Sometimes life provides such clarity that even two people normally inclined to disagree with each other and/or mock each other via endless blog transcripts are forced into common ground.
So it is with the Redskins on “Monday Night Football.” Washington has hosted 17 Monday night games since 1998. That’s tied with Denver for the most in the league. Washington has had more home Monday games than Buffalo, Houston, Cleveland and Baltimore, combined. And the Redskins, in one of the most remarkable statistics in D.C. sports, have gone 1-16 in those games.
This almost defies belief. It means that 11.3 percent of all home “Monday Night Football” losses since 1998 have happened at FedEx Field. It means that the Redskins have double the home Monday night losses of any 0ther team in that span. It means that the Browns — next worst in that time frame — would have to lose 14 straight home MNF games to take Washington’s spot. It means that the Steelers — 10-0 in home Monday night games since ’98 — would have to lose 161 straight home MNF games to fall below Washington’s current winning percentage.
Non-Washington teams have a +907 point differential in home MNF games since 1998. The Redskins are -246. Want to guess what their record is when they’re favored in those games? They’re 0-8!
Anyhow, you look at all this and come to only one sane and logical conclusion: that the Redskins should not be allowed to play home games on Monday nights. That’s what I wrote in the week hours after that loss, and that, tragically, is what Stephen A. Smith argued on Tuesday morning.
[For the Redskins, Monday remains the saddest night]
“I would dare make the argument that the Redskins should be banned from ‘Monday Night Football,’ ” my philosophical soul mate argued. “I don’t think they should be allowed? Why do you get to lose that much on national TV? We shouldn’t be subjected to such ineptitude. I would say that the NFL schedule makers should prohibit, forbid, ban the Redskins from Monday Night Football until further notice, because I think a legitimate argument can be made that they no longer belong on national television
I agree, assent, conform, confer.
Smith, if you can believe this, had more to say.
“What do I say about the Redskins? They are allergic to prosperity,” Smith said about the Redskins. “The second you expect anything from this team, they don’t show up. Poor Jon Gruden there, watching his little brother coaching this team [Monday] night, had to be subjected to this nonsense on national television. But I’m not surprised, because when you chirp and chirp and chirp, these are the kind of things that happen. … The Redskins haven’t won [a Super Bowl] since 1991. 1991! This team is 25 years and counting away from a Super Bowl.
“I mean, [there is] this great history and tradition with these Washington Redskins. Does this team stand up to the challenge and respond? No. They fold like cheap tents. They folded, they choked, they didn’t get it done.”
(He isn’t wrong.
Smith also brought up his guest appearance on ESPN 980 earlier this fall, when he explained why he didn’t think the Redskins should be strutting after a home win over the Eagles. That segment devolved into an angry back and forth with Brian Mitchell, which Smith hadn’t forgotten.
“Don’t know him too well, really good guy, very very knowledgeable about football,” Smith said. “We know what he did as a Redskin. No disrespect to him, no shade to him, but I would dare say that he was cruel to me. He was not kind to me when I was a guest on 980 ESPN Radio in Washington D.C., treating a guest like that. Why? Because I had the temerity, the unmitigated gall to sit up there and say excuse me, why are you walking around here calling yourselves the champions of the NFC East and all of this other stuff when the Dallas Cowboys are in first place . . .
“Treating a guest this way, he was so disrespectful to me,” Smith later said. “It seemed to be a bit personal, it seemed like Brian Mitchell felt like I was talking about him, like he was still playing for the Redskins. No, when he was playing for the Redskins they were actually winning games. Not the case right now.”
Seems like another visit Inside the Locker Room might be in Smith’s future.
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