photo to help get folks started:

“After seeing the carnage left in his wake, Kevin Barnes immediately regretted challenging London Fletcher to a dance off.”

Think you can do better? Leave a comment below with your best caption.

And to see my best photos of the Redskins-Giants game, click this link.

[Editor's note: The winner is Eric with a caption of, “You’ve been hit by ... You’ve been struck by, a smooth criminal!” Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun.]

(photo by Brian Murphy)

True story – the first thought that went through the head of Washington Redskins defensive lineman Stephen Bowen after he sacked New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning this past Sunday was about me.

Why on earth, you ask, would a veteran defensive end such as Bowen think of me after registering his sixth quarterback sack of the season? Let me explain.

This story starts three weeks ago, when Bowen and I were chatting in the post-game locker room after Washington’s disappointing 34-19 loss to the New York Jets.

I told him that, while I thought he was having a very solid season, I had a bone to pick with him. You see, every time he made a play, such as dropping a quarterback or stuffing a running back for a loss, I’d point my camera on him in hopes that he’ll do a spirited dance or some kind of joyous celebration. But it never happened.

Week after week, the 27-year-old just kind of looked over at the sideline and then jogged back to the huddle for the next play. And while that might make his old-school coaches smile, it does absolutely nothing for a guy like me who is standing around on the sidelines hoping to capture a compelling shot of the big fella.

“I tell you what, next week, when you sack Tom Brady I want you to lose your mind,” I said to Bowen. “I want you to do a dance that would make Ray Lewis proud. I want you to lose your ever-loving mind out there. I’m telling you now – you’re going to get a sack next week and when you do, I want to see you let it all hang out.”

We laughed about it and Bowen agreed to show a little emotion out there if the opportunity presented itself.

Fast forward a week and, sure enough, Bowen teamed with defensive tackle Barry Cofield for the only sack of the game against New England. And yet, when I locked the camera in on the six-year pro waiting for his breakout moment, it never happened.

“I froze up, man,” Bowen admitted to me in the post-game locker room. “It’s just not my forte. I’ve got to work on my dance moves. I’ve been asking my wife to help me and stuff, but she really doesn’t help me. I’m gonna have to study some moves from across the league.”

At that point I suggested I should enlist the help of Cofield, thinking maybe he could pretend to use his taser on Bowen and jolt a celebration out of his teammate.

“Yeah, Barry’s got to help me out,” Bowen said.

Another week goes by and once again, Bowen makes a huge play for the Washington defense.

Continue reading this post

(photo by Brian Murphy)

1. “1999” by Prince

The last time the Washington Redskins swept the New York Giants in a season was 1999. To put that in proper perspective, outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan was 11. So was running back Roy Helu. At 13, linebacker Brian Orakpo had just become a teenager.

“What grade is that? Seventh? Seventh grade? I was a young cut,” Orakpo said with a laugh. “It feels good – especially to sweep a team in a season like this, man. The only pessimistic thought I have is I wish we played like this all year. We played a full 60 minutes. This is a game we can truly learn and grow from because we started fast and we finished strong. Guys just continued to play throughout the game. We didn’t worry about all of the other stuff going on; we just continued to play the game.”

Clearly, the Redskins’ 23-10 victory over the Giants was well overdue. But the Redskins came out strong, set the tone of the game on both sides of the ball and really took it to a divisional rival with much more at stake in this match-up.

“We all came out here today and decided we were gonna make plays,” said cornerback DeAngelo Hall. “I was telling the guys on the bench that it’s a scary thing when this team decides to play football. We’ve definitely got a lot to look forward to.”

Considering some guys from the Giants were mouthing off about being able to beat the Redskins 99 times out of 100, you’d think they would be able to put forth a better effort against such a supposedly inferior opponent.

Maybe next year.

Continue reading this post

(photo by Brian Murphy)

Please forgive me for the lack of posts on the website this week. I’ve been a little under the weather,* so everything else has had to be put on hold.

*On a side note though, if you’re interested in losing five pounds in 24 hours, I’d highly recommend food poisoning. It’s really, really effective.

In the interim though, I thought I’d share a link to my photos from the 2011 Army-Navy game. I know most of you have no real affiliation with the U.S. Army or Navy, but trust me when I tell you it’s one of the coolest events I’ve ever had the privilege to cover.

For starters, every single person in attendance actually cares about the game — unlike pro games where at least a third of the people in attendance couldn’t care less about the outcome.

There are also videos shown throughout the game where the Army takes playful jabs at the Navy and vice versa, which is a thousand times better than watching corporate sponsorships videos.

Finally, there’s the fact that as soon as these young athletes graduate from college, they become brothers in arms. They don’t leave college early to go to the pros. They don’t get arrested for attempting to buy large quantities of narcotics so they can make a few extra bucks during the bye week. They become service members who will likely be deployed to somewhere halfway around the world before the next Army-Navy game rolls around.

And for that, I respect the hell out of them. So for those interested, here’s a link to my favorite photos I was able to capture at the 2011 Army-Navy game.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

[Editor's note: Today's guest post is brought to you by Joel Murphy, the man behind the pop-culture site HoboTrashcan who also happens to be my brother. Please show him some love so I might be able to convince him to do this again sometime down the road.]

Before the Washington Redskins took on the New England Patriots this past Sunday, long snapper Nick Sundberg rushed out of the entrance tunnel, through the giant inflatable Redskins helmet and out onto the field. No one announced Sundberg’s name over the PA as he took the field. There was no music or pyrotechnics or theatrics of any kind. In fact, hardly anyone in attendance noticed. But that didn’t stop Sundberg from running out of the gate in a crisscross pattern with his arms fully extended out to his sides, enthusiastically mimicking an airplane as he made his grand entrance.

No one becomes a long snapper in the NFL for the glory. And most long snappers are content to sidestep the inflatable helmets and quietly make their entrances onto the field each week. But Nick Sundberg isn’t like most long snappers.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time,” Sundberg said. “Never got to do it in college because kickers, punters, snappers, we always go out early. In the NFL, it’s the same way — we always run around it. I always thought that was kind of weird. The whole team runs through it except for us. We run around it.”

So Sundberg said that one day he was making his way out to the field with kicker Graham Gano and punter Sav Rocca and he decided to just go for it. He tried to get the other two special teams players to go with him, but they wouldn’t do it.

“You know how kickers are with their stupid routines,” he said.

But Sundberg went for it and he had a blast.

“It was like the best time ever. It really gave me a lot of joy,” Sundberg explained.

From that week on, he makes the most out of his entrance at every home game. He eventually convinced Gano to go through the tunnel with him before the game against the New York Jets, but 38-year-old Rocca has steadfastly refused. Sundberg is hoping to convince the punter to join him in his pregame entrance soon, before it’s too late.

“He’s not going to be able to run very much longer in his old age,” joked Sundberg.

However, convincing the punter to participate appears to be an uphill battle. When asked what the chances are he’d ever make a grand entrance alongside his long snapper, Rocca said it’s “never going to happen.”

While Sundberg likes to have fun off the field, it has taken a lot of hard work and dedication for him to make it to the NFL. Growing up in Phoenix, Ariz., Sundberg spent a lot of time outside — camping, fishing and exploring the vast land. He also played everything he could, from soccer to basketball to hockey. His mom was adamant that he try his hand at every sport. Every sport except football, that is.

“My mom didn’t actually want me to play football because she thought it was too dangerous,” Sundberg said. “So she held me out of it as long as she could.”

But the summer before he started high school, a letter arrived from the North Canyon High School football team inviting incoming freshmen out to a summer workout. Being bigger than the other kids and having an athletic background, North Canyon’s coach wanted Sundberg to start as the team’s varsity left tackle his freshman year. Reluctantly, his mom let him go out for the team.

Eventually, he was moved to center. Then, a new offensive line coach came to the team after his sophomore year and convinced Sundberg to become the team’s long snapper. Long snapping was a passion of his new coach, Ben Bernard, and Sundberg soon found himself lifting weights four days a week and snapping the ball five days a week, 150 to 200 balls a day. He says by the end of his senior year, he was good, but not great.

The following summer, he attended a kicking and snapping camp in Las Vegas, Nev., where he impressed the scouts for the University of California, Berkeley, who were looking for a new long snapper after their starter tore his ACL. Sundberg was able to leverage interest from other teams into a full scholarship to Cal.

Continue reading this post

(photo by Brian Murphy)

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of bitching and moaning about officiating.

It’s a fruitless exercise and seemingly every coach, player and fan who has ever been anywhere near a professional sporting event swears half a dozen times a game that the referees are out to get them.

That being said, I can say without a doubt that both the Washington Redskins and New England Patriots have legitimate reasons to voice their frustrations with the performance of Jeff Triplette and the rest of the officials Sunday.

While there were several calls during the course of the game that had me scratching my head, the worst was easily the unnecessary roughness penalty on Redskins linebacker London Fletcher during the second quarter.

For those who missed it, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady tucked the ball and scrambled for a three-yard gain. With Fletcher closing in, Brady attempted to slide just before the Pro Bowl linebacker was able to make contact.

The two players collided and, as you can see in my photo above, it looked like the end to a seemingly innocent play.

Unfortunately for the home team, the NFL goes overboard in protecting quarterbacks in general, and because the play involved a poster boy like Brady, a flag was thrown and Fletcher was whistled for a 15-yard penalty.

During the explanation of the penalty, Triplette said Fletcher allegedly hit Brady in the helmet, but the photo at the top of this post makes it pretty clear that simply wasn’t the case.

Needless to say, the call wasn’t very popular with Fletcher, who went ballistic. What came next was one of the most heated exchanges I’ve ever seen Fletcher participate in as he pointedly voiced his frustrations with the officials.

“He waited until the last minute to slide and he was a runner at that point in time,” Fletcher explained after the game. “The referee thought I hit him in the head. I didn’t hit him in the head. I thought I hit him in the shoulder.”

Even after the initial explosion of emotion, Fletcher still attempted to passionately plead his case to the referees. Of course, his words fell on deaf ears and the Patriots were 15 yards closer to putting more points on the board.

“You try to explain your situation, but they don’t really listen to you that much,” said Fletcher.

After the game, head coach Mike Shanahan left little room for interpretation with his thoughts on the penalty.

Continue reading this post