Sean Taylor & Springs

[Skeletor]

399

[Skeletor]

400

Maybe green tea? or Chamomille... It's just a little too early to get worked up about a couple of guys being late to voluntary OTAs.

[Fios]

Hey Skeletor maybe I'll listen to you when you get 400 posts, till then who are u?

Did you actually just cite total posts as if it matters whether you've posted 400 times or 10? Hey Gibbs4Life, I have 4073 posts, I'll listen to you when you get there.

[1niksder]

Springs, 6 feet, 204 pounds, works out in a flat, characterless office park that sits anonymously against striking red clay mesas in North Scottsdale, Ariz. At Performance Enhancement Professionals, each of his 90-minute workouts is dedicated to a specific area: lower body big muscles on Monday, upper body on Tuesdays. Wednesdays focus on the small muscles of the upper body, with the lower body small muscles on Thursdays. On Wednesdays and Fridays, Springs adds Bikram yoga, also known as hot yoga: 26 traditional yoga exercises designed for flexibility and mental cleansing with one grueling twist -- the 90-minute sessions are performed inside a 100-degree room.

Also the same article mentioned that BLloyd is working out with him.

He pulls 45 pounds of dead weight, driven by the appearance of vulnerability and the shadow of age. Days earlier, he celebrated his 32nd birthday. These flexibility drills, he said, will sharpen his burst, his quickness.

"I'm going to have the best year of my career. I have to," Springs said between explosiveness drills, sounding like a boxer in training. He is talking to himself as much as anyone else in the room. "Everybody thinks I'm finished. The only way to prove them wrong is come out and ball."

Springs's personal trainer, Ian Danney, a former Canadian Olympic bobsledder, thinks Gibbs's decision to allow veterans to work out on their own rather than at Redskins Park last winter will pay dividends for Springs this year.

"There are decisions that are made for the team, and decisions that are made for the individuals," Danney said. "The Redskins wanted everyone in Washington for team building, but Shawn really needed to be here. He's at that stage where athletes can go in either direction. If you stay dedicated to it now, you can keep playing. Shawn is a professional. His dedication keeps going. If you don't, that's when guys fall off. But it starts here."

Ryan Clark rounds out the trio that's working together in Az.

[HardDawg]

I miss Ryan Clark...He was a good one.

[Gibbs4Life]

Did you actually just cite total posts as if it matters whether you've posted 400 times or 10? Hey Gibbs4Life, I have 4073 posts, I'll listen to you when you get there.

Yes master

[Smithian]

Hey Skeletor maybe I'll listen to you when you get 400 posts, till then who are u?

Did you actually just cite total posts as if it matters whether you've posted 400 times or 10? Hey Gibbs4Life, I have 4073 posts, I'll listen to you when you get there.

Crap, I have a while to go.

[brad7686]

Hey Skeletor maybe I'll listen to you when you get 400 posts, till then who are u?

Did you actually just cite total posts as if it matters whether you've posted 400 times or 10? Hey Gibbs4Life, I have 4073 posts, I'll listen to you when you get there.

Crap, I have a while to go.

I have a dream, that one day, the members of THN will not be judged by their number of posts, but by the content of their argument.

[Fios]

Hey Skeletor maybe I'll listen to you when you get 400 posts, till then who are u?

Did you actually just cite total posts as if it matters whether you've posted 400 times or 10? Hey Gibbs4Life, I have 4073 posts, I'll listen to you when you get there.

Crap, I have a while to go.

I have a dream, that one day, the members of THN will not be judged by their number of posts, but by the content of their argument.

Well played

[1niksder]

Hey Skeletor maybe I'll listen to you when you get 400 posts, till then who are u?

Did you actually just cite total posts as if it matters whether you've posted 400 times or 10? Hey Gibbs4Life, I have 4073 posts, I'll listen to you when you get there.

Crap, I have a while to go.

I have a dream, that one day, the members of THN will not be judged by their number of posts, but by the content of their argument.

If post count really matter...

[Chris Luva Luva]

* sits in the corner



FROM UP ABOVE!!!! SPEAK UP!!

[frankcal20]

he Aging Process
Grappling With Uncertainty as His Career Transitions, Shawn Springs Takes Cues From His Father's Strength

By Howard Bryant
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007; E01

NEW YORK

It is mid-April, in a restaurant in SoHo. The father is enveloped in the currents of memory, the son fortified by the illusion of invincibility afforded by youth, money and a sinewy frame. They are 18 years apart, but in this instant both are beautiful, simultaneously in their primes.

"If you ran to my side," Shawn Springs says, "I'd take you on, pick you up and throw you aside, just like a rag doll."

The father laughs the laugh teenagers use to put the neighborhood sprouts in their place.

"You keep on thinking that," Ron Springs says, proud of the holes his 6-foot-2, 220-pound frame opened for Tony Dorsett during his own glory years of the 1970s and '80s. "There are guys who played in the NFL who never walked straight again after I ran into them."

Each dart exudes the can't-lose bravado of the professional athlete, but age stalks Shawn Springs. It nags at him professionally. Despite verbal assurances to the contrary from his bosses, Springs, 32, has spent the offseason uncertain whether the Washington Redskins still consider him an elite player, or if Coach Joe Gibbs believes time has claimed another victim and the team will move on without him. The result is a passive-aggressive dance between Springs and the Redskins that, to the consternation of Gibbs, saw him not appear for the first week of the team's voluntary workouts.

On the one hand, Springs has been bolstered by the Redskins' offseason moves. When the team drafted safety LaRon Landry with the sixth pick in the NFL draft, Springs sent out a cryptic text message to friends that read "3-5-9-6." The numbers denoted the draft order of the projected starting secondary: Springs was selected by the Seattle Seahawks with the third pick in 1997, Sean Taylor by the Redskins with the fifth in 2004, Carlos Rogers by the Redskins with the ninth in 2005 and now Landry.

"LaRon's going to be a good player," Springs said on draft day. "That's a hell of a move."

Yet despite feeling better about the Redskins now than he has in months, Springs says he will not arrive at Redskins Park until the first week of June.

And through the lens of his father, age talks to him personally. "Once you turn 32, they'll think you're finished. They treat you like a machine," Ron Springs said. "The way these guys train, they can play a long time, but the old mind-set remains. When you get hurt and they're paying you a lot of money, they don't like that. They depreciate you the way they do a machine."

At the Mercer Kitchen in SoHo, surrounded by the sleek and the swanky, Springs sits to the left of his father, who is only 50 years old but ravaged by diabetes. The talk may be big, but mortality is a concept very real to the Springs family. During lunch, Shawn Springs cares gently for his father, whose hands are curled into fists that cannot uncurl because of muscle fibrosis. Ron Springs drinks a glass of iced tea by balancing his glass between his forearm and chest, sipping through a straw.

Ron Springs sits in his wheelchair, laughing in their imaginary confrontations. He says he'd crush his son in the open field, but today cannot use the men's room without assistance. His lunch arrives: a luscious 8-ounce steak resting on five bright spears of asparagus. His wife, Adriane, sits to his right, always ready to assist, but in a poignant moment, Shawn's face softens, and the macho football talk wanes. The son leans forward without speaking, picks up a set of utensils and gently slices his father's steak into bite-size cubes.

The next night, at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, Springs leaned back into a leather chair, sipping a mojito. Sweet rum and mint leaf passed through his straw and he ruefully held it for a long moment before swallowing.

"Over the past 10 years, my father looks like he's aged 50 years," the Redskins cornerback said. "I mean, it wasn't that long ago that we were playing basketball together."

* * *

In two face-to-face meetings with Gibbs this offseason, Springs believed his Redskins career was disintegrating. No one in the organization told him so exactly, but Springs sensed an uneasy momentum.

The team's assistant head coach-defense, Gregg Williams, and secondary coach Jerry Gray said just the opposite, that Springs was still the best cornerback on the team. Gibbs told him the same, reiterating to Springs his importance to the Redskins. The coach told Springs that the Redskins were at their best when Springs was on the field.

"You're going to have people for whom the age thing is scary," Gray said. "I got to that point. He may think that, but I don't think he's gotten that perception from any of the coaches. When he's on the football field, we're a better team."

Yet to Springs -- who seems to make a clear distinction between his affection and respect for Gray and Williams and his feelings about the Redskins' front office -- the conversations did not go well. Despite the verbal bouquets, the Redskins mentioned his reputation for fragility -- he played just nine games last year, his lowest total since 2001, when he was with the Seahawks -- and in turn asked him to accept a $2 million pay cut.

In between the conversations, according to league sources, the Redskins also were in trade talks with the Detroit Lions. They wanted to replace Springs with Dre Bly and make Springs a reserve. Had the Redskins been able to acquire both Bly and Fred Smoot, sources said, the Redskins would have cut Springs. Washington managed to get Smoot, but Bly wound up in Denver.

During the NFL owners' meetings in March, Springs met with Gibbs for breakfast at the Arizona Biltmore resort. Gibbs assured Springs that the team wanted to move forward with him. The pay cut, the trade talk and the possibility of a June 1 cut -- the latter having weighed on Springs's mind for months -- were all off the table.

Late last week, Gibbs reiterated his position that Springs remains a valuable member of the team and expressed disappointment that Springs had stayed away from the team's workout at Redskins Park.

But by that point, Springs had already made his own decision: He was going to work out as hard as he could, on his timetable, on his terms, to protect his career.

Springs, 6 feet, 204 pounds, works out in a flat, characterless office park that sits anonymously against striking red clay mesas in North Scottsdale, Ariz. At Performance Enhancement Professionals, each of his 90-minute workouts is dedicated to a specific area: lower body big muscles on Monday, upper body on Tuesdays. Wednesdays focus on the small muscles of the upper body, with the lower body small muscles on Thursdays. On Wednesdays and Fridays, Springs adds Bikram yoga, also known as hot yoga: 26 traditional yoga exercises designed for flexibility and mental cleansing with one grueling twist -- the 90-minute sessions are performed inside a 100-degree room.

"I can't," Springs said one March morning panting to regain his breath, "let any of these young guys think they can take my job.

"The whole key to playing cornerback in this league is being able to run," he continued. "When you look at a guy, and you start to assess whether he's losing it or not, the first question is whether he can run. Can he cover? I can still run. If you can run, you can play. . . . I can play five more years, at least."

He pulls 45 pounds of dead weight, driven by the appearance of vulnerability and the shadow of age. Days earlier, he celebrated his 32nd birthday. These flexibility drills, he said, will sharpen his burst, his quickness.

"I'm going to have the best year of my career. I have to," Springs said between explosiveness drills, sounding like a boxer in training. He is talking to himself as much as anyone else in the room. "Everybody thinks I'm finished. The only way to prove them wrong is come out and ball."

Springs's personal trainer, Ian Danney, a former Canadian Olympic bobsledder, thinks Gibbs's decision to allow veterans to work out on their own rather than at Redskins Park last winter will pay dividends for Springs this year.

"There are decisions that are made for the team, and decisions that are made for the individuals," Danney said. "The Redskins wanted everyone in Washington for team building, but Shawn really needed to be here. He's at that stage where athletes can go in either direction. If you stay dedicated to it now, you can keep playing. Shawn is a professional. His dedication keeps going. If you don't, that's when guys fall off. But it starts here."

On the stretching table at the gym is Ryan Clark, the former Redskins safety who signed as a free agent with Pittsburgh following the 2005 season when the Redskins would not match the $1.5 million raise the Steelers offered. (Brandon Lloyd, the Redskins' wide receiver, also works out with Springs.) The Redskins are a sore subject with Clark, who never wanted to leave Washington.

"I don't have too much to say that hasn't already been said," Clark said, his Bluetooth cellphone receiver blinking in his right ear. "This is a business. The Redskins made a business decision. Sometimes this game is a business."

Springs corrected him.

"Sometimes during this business," he said, "we play a game."

* * *

At the Kona Grill in Scottsdale, over mojitos and dragon rolls -- cooked eel and avocado atop a rectangular prism of rice with crunchy shrimp tempura inside -- Springs cannot escape the subtle messages he feels the Redskins have sent him. There also are questions that remain a mystery: Why didn't he have surgery following the 2005 season, when he suffered from a sports hernia? Why did he play -- or why did the Redskins allow him to play -- in the first preseason game last season against Cincinnati, when days before he had undergone an MRI exam on his groin?

"These types of injuries don't go away," Ron Springs said. "Shawn missed it. The Redskins missed it. Now they have to deal."

According to Redskins Director of Medicine Bubba Tyer, the team saw no reason to consider surgery. Springs had played in the Redskins' 20-10 loss to Seattle in the NFC semifinals and had not missed any of his offseason benchmarks. The injury did not flare up again until a week before the Cincinnati game.

When he did return two and a half months later, he said he felt like the old Shawn Springs. Like many of the frontline Redskins defensive players, Springs believes in Williams and does not think Williams's defensive schemes or approach were the primary reason for what became a Redskins collapse last season. Springs is part of the camp that thinks the Redskins simply were not talented enough.

"My dad used to tell me if you want to see where you fit, take your team against any other team and look at them position-by-position," Springs said. "Which starters on your team would you replace with theirs and vice versa? That's how you know if you're measuring up. If they've got more talent than you, then you have to ball out: hit harder, be tougher, make more plays and get turnovers. We didn't do that."

Springs talks and time taps him on the shoulder. The last time his team won its final game was the 1997 Rose Bowl, a 20-17 Ohio State win over Arizona State. He looks at the Redskins and sees opportunities sprinting past, and his mood darkens.

"Sometimes I get so depressed talking about the Redskins," Springs said. "You know, during the season, when I talk to guys who are going to be free agents, you know how they talk about the Redskins? They talk about getting paid. I want to win. I want to win football games. That's why I don't have a problem with Gregg [Williams]. Gregg wants to win football games.

"Hell, let's talk about something else."

Springs snared a wedge of eel on a soft bed of rice and changed the subject.

* * *

Ron Springs, who learned he had diabetes shortly after he retired at age 34, had his right foot amputated, followed by three toes on his left foot. His former Dallas Cowboys teammate, Everson Walls, donated a kidney to Springs earlier this year. The transplant has Springs saying he feels like "a car with a new battery."

He was in New York last month because leading diabetes foundations were so taken by his ordeal and his subsequent candor that they asked him to explain, virtually naked in front of the world, how he did not care for his body and how he is paying a high price.

His son calls the consortium the Dream Team, the powerful group of diabetes experts -- the National Kidney Foundation, the National Federation of the Blind, the Amputee Coalition of America, Mended Hearts and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists -- that saw his father on television after the kidney surgery.

"We've learned a lot over this," Springs said. "You know how difficult it would be for someone who is used to being so strong to come out and do this? Most football players, most guys, period, would crawl into a shell. They wouldn't want anyone to see them like that. My dad is a really strong guy."

Springs was disappointed when the NFL Players Association took a hard stance against providing more money to former players like his father. That made the call from the diabetes foundations all the more urgent. Issues such as pensions and disability coverage, things that don't matter when you're young and powerful with 4.5 percent body fat, suddenly are real to Springs.

This is the reason why Springs doesn't accept pay cuts, because a half-million dollars in medical bills with no safety net could one day stare him in the face, too. These are considerations more important than the color of any uniform, he says.

"Look at the guy in Washington, Willie Wood," Springs said. "Hall of Famer, Green Bay Packers, gave his life to the game. What's he doing? He's on assisted living in D.C. That's why you have to take care of these things. That's why you don't forget it's a business. That's my father they could be talking about. My dad is 50. Everybody my father's age is dying. That's why we're trying to do something. I'm not going to let that stuff happen to him."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 26_pf.html

This is long but a good article. I actually don't have a problem with Shawn working out away from camp now. It seems that Danny and Vinny give him one story and then Gibbs and Williams give him another. "We want you to be here. Your our top player." then you get Vinny saying, "You've had some injury concerns and we are worried about you. We need your money back. etc" I just think its B.S. and I'm sure everything is fine but being that this guy is working out on his own religiously and also helping take care of his Dad. Thats something in todays NFL, they should preach.

[Chris Luva Luva]

Great article Frank.

It seems that this organization still has two heads. I dunno man...

It's clear from this article that there are two Redskins. You have the F/O Skins and the Skins that are about football.

[Irn-Bru]

Thanks for posting that article. Good read.

[SkinsFreak]

Agreed, great article, thanks.

"My dad used to tell me if you want to see where you fit, take your team against any other team and look at them position-by-position," Springs said. "Which starters on your team would you replace with theirs and vice versa? That's how you know if you're measuring up. If they've got more talent than you, then you have to ball out: hit harder, be tougher, make more plays and get turnovers. We didn't do that."

Well said.

I believe Springs will deliver a solid performance this coming season. I have faith in the guy. He appears to be doing the right thing and taking the right approach and attitude. It should pay dividends.

[SkinsFreak]

BTW...

Any news on whether Sean Taylor is doing something like this?

[Chris Luva Luva]

BTW...

Any news on whether Sean Taylor is doing something like this?

No news is good news with Taylor.

[everydayAskinsday]

I got the impression Springs isnt to happy with Gibbs either.. he never mentioned Gibbs the way he spoke of Gray and Williams..

sounds like Gibbs might be viewed in the same light as Vinny and Danny in the locker room.. just my opnion though.. thats what I got out of reading it..

It was also sad to hear the way the Redskins seem to be viewed in the NFL right now.. maybe I'm reading to much into it but the vibe I get from that article is the Redskins are almost in a no mans land with no real direction.. just scares me I guess.. I want to see us build a consistent winner

[Chris Luva Luva]

sounds like Gibbs might be viewed in the same light as Vinny and Danny in the locker room.. just my opnion though.. thats what I got out of reading it..

I got the same vibe and began to speak on it but decided not to in my prior post. This wouldn't be shocking since Gibbs has a dual role.

It was also sad to hear the way the Redskins seem to be viewed in the NFL right now.. maybe I'm reading to much into it but the vibe I get from that article is the Redskins are almost in a no mans land with no real direction.. just scares me I guess.. I want to see us build a consistent winner

That vibe was accurate before Gibbs got here. This team was in a tail spin. Since Gibbs has returned we've leveled out but we're still in some stormy weather. It's bearable because we're back on the right course and just have to weather the storm. It'll take wins and CONSISTENCY to change our well earned label.

[everydayAskinsday]

yea more and more I think Gibbs is just being viewed as the GM/President in players minds.. Hes more of a figure head then the coach.. He has Greg and AL really running the show..

I love Gibbs but sometimes it seems like he is here to keep the fans off Dannys back.. and what I mean by that is if the team isnt winning we all love Gibbs so much and want to give him one more year to get it right and one more chance at this.. if we didnt have Gibbs at the helm fans would be calling for the coaches head and Dannys as well(not that they arent already calling for Danny and Vinnys )

[Mursilis]

That vibe was accurate before Gibbs got here. This team was in a tail spin. Since Gibbs has returned we've leveled out but we're still in some stormy weather. It's bearable because we're back on the right course and just have to weather the storm. It'll take wins and CONSISTENCY to change our well earned label.

Leveled out? Right course? Maybe, but maybe not. Fact is, as much as Gibbs is the greatest coach this team ever had, at least the first time around, his winning percentage in the second coming (44%) isn't much different from the Shotty/Spurrier days (42%). Sure, he got this team to the playoffs his second year back, but in between he had his two worst seasons ever. We'd like to think things really are going to be different this year, but that remains to be seen.

[Chris Luva Luva]

That vibe was accurate before Gibbs got here. This team was in a tail spin. Since Gibbs has returned we've leveled out but we're still in some stormy weather. It's bearable because we're back on the right course and just have to weather the storm. It'll take wins and CONSISTENCY to change our well earned label.

Leveled out? Right course? Maybe, but maybe not. Fact is, as much as Gibbs is the greatest coach this team ever had, at least the first time around, his winning percentage in the second coming (44%) isn't much different from the Shotty/Spurrier days (42%). Sure, he got this team to the playoffs his second year back, but in between he had his two worst seasons ever. We'd like to think things really are going to be different this year, but that remains to be seen.

Well I did say that we're still in the midst of some turbulence. I mean, you can't argue that theres a since of direction that was lacking for years on end prior to his return.

Nobody know's if its the right course but at least we seem to be working towards something.

[UK Skins Fan]

BTW...

Any news on whether Sean Taylor is doing something like this?

No news is good news with Taylor.

But since Taylor was supposedly so close to Ryan Clark, and Clark is working out with Springs, it might have made sense for Taylor to be there as well. I'd rather Taylor was being looked after by somebody like Springs, than working out in Florida where he might get his car stolen again.

[PulpExposure]

BTW...

Any news on whether Sean Taylor is doing something like this?

No news is good news with Taylor.

But since Taylor was supposedly so close to Ryan Clark, and Clark is working out with Springs, it might have made sense for Taylor to be there as well. I'd rather Taylor was being looked after by somebody like Springs, than working out in Florida where he might get his car stolen again.

Wasn't it an ATV? Not even something as valuable as a car?

[UK Skins Fan]

Well, it had an engine and some wheels, whatever it was...

And I'd like him to use the bus in future.