All eyes in D.C. turn to the Redskins

The Washington Redskins will open training camp tomorrow in Ashburn, Va., just a few miles down the road from where I live.

Albert Haynesworth, the only Redskin player to not attend any of new head coach Mike Shanahan's "voluntary" practices and workouts, will be the focal point of the first few days. The all-pro defensive lineman is apparently in shape but still needs to pass a conditioning test before stepping on the field. Haynesworth was often injured and fatigued in his debut season with the 'Skins last year and has asked to be traded in the off-season. However, it appears the disgruntled 100-million-dollar man isn't going anywhere, at least for the time being.

Donovan McNabb, the old Eagle quarterback turned Redskin in the off season, will also get a fair amount of attention in camp. Some of his Philadelphia coaches said the QB still has a couple very good years left. If that is the case, I wonder why the Eagles traded McNabb to a division rival?

Running back Clinton Portis is looking for a bounce-back year and has plenty of competition motivating him. Shanahan has brought in a host of veteran backs. Portis has taken a beating behind a poor offensive line for the past couple of seasons. It seems unlikely that he will run with the same vigor that he showed while he played for Shanahan in Denver eight years ago.

Washington is a football town. You can't get away from it even if you wanted. It's actually kind of nice, especially when you consider that some NFL markets are having trouble filling their stadiums. Regardless of how bad the team has been in recent years, Washington always supports the Redskins. Football always brings a welcomed distraction from the world's problems.

Not even Sharpton backed Arenas

It's been a newsy day in Washington sports. First the new head coach of the Redskins, Mike Shanahan, was rolled out for his introductory press conference. Then just hours later, NBA star guard, Gilbert Arenas, was suspended from the Wizards.

The Arenas situation involving gun play in the locker room was spiraling out of control in recent days. The NBA commissioner finally took action. Read about it here.

One of the most surprising things about the whole Arenas gun-totting mess came a couple days ago when the Rev. Al Sharpton actually said that "Agent 0" wasn't being dealt with harsh enough. Sharpton, who is known for defending folks based on race, actually took a stance against a fellow African-American. Amazing.

The civil rights spokesman's logic was a bit convoluted and still somewhat race-tinged, but I applaud Sharpton for finally using some sense of fairness and rationality in judging right from wrong. In brief, what Sharpton said was that by officials not coming down on Arenas, they were essentially sending a message that gun play is expected and even accepted when it comes to black athletes.