After two years in San Diego, center Cory Raymer is back with the Redskins and is competing to start at center.
The Redskins' locker room is a slightly funnier place during the early days of training camp, when the season opener feels like it's nine months away and hitting your own teammate gets tiresome.
Cory Raymer is back at Redskins Park.
He says Jon Jansen is "as ugly as ever. Just a major pain in the butt."
He says Joe Bugel is like "an Italian mob philosopher, a different kind of cat in a big way."
He says the East Coast is like the West Coast in that "the beer tastes the same."
And he calls living in San Diego - his home the last two years - "a whole different ballgame. I would have never given it a chance until I got out there. It was fun, but I did get thrown in jail by the fat police for walking around the beach with my thong on."
Southern California might have been fun, but Washington is where Raymer wants to play. He brought his sense of humor and experience back to the Redskins in March, even though he wasn't guaranteed the starting center position.
The Redskins' starter in 1998-99 and 2001, Raymer is competing with incumbent Lennie Friedman and worked with the second team during Thursday's two-hour practice.
"I was here before, and there's no better place to win," he said. "It was a hard decision to leave and an easy decision to come back."
Friedman, who began his NFL career as a guard with Denver, started the Redskins' final eight games last season when Larry Moore was injured.
"They're the same type of football player, in the Jeff Bostic mode," assistant head coach-offense Joe Bugel said. "They're very smart and very tough and the perfect size for what we want here because they can move and have good leverage."
Raymer is bigger (300 pounds compared to Friedman's 283), more experienced (69 starts to Friedman's 30) and has a fan in Bugel.
"Cory is one of the all-time tough guys," Bugel said. "I loved him when he came out of college. He sees the whole picture and understands football. He's had some unfortunate injuries, but I'm glad we got him back here."
Unfortunate is an understatement. Raymer was a second-round draft pick out of Wisconsin in 1995, but his career has been derailed often by injuries.
For example:
1995 - During his first week of training camp, Raymer broke his ankle but returned to play in the opener.
1996 - He injured his knee in Game 6 against the New York Jets and missed a month. He played against Indianapolis, but three days later, he rolled his car while trying to avoid an oncoming vehicle. He suffered a bruised kidney, fractured vertebra and sprained left shoulder.
2000 - After starting every game in 1998 and 1999, Raymer tore his anterior cruciate ligament in training camp and missed the season.
2002 - His first year in San Diego ended in Game 4 with a torn Achilles' tendon.
Does Raymer feel snakebitten?
"Absolutely," he said. "There was nothing fun about it and, unfortunately, it's happened a couple too many times to me. But I've had the opportunity to come back from the injuries and play again. There are a lot of guys who have to walk away from the game because of injuries. They were all tough, but tearing my Achilles' was the low point."
Raymer started eight of 15 games for the Chargers last year, helping LaDainian Tomlinson to a 1,645-yard season. Now he hopes to block for Clinton Portis against Tampa Bay on Sept. 12. The center competition heats up Monday against Denver.
"This is when positions are won and lost," he said. "They brought me here, and now it's my job to show them I can start."
http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-566 ... orts-local
It's good to have him back. Hopefully, he left the injury bug in San Diego.