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Marty's makeover Schottenheimer's Skins barely resemble last year's team
Updated: Friday August 10, 2001 8:18 PM
By Don Banks, Sports Illustrated CARLISLE, Pa. -- The burgundy and gold uniforms are familiar. Oh, and Darrell Green's still hanging around. But that's about it. If you're charting the carry-over factor between the new-look Washington Redskins and their fat-cat predecessors of 2000 -- one of the most famous underacheivers in recent NFL history -- the process is short and sweet. Which speaks to just how sour things went for Washington last year, when the Redskins were the best (.500) team money can buy. A year ago at this time, the Redskins were bathed in preseason Super Bowl hype, ensconced in their Redskin Park team headquarters for training camp ($10 a head, $10 a car), and featured a gaudy, star-filled roster that pushed up against the never-before-reached $100 million plateau. Washington wasn't so much a football team as it was a new millennium experiment in overkill.
"If we would have won last year, you would have seen a lot of teams do what we did last year," Redskins quarterback Jeff George said Friday. "But it didn't work. We tried it. So now you do something different." Different indeed. Everything about 2001 feels different so far, starting with the tone being set at Camp Marty, the alias that new head coach Marty Schottenheimer's sweat-soaked workouts have inspired at his team's Dickinson College training site. "It's kind of night and day," said Redskins offensive tackle Chris Samuels, one of the team's two 2000 first-round picks. "Last year, though, I thought it was a great idea to bring in all these stars. It's just the chemistry wasn't right. Who could have predicted that? "But this year we have a better attitude and we're more about oneness. Last year, we really weren't a team at all. We were a little wrapped up in individuals." Ah, last year, when the word Redskins became synonomous with disappointment and mediocrity. Last year, head coach Norv Turner ran his usual low-key, somewhat-relaxed camp amid the carnival-like setting at Redskin Park. Owner Daniel Snyder's charge-for-training-camp brain cramp, er, brainstorm, was in full swing. Deion Sanders and his traveling sideshow had just opened. The Brad Johnson-Jeff George quarterback controversy was beginning to fester, and two of the draft's top three picks -- linebacker LaVar Arrington and Samuels -- were on hand to keep the headlines coming. This year? Turner's gone. Training camp has moved. Johnson left. Sanders retired, and there's absolutely nothing about these Redskins that seems larger than life. Especially when it comes to the team's level of preseason expectations. In many ways, everything about 2000 seemingly has been dismantled. "Because of everything we went through last year, it just feels like I've been around for a long time already," said Arrington, the second overall pick in 2000. "There was all the ridicule and all the scrutiny we were under. And there was the hype. And we just didn't live up to it. "To me, it was like we were set up from the beginning. We were put on danged bullseye board and sat on the wall before the season was even close to be started. We were already slotted into the Super Bowl, and we hadn't even proven anything. We were paper champions before we even got on the field." Schottenheimer is this year's only big story. He instituted a my-way-or-the-highway approach within the organization, then made everybody hit the road, opting to isolate his team for three weeks in this quaint and quiet burg of 20,000 about 120 miles north of D.C. So far, training camp has been free to fans and quite costly to some selected veterans. The Redskins have practiced 23 times in the camp's opening 12 days, about two-thirds of the time in full pads in oppressive heat. Always a stickler for details, Schottenheimer has endured selected grumbling among the troops regarding the work load -- veterans Bruce Smith (shoulder), Marco Coleman (back) and George (shoulder) all are out with injuries -- but he vows to press on. Just as many players -- George, Samuels and Arrington included -- laud the head coach's discipline, structure and work ethic. "I'll tell you one thing, we don't apologize for the way we work," Schottenheimer said Friday. "We believe in hard work. I just don't think there are any short cuts. And these camps are not as rigorous as they used to be." Plenty of things aren't as they used to be in Washington. The Redskins rid themselves of 24 players off their final 53-man roster of 2000, including eight starters. Veterans like Larry Centers, Tre' Johnson, Keith Sims, Irving Fryar and Mark Carrier were cut loose. And when camp opened, six starting jobs were up for grabs -- both guards, one wide receiver, middle linebacker, free safety and one cornerback -- in addition to the punt return duties and numerous key reserve slots. Maybe best of all, Snyder has been keeping an extremely low profile, still stinging from the wave of criticism that his well-chronicled penchant for meddling invited last year. But after throwing a bunch of bad money after good in 2000, maybe low profile is the way to go in Washington this year. "People think we're pretenders this year, so we're gonna sneak up on them," Arrington said. "We're going to have a good time. It feels like a new team, but we still have a lot of talent here. We're not done."
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