August 21-- Apologies to Lou Holtz as the Park gets Intense

There was a very different level of intensity pervasive at Redskins park today following the NYJ loss over the weekend.. Joe Gibbs changed what was scheduled to be a light practice into one with full pads.. Plauers said the time between reps was much shorter.. Brandon Lloyd said it best, that Gibbs didn’t have to say anything..
Gregg Williams had his players running sprints and doing up-downs during the early portions of practice..
Welcome to round two of training camp…

RB Clinton Portis was at practice in shorts and a T-shirt doing some light running, he is not near a return to practice but continues to try to keep his conditioning up.. Portis said he had a similar injury in the last game of his high school career but obviously had plenty of time for that to heal.. This one concerns him only because he has never had an injury in the pre-season and he hopes it doesn’t linger into the regular season.. Portis remains hopeful to play in the opener but likely remains at least a week away from giving practice a shot..

DT Cornelious Griffin (knee sprain) was held out of practice, DE Phillip Daniels (strained back) also did not practice..
Others who were held out: LB Khary Campbell (knee), CB Shawn Springs (abdominal surgery), T Jim Molinaro (knee), TE Robert Johnson (ankle), LB Kevin Simon (abdominal)..

Those who returned after missing practice last week: WR Brandon Lloyd, DE Nic Clemons, WR Atevius Cash, S Curry Burns, CB Ade Jimoh..

Brandon Lloyd said that he does believe the pre-season should be taken seriously and that he did not miss the game over the weekend to try to avoid anything.. he says he believes practice is very important and that he was just listening to his body late last week.. he expects to be fine for the NE game….

Adam Archuletta said what he likes most about playing with Sean Taylor is that Taylor comes in with a playmakers mentality, that he is willing to take chances to make plays knowing his teammates have his back.. This sounds like freelancing to me, the buzz word for the fall of LaVar Arrington in terms of on field performance, but apparently Taylor has more of the coaches’ blessing in this regard.. Archuletta said the terminology and technique used by this group is different then the one he was used to so he is still in the process of learning the system as it were.. Gregg Williams had said they need Archuletta to get better in pass coverage..

RB Stephen Davis’s agent contacted the Redskins to gauge their interest in him returning to Washington.. Davis was released with an injury settlement from Carolina.. My sources told me that while they like Davis, they are not interested in signing him right now, they would prefer to evaluate the players they have at the position through the pre-season.. Davis is expected to meet with the Eagles as well..

Terry Bateman was hired as the new Chief marketing officer for the Redskins internet and broadcast properties.. He was the President of Snyder Communications..

I must correct a story we discussed about Lou Holtz being offered the Redskins coaching job the year Steve Spurrier was hired.. It was reported that Holtz wrote in his new book that he was “offered” the Redskins head coaching position back in 2001.. This story was furthered by a couple of reporters for “The State”, a newspaper based in Columbia, SC in this respect, they have quotes from Holtz’s former boss AD Mike McGee at the University of South Carolina saying he was told the Redskins offered Holtz the job..
Vinny Cerrato came on Redskins lunch a week and a half ago and I asked him about this.. He denied the Redskins offered the job to Holtz, but they did have a casual meeting with Holtz to discuss potential coaching candidates.. Holtz reportedly pitched himself for the job, which I can’t confirm.. This was all set up through former front office man Pepper Rodgers..
Cerrato’s discussion of the story filtered back to Holtz.. Lou then left Cerrato a nasty message telling him essentially to read the book first before commenting on what was said.. In fact Holtz never wrote he was offered the job.. Stupid me for not reading the book but going on the reports that I read..
I spoke with the two reporters in Columbia who essentially explained the entire misunderstanding to me.. McGee believed Holtz was offered the job, however he came to that conclusion doesn’t matter, but Holtz never asserted he was offered the job in his book and the team never did offer him the job..
So, today I had to have a surreal conversation with Holtz himself apologizing on behalf of Cerrato for asking him questions about a false report.. It turns out Lou is on the road so I spoke with his very nice assistant, explained the situation.. Because it’s ridiculously confusing, she asked me to e-mail the explanation to her, when she received it, she promised to fax it to Holt so he could get to the bottom of it himself..
So, I get the idiot award today…