Recently, the Washington football team welcomed 175 alumni as part of the team’s alumni homecoming game against the Bills on Sept. 24. A homecoming weekend of festivities included Washington legends representing six decades of play, including 15 FedExField Ring of Fame inductees, 25 Pro Bowlers and members of three Super Bowl winning teams (XVII, XXII and XXVI) from the Joe Gibbs-1 glory days.
Prior to the game, I caught up with four former Redskins with Super Bowl rings: wide receiver Charlie Brown, quarterback Mark Rypien, kicker Mark Moseley and kick returner Mike Nelms. They gave me their thoughts on the new ownership group led by Josh Harris and its treatment of the alumni, on the possibility of the team returning to the name Redskins or something resembling it, and on Washington’s 2023 squad, namely quarterback Sam Howell.
CHARLIE BROWN
How does it feel being among all these alumni? “It’s awesome. A lot of credit goes to the team owner, Mr. Harris, and (Director of Alumni) Tim Hightower, him navigating everything. It’s just like being around family.”
Is it like a whole new era, a whole new atmosphere? It sure is. I think it’s going to give a boost in morale to our football team just to see all the alumni. So it’s sort of like a dream come true … to see this kind of involvement within our football team.”
You played in an era when the team was known as the Redskins and you wear a Super Bowl ring. How would you feel about a return to that name or something close to it? “In my heart, I’ll always be a Redskin. So I don’t know if that answers your question or not, but that’s just how I feel. But hopefully … through the grace of God, we’ll get it back, and if not just like anything else we’ve got to move on.”
So sounds like you’d like to see it back? “I would love it back.”
If not Redskins, what name would you like? “I haven’t even thought outside of the box on that. It’s just Redskins to me. My grandmother was half Cherokee and my great grandmother was full Cherokee, so it runs in my blood. They’ve passed away now. But as far as my brothers and sisters and my cousins on my dad’s side, they feel the exact same way I do.”
They don’t find the term offensive? “No, no. But at the same time you don’t want to hurt anybody. From my heart, I’m just telling you what I feel.”
Thoughts on Sam Howell: “I’ve always loved him, from last year, when I saw him a little bit. I know he played at North Carolina. I loved him there. I think it’s a great choice. I have a lot of faith and confidence in him.”
MARK RYPIEN
How do you like seeing so many Redskins alumni? “In year’s past, there’s been an invitation to a lot of alumni events. But I think a lot of the players just felt disconnected to the previous ownership. I don’t have anything bad to say against Dan. I just didn’t know him. I think that’s the problem with a lot of guys here. We just didn’t know him. So it’s nice to see that Josh and his group are doing a great job with the guys and showing support for what we’re trying to do.
So this is refreshing to you? “We’re alumni here. There’s a legacy and a standard and an accountability that I wish would have been done when Dan first got the team. Joe Gibbs was always very welcoming, as was Mr. [Jack Kent] Cooke, in bringing back guys who played before us: the Joe Theismanns, the Sonny Jurgensens, the Billy Kilmers, guys of that nature, Doug Williams, and you were held accountable to a higher standard. The player today doesn’t really have that anymore. They don’t really understand the history. They see the guys around, `Oh yeah, that old fart, he won a Super Bowl ring.’”
You played in an era when you won two Super Bowl rings, you were the MVP of Super Bowl XXVI. The team was known as the Redskins. How do you feel about a return to the Redskins or a name resembling that? “I have my own personal feelings about it and how it was done. I would have been 100% behind the name change if just one Native American was brought to the table for negotiations and said we have some concerns. If that would have happened, and it would have been done down the right panels, the right pathway, then I would have been perfect with the name change. The way it happened was corporate America … the sponsors were losing money to the mob or the woke protesters, not even Native Americans. There’s still a group of Native Americans and there have been for 30, 35 years silently protesting in a way that says, `Hey, maybe take a look at this. Let’s revisit this.’ And bring them all to the table. It never happened. So they just basically said we’re going to change it because we’ve got people at a higher branch of the business world that want it changed. So that’s the nature of how the name was changed. To bring it back, you see there’s a large contingent of Native American leaders that would look into maybe having it. Maybe that would be an opportunity to have a dialogue and talk about it and see what happens. Until then, there’s probably not going to be much done. We can have as many petitions to get the name back to the original state but eventually someone in the upper leadership of the organization needs to say, `Let’s sit down and see if this is something we need to go back to.’”
Your thoughts on Sam Howell. Will he experience growing pains? “Each and every game he plays is a maturation process. I don’t think we’ve seen growth already to this point. I like the fact that he had an opportunity last year to see the game at a very high level and not have to be thrown into the fire early on. That’s how I was brought into this game. I had an opportunity to watch Jay Schroeder start and Doug Williams come in and knew what they were able to do. I had a couple of years under my belt to understand the system. He’s got a wonderful offensive coordinator in Eric Bieniemy, who has a proven track record of doing great things. They have a nucleus of guys right now that are very skilled at the wide receiver position. He should have an opportunity to grow each and every week. Will bad things happen? Obviously, every player goes through times when things don’t go as well as they like. That’s how you come back on the other side.”
MARK MOSELEY
How do you feel about the ownership change and its impact on the alumni? “It’s very refreshing. I’ve been here through this all from the beginning. I even visited Dan before he took over the team because I’ve been president of the alumni all this time. I don’t know what happened with our association between the ownership and the players, but it was just kind of nothing until Bruce Allen got here.”
The new owners have mentioned the name Redskins in the context of the franchise’s glory days. What’s your feeling about a return to the name Redskins and do you think it will happen? “That’s difficult because there are so many hurdles you need to get over to go back to the Redskins. But I can tell you this because I was one of the players that Dan [Snyder] sent out to visit the Native American reservations, and I met with probably two dozen or more councils. And all of them were upset that we were thinking about changing the name. They all have high schools on their reservations, and their mascots are Redskins. One of the chiefs on the Navajo reservation told me that the origin of the word Redskins is a huge honor if you’re an Indian.”
Thoughts on the current team: “It’s a great start. We’ve got to be real. They’re young. They’ve got a long way to go. In 1981, when Joe Gibbs first came here, we started off 0-5 and ended up winning eight of our last 11. Then the next year we went to the Super Bowl. That’s how it begins. You start building that excitement and emotion in the players, the fans, and it just mushrooms from there. Once you get it going, there’s no telling what could happen. They’ve got good players, there’s no doubt about it. This defense has got to be one of the top three or four defenses in the whole league.”
MIKE NELMS
Do you feel like the team and the alumni are experiencing a revitalization: “I feel that way. Snyder was not very personable. He is who he is and how he is. But Josh seems to be a lot more accommodating and a lot easier to communicate with. I’ve seen how he walks around and bumps fists with everybody.”
What do you think of the potential that you’ve seen in this team? “They’ve got some good personnel. The game is very mental. You can psyche yourself out. You can think you’re better than what you are. You cannot hustle too many times and get caught doing that. So if they are as strong mentally as they are physically, they could do really well. But if they ever let down … because they haven’t been together long enough to really feel that personality. We knew by the fourth quarter how many points do we need and we’d go, `We got it.’ We did what we had to do.”
