Washington Redskins Football Team

More than half a million exuberant Washington Redskins rooters, many waving burgundy and gold pennants and chanting the name of their newest hero, Doug Williams, jammed the streets of the nation's capital Wednesday to hail their victorious Super Bowl team.

Revenge is best served cold. But hey, warm isn't so bad either. Dallas kicker Shaun Suisham has a chance to exact some tonight when the Cowboys play at Washington, a team that cut him earlier this month. In a strange twist of synchronicity, Suisham was released by the Redskins after blowing a short field goal against New Orleans. And this week, he was signed by the Cowboys -- a team he once played for -- after the final straw with former Dallas kicker Nick Folk: also a blown chip shot against New Orleans.

What happens now to Jack Kent Cooke's treasure trove? Cooke died Sunday at the age of 84, leaving behind a myriad of investments ranging from the Washington Redskins pro football team to the Chrysler building in New York, the Los Angeles Daily News, a Kentucky thoroughbred breeding farm, plus real estate stretching from Riverside County to Virginia.

On a Saturday night in New York, the sports world vilifies Serena Williams for raining threats upon a line judge. Yet a day later across the river, the same sports world celebrates a team whose nickname is considered a threat to an entire ethnic group. Redskins. A pro football season begins with two noted players banished to the sidelines for "conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and confidence in, the National Football League." Yet that same league supports a team whose entire identity is forged through a symbol of detrimental conduct known as racism.

The Raiders play host to the Washington Redskins today at the Coliseum in what was supposed to be a little passion play revolving around Jay Schroeder. But it won't be that, unless fate takes a bigger hand than usual. Schroeder, whose popularity in his old D.C. home rivals that of Richard Nixon, has just been benched in favor of pleasant, young Steve Beuerlein, who has no particular following in Washington, one way or the other. This is like turning on "Dallas" and finding out that J.R.

On a Saturday night in New York, the sports world vilifies Serena Williams for raining threats upon a line judge. Yet a day later across the river, the same sports world celebrates a team whose nickname is considered a threat to an entire ethnic group. Redskins. A pro football season begins with two noted players banished to the sidelines for "conduct detrimental to the integrity of, and confidence in, the National Football League." Yet that same league supports a team whose entire identity is forged through a symbol of detrimental conduct known as racism.

It was the week before the week before the Super Bowl in Herndon, Va. School was not quite out yet in the National Football League. History awaited. Doug Williams, a preoccupied man, emerged from the locker room at Redskin Park. He was wearing a faded Grambling letter jacket as he long-strided toward the players' parking lot. Already this day, Williams had studied film of the Denver Broncos' defense, worked out with his teammates and conducted group interviews before and after practice.

Cynthia Lynn, in labor before the delivery of her third son, Alec, heard the far-off radio, and with startled husband Ron at her side, learned of his firing as the Chargers' defensive coordinator. Seven months later, and two weeks after moving to Cincinnati--her husband already off to work at training camp as defensive coordinator of the Bengals--Cynthia Lynn was knocking on a neighbor's door for help.

He came. He saw. He conquered. But you could ask Julius Caesar, it's not that easy. He fizzled. In our nation's capital, Jay Schroeder went up like a skyrocket and came down the same way. Within five years of that spring when Homer Smith, then UCLA's offensive coordinator, wrote letters to all those general managers, recommending that they look at this unemployed bust-out from the Toronto Blue Jays farm system, Schroeder experienced a lot.

Like Alan Ameche and Larry Csonka on NFL championship teams past, John Riggins showed the football world 16 years ago what a difference a big, fast running back can make. Riggins blasted his way to a Super Bowl-record 166 yards in 38 carries and led the Washington Redskins to a 27-17 victory over Miami at the Rose Bowl. The difference-making play was Riggins' fourth-down 43-yard touchdown burst with 10:09 to play. It gave Washington its first lead, 20-17.

All over the NFL on Friday, coaches and executives reached for the familiar, snapping up free agents the way they might grab for a comfortable pair of blue jeans. There were reunions in Kansas City, Denver, Minnesota and with the New York Jets. Each of those teams brought in seasoned veterans who know the system and can help teach it to younger players. Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, also reached for the familiar: his checkbook.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- In the first game of their championship defense, the New York Giants reemerged looking not like a one-year-wonder the season after the miracle, but much like the solid team that shocked the football world seven months ago. Their offense dominated the first 28 minutes, their defense was suffocating from start to finish and they beat the Washington Redskins, 16-7, Thursday night in the season opener at Giants Stadium....

The Washington Redskins fired defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and offensive coordinator Al Saunders on Saturday, promoted Greg Blache to lead the team's defense and announced that a head coach would probably not be in place for at least another week. The Redskins also formally announced the hiring of Jim Zorn, who agreed to a three-year deal on Friday to be offensive coordinator.

The Washington Redskins are 9-7, the last NFC team to clinch a playoff berth this season, bound now for a Saturday encounter at the site where they lost their most recent postseason game, Seattle. On the surface, they sound like just another wild-card story: squeezed their way in with a victory over a top-seeded opponent playing not to get hurt and set up a probable repeat of the game they lost to the Seahawks, 20-10, in January 2006. Except that on Nov.

An attorney for the 17-year-old accused gunman in the killing of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor wants to work with prosecutors to resolve the case. Sawyer Smith, who along with his father Wilbur is representing Eric Rivera, said Wednesday in Miami that his client was admitting no wrongdoing yet.

WASHINGTON -- Linemen crouched, linebackers barked, cornerbacks shifted. But something was wrong. For their defense's first play from scrimmage Sunday, the Washington Redskins fielded only 10 men. They were one man short. Sean Taylor was missing, and he hadn't been replaced. In tribute to their fallen teammate, shot and killed last week in his suburban Miami home, the Redskins lined up without him at safety -- indeed, without anyone. Reed Doughty, for one, wasn't worried.

Dexter Manley tried hard to control himself, but what the Chicago Bears were saying all week was enough to frost his grapefruit. "You know," the Washington Redskin defensive right end said, summarizing Sunday's 21-17 victory, "(quarterback Jim) McMahon shot his mouth off, and the offensive coordinator shot his mouth off and, of course, (Coach) Mike Ditka was like a raving maniac. "The Chicago media pumped (McMahon) up.

What is that bit about the absent-minded professor? Of course. Last season, on a frigid sideline in Kansas City, Joe Collier, the Denver Broncos' defensive coordinator was so focused on stopping the Chiefs, he forgot where he was standing. It was directly in front of a sideline heater. About halfway through a disturbing Kansas City drive, a club official meekly tapped Collier on the shoulder. "Joe, Joe," he said. " What? " Collier responded. "Your pants are on fire."

MIAMI -- As the pro football world mourned Tuesday's death of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor from a bizarre nocturnal shooting a day earlier, homicide investigators combed through the NFL star's troubled past and searched for a killer for whom they have neither a motive nor a description. Taylor, 24, never regained consciousness after being airlifted Monday from his walled and gated home where an intruder had burst in at 1:45 a.m. and shot him.

MIAMI -- Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor remained in critical condition in a Miami hospital Monday night after being shot early in the morning in his Miami home.