As you sift through the veritable mountain of stories coming out of Washington DC, it’s important to keep in mind a few things about Joe Gibbs. The Post and the Times would have you believe that Ramsey is being booted out of DC in favor of an older, more experienced QB. Names like Trent Dilfer, Marc Brunell and Jeff Garcia are being tossed around recklessly. Gibbs rated Ramsey’s performance last season as a “B+” – one of the highest grades on the entire team. Considering his injuries, the fact that Spurrier had not heard the term “Pass Protection,” and the fact that Ramsey continued to fight through the pain… Ramsey is now and will most likely remain the Redskins starter.
However, no player on the roster should consider his job “safe.” Joe Gibbs is a ‘Show Me’ coach. If a player proves he should be on the field – he’ll earn the starting job. Price tags, history and reputations mean little to Coach Gibbs. The signal has been sent, loud and clear, ‘if you want to be a starter for the Washington Redskins – you’ll have to earn it.’ It’s refreshing!
While I don’t blame the DC area sports writers for tying to stir up a little controversy, I would hope that they at least focus on the facts. As in years past, you’ll again see a ‘Redskins thinking about a name change-; American Indians protest the Redskins-; Native Americans don’t like Redskins’- “story.” Never mind the fact that the Redskins will NEVER change the name of the team. A story with quotation marks and supposed interviews will still take place.
Take every story about the Washington Redskins with a grain of salt. The headline “Ramsey Frustrated” is bogus and totally misleading. Ramsey did struggle at times in ’03. But it’s easy to perform poorly when 350-pounder monsters are pounding you into the turf on a regular basis. “Ramsey sues Spurrier for Lack of Support” would be a much better story – and much more realistic.
The Redskins need a capable backup QB, and may have found one at the end of last season, completely by accident. Tim Hasslebeck performed admirably after learning the playbook on-the-fly. But don’t think for a second that he, nor any other QB has an edge over Patrick Ramsey… chalk it up to offseason, busy-body, wish-there-was something to write about- hooey.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Scott Moore