The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

I know, I know, you can catch people on a good day or a bad day, and you don't get to really know someone by meeting them a few times...Here are mine.

Diron Talbert: Way friendly, fun to listen to.
Henry Ellard, Art Monk, Brig Owens, Mark May, Kenny Houston, Doug Williams & Larry Brown: Almost identical, classy, very polite and sincere, nice to everyone.
Dave Butz: Goes beyond being nice, and pulls NO punches when telling stories about teammates.
Charley Taylor: Must be bi-polar, sometimes very nice, sometimes downright surly.
Dexter Manley: May have met him at a "bad" time. I couldn't wait to be gone, he complained about everything and that voice...
Bobby Mitchell: Very nice, very cordial.
Joe Theismann: Perhaps the nicest. If it's an act, he's great at it. Amazing memory of people he's only met briefly before.
LaVar Arrington: You might expect an ego, but good luck finding it. Very cool, but not TOO cool to talk to any and all around him.
Mark Moseley: Mama said, if you can't say something nice...so...nice hair. If you didn't know he was 1982 NFL MVP, then you've never been within earshot of him. Did I say "Nice Hair"?
Mark Rypien & Patrick Ramsey: Both wear (wore) #11, and both must see "Redskins QB" as synonymous with "Goodwill Ambassador".
Joe Jacoby: Always great.
Pat Fischer: Two words come to mind, "Jehovah's Witness". Very nice but you find yourself looking at your watch saying "wow, look at the time".
Darrell Green: An enigma. But great with kids.

Other just very pleasant guys: Ken Harvey, Bill Kilmer, Darnerian McCants, Matt Bowen, Ron McDole, John Hall, Jesse Armstead, Jeremiah Trotter, Earnest Byner, Roy Jefferson, Mike Bass and Rod Gardner.

Surprisingly friendly: Jeff George & Jay Schroeder.

Patrick Ramsey - class act, nice guy, the dude turned red when I gave him props

Jerimiah Trotter - nice dude, met him at the same watering hole I met Ramsey. Funny, Trotter was with a Lavar Arrington impersonator.

Mark Mosley - great guy, took off his SuperBowl ring and passed it around to the kids and other people at his retaurant.

Jeff Bostic - arrogant

Joe Theisman - I heard he cussed out his own Barber in Herndon for asking for an autograph..


Former Redskin ND Kalu - cool dude, he gave me a picture of him sacking Troy Aikman and signed it "F**K the Cowboys!!!"

former and now current head coach -joe gibbs.
in 1993 after he retired i met him in the back of the trailer at the charlotte motor speedway.
former player -joe theismann met him at a car dealership here in greenville and got his autograph nice guy indeed.(maybe cause he was still nursing his injury at the time!)

these are the only two that i have had the pleasure to met.
my avatar explains it all. the best!

I saw Irving Fryar speak to a group of high school seniors. Now that guy is intense. He basically yelled at everyone for chasing girls and doing drugs and such. I'm sure he's a good guy, but he cracked me up that day...

oafusp wrote:Former Redskin ND Kalu - cool dude, he gave me a picture of him sacking Troy Aikman and signed it "F**K the Cowboys!!!"

This alone makes ND one hell of a guy!

met LA and he signed my jersey and took some pictures with him.nice guy.P.RAM has signed everything I bring to him.He always keeps his word.Coles looks rough so I did go up to him.Chis is too nice.Looking foward to meeting Mr.Gibbs.The all time a// hole was Bruce Smith.He would not sign redskins stuff when I saw him .

Gibran Hamdan - class act. Funny guy. Too bad he won't be here much longer.

Rock Cartwright - Much smaller in person than I thought. Nice guy.

Met them both at Modell's last season.

I saw Irving Fryar speak to a group of high school seniors. Now that guy is intense. He basically yelled at everyone for chasing girls and doing drugs and such. I'm sure he's a good guy, but he cracked me up that day...

If this was that 4th and Life seminar type thing run by Ken Harvey last year I was at that with my highschool football team...Fryar was a good speaker. Arrington was good, Trotter was good and Darnerian McCants was straight up hillarious. Me and all my friends on the team thought he as the best speaker.

~one~

Joe Theismann: Perhaps the nicest. If it's an act, he's great at it. Amazing memory of people he's only met briefly before.

Theisman, while I loved him as a player was a complete jerk to me when I was a little kid. My soccer team was playing in Reston and he happened to be shooting basketball by himself. He told a teammate of mine to "F off kid" (we were like 9) for asking for an autograph. I will give him the benefit ouf the doubt b/c he was going through a nasty divorce with Cathy Lee Crosby (I think that was her name). I still love the guy as a player but as a little kid, you don't expect that kind of 'tude.

Riggins was hilarious when I met him but he was pretty liquored up and I've heard the compete opposite of him as well.

Jacoby was probably the nicest guy I've met.

D Green was a genuine nice guy as well.

Charlie Brown was cool to me as a youngin' as was Clarence Harmen...

There's a few.

Let's see.
I love Gibran Hamdan, he was very into the fans in training camp. One reason I'm sure my son named him his favorite. He was the only one we really saw on a daily basis.
I also was very impressed with Patrick Ramsey, he always tried to do what he could, autograph wise, even though he was mobbed.
Another nice guy that sticks out in my memory, though he ended the season injured is Dave Fiore. When signing a huge crowds autographs he decided to do all the children's autographs first. And come back for the adult's as time allowed. That was a classy thing in my opinion.
The one guy who struck me as very respectful was Matt Bowen, laugh if you want, but Scott asked if he would hold Jackson for a picture. Instead of saying ok and grabbing him, he turned to me and asked if I was ok with it. When I said yes, he took him and Scott took the picture. For some reason that stands out in my memory.
As far as the old timers go, I remember Dave Butz being one of my favorites. My mom and her friend used to take us to Redskin's park when they were leaving for away games. Being so long ago we were able to approach the players as they got on the bus for autographs and pictures. My mom has moved alot and lost her copy of the pictures. For my son I should ask her friend and make copies of them. I also have a memory of Riggins and Madden hiding out somewhere. A shed or something. I remember peaking throught the fence trying to figure out if it was really Riggins.

Oh I forgot to mention Champ. I like him because he was a nice guy. Very down to earth. Actually spoke to my son.
Same with Noble. He kept trying to get Jackson to say hi but he was scared, LOL Wouldn't you be???

John Jefferson, Reggie Cobb, Chris Samuels, Darnerien McCants, Bryan Johnson, Sultan McCullough, Scott Cloman, Chris Doering, Gibran, Robert Gillespie were all great people to talk to and get autographs from.

Darrell Green hasn't signed many autographs for a few years.
Theisman has never walked over to the seats when I asked for his signature before the games he attends.
Bruce Smith RARELY signed. I finally got his signature on one card in training camp 2001. I asked for his autograph again the next year at training camp and he said "I remember you." and didn't sign a thing. I guess it's one autograph per person and then he's done

Oh yeah, Taylor Jacobs is also VERY, VERY hard to get a signature from. I got his signature on two cards a day before my birthday but I haven't received any (or seen anyone else) signatures from him before or after that point.

I used to work as a waiter a few years ago and I waited on Gary Clark twice. It's hard to believe there could possibly be a nicer guy. We talked for a few minutes about the Skins/Giants game in '91 where he dropped a sure touchdown pass in the first half and came back to catch the game winning bomb in the second half. It was awesome! I had a smile on my face for about three days.

Art Monk - nicest guy ever. signed everything at football camp and was always taking pictures and hanging out.

monte coleman, charles mann and ricky ervins were all pretty cool too.

danny copeland - after a loss he came out and i asked for is autograph only to find out that my sharpie was pretty dried up. he still traced his name about 6 or 7 times until it was legible. i thought that was pretty cool.

doc walker - hit on my girlfriend (at the time) in an elevator. i don't like him.

I met L Coles at training camp last year and he is awesome guy

Ok Jake I have to say I am very disappointed in Bruce Smith. Sounds like his ego is a little too big. Glad I didn't have the chance to meet him. I mean it's just an autograph, not like he was giving you money! He'd never mike my favorites list acting like that!

I think it may be more of a mid life crisis ( ) than his ego. He may also be "tired" of signing autographs for people after all of his years of hard work and blah blah blah blah. I think the 3 reasons mentioned for the way he handles his realtions to fans are a load of... cowpies.

Thanks guys, this is one of the most enjoyable threads I've seen on here. Living in the UK it is obviously not easy to get over there to meet players at training/matches, let alone be lucky enough to bump into them around town. I only made it to training camp once, in 1982, what a great day, although a bit hazy now! I'm very envious of all your stories. Please keep them coming!

Redskins1974 wrote:Theisman, while I loved him as a player was a complete jerk to me when I was a little kid. My soccer team was playing in Reston and he happened to be shooting basketball by himself. He told a teammate of mine to "F off kid" (we were like 9) for asking for an autograph. I will give him the benefit ouf the doubt b/c he was going through a nasty divorce with Cathy Lee Crosby (I think that was her name). I still love the guy as a player but as a little kid, you don't expect that kind of 'tude.

That's too bad about Theismann. He admitted to thinking he was God's gift until after his career ended. I've heard lots of stories of him being jerky back then, I'm glad I met him AFTER his change of heart.

Art Monk is the only Washington Redskin I have ever met. As a 'Skins fan in NY with too much on his plate, I just don't get out as much as I'd like to. You'll remember that Mr. Monk was waived and signed with the Jets in 1994. As a former NYJ player, he was invited to help open a store in a mall about 1 1/2 hours from where I was living at the time. (Oddly, it's only four minutes from where I live now !) I made the trip (family of then-three kids and wife in tow), and we were the first ones there. That would be most likely because there aren't many malls open at 6:30 in the morning. I anticipated a huge turnout, but was wrong.
I walked in when they opened the doors at 9:00am, and didn't see any confetti or hear any parade music. I asked the first employee I saw. "Where's Mr. Monk" ?
He said, "Ummm, who ?"
"Monk ! The football player. He's supposed to be here today !" (Privately, I wondered where these places find these morons they hire for employees)
"Oh ! They're setting up his table now. He's over by the coffee makers. Straight down this aisle, make a right. You can't miss it."

Not only were "they" setting up his table, but he was helping them to do it. I watched him for about six hours (okay...it was a minute. Still...) and decided that the best approach was the bold approach.
Oh, I'd imagined this moment for many, many years. I'd walk up to him, and give him the speech I'd practiced in the car the whole trip, all the way down. It would be something like this.
"Mr. Monk, I want to thank you for giving us all everything you had for so many years. You are the role model that kids are lacking in today's athlete. Would you please sign this 3x5 card, and allow me to have my picture taken with you, my favorite Washington Redskin of all time ?"
I walked up towards him, and stumbled a little on this huge roll-up (in hindsight, it was more of a 1 inch bump) in the carpet. "Damn carpeters!", I thought to myself,".. and to think they've unionized!"
Red-faced, I recovered and approached him. He was sitting, but stood when I got there. He was taller than I'd thought.
My mind went blank. The speech ! The speech !
"Uhhh, Muster Mink...I mean Mooster Muck...uhhh..."
Then, he spoke.
"That's me. How are you ?" He extended his hand, as if to shake.
Oh, that hand. One of two hands ! The very same hands that always seemed to draw the football into themselves ! Those HANDS! The envy of the league! And now, I was being offered ONE of them in a greeting!
Mr. Monk looked a little puzzled, but kept his hand out. I realized that I'd been staring at his hand for some time. I wiped my dampened palm on my jeans. My hand trembled as I shook his. The fingers on that hand came nearly a third of the way up my forearm. A quick but firm shake, and I let go. Suddenly, I was emboldened. I took out my Washington Redskins card collection binder and said, "New York Jets, my butt !"
He smiled. He knew right away I was no casual fan.
I asked, "How's the arm ?" (He'd broken it on that bastardous
Vet turf the season before.
He stretched out his arm, clenching his fist and unclenching it as he slowly turned it, as if to say, "No problem".
"Have you got a team for this season coming ?"
He shook his head. "No, not yet. There's some interest, but nothing serious."
"What about Clark ? Couldn't he put in a word for you in Miami ?"
"He's retired."
"Well, what about Sanders ? Didn't you two always..."
He shook his head slowly. "He's retired too."
"So, does that mean you're backing off a little ? Have you finished playing ?"
"Yeah, I guess it does. There's not much I can do about it."
"What if I'm not ready to see you go yet ?"
He smiled, and looked at the card in my hand.
"Want me to sign that for you ?"
"Wh...oh, yeah ! Could you ? And could I have my picture taken with you, too ? And my 4 year old kid ? I mean, my kid with you ? No, no, no...I mean..."
"No problem."
So we had our pictures taken with Art Monk. By now, a line of autograph seekers had developed, unbeknownst to me, behind us. I quickly finished the roll of film by snapping pictures of Art at the table and the line now forming. I also took some pictures of some coffee pots, just to get to the end of the roll. My wife ran the roll upstairs to the 1-hour photo, while I stayed behind. The guy who'd been behind me was jamming a football into Monk's face.
"I want you to write the years you were in the Super Bowl." Monk stopped to think a minute. I jumped in.
"1983, 1987 and 1991."
The guy looked at me, and then back to Monk. Monk nodded, smiled and wrote those numbers on the ball.
The guy goes, "Now, your Pro Bowl years."
Me again.
"1984, 1985, 1986. What's next ? You want his social security number ?"
The guy took his ball and went home. I shook Monk's hand one more time, and remembered my speech.
"Thanks, Art. You meant a lot to me. I'll see you in Canton."
He said, "We'll see", and looked up to the next in line.

I got those pictures, and laminated them, along with the 3X5 card with his autograph. My son, who is now thirteen and has no memory of the event other than the photographic proof that it did happen, asks me every year "Is this the year they put that guy in the Hall of Fame ?"
Every year, I tell him what Monk told me.
"We'll see."

Great post tcwest, enjoyed reading that.

Love is in the air....

Kidding, I can dig it. If I ever met Pam Anderson, I'd thank her for all the pleasure she's given me, too.

I drew a picture of Art Monk and had him sign it. He liked it and gave me his business card and asked me to email a scan of it to him. That was pretty cool.

I also saw him leaving Tower Records once, and I just nodded his way as I passed him walking in the parking lot, and he came back to say hi and shake my hand. Maybe he appreciated me not calling attention to him.

Some guys can't help but be nice. Wish I was like that...

Bruce wasn't mean to us, but he wouldn't sign autographs either. He shook our hands, and went about his business. Ken Harvey, Chip Lohmiller, Russ Grimm, John Riggins, Fred Smoot, Rod Gardner, Jesse Armstead, Jeremiah Trotter, Derrius Thompson, Reggie Brooks, Heath Shuler, Norv Turner, John Gesek, Sam Huff, and especially Rock Cartwright were all very cool to me. Even Danny Snyder shook my hand and signed an autograph for me. The only one that was ever rude was Sonny. He ran from us with two suitcases in his hand, and a cigar in his mouth. As rude as it was, it sure looked funny.

Bruce was never really mean... he just seemed to ignore the fans in a way. Derrius was very nice to me. I gave him his first football card of himself (well, I told him I would get him one and my mom bought it ). I was able to get Sonny's sig at Frostburg on a 1990's Dominoes QB Club card. I only got his sig because he was on the second floor balcony of a building and I basically cornered him.

When I lived in Maryland I met alot of the old skins and agree with your assessment ChiliPalmer.

Theisman .... it IS an act.

I also met and got an autographed picture of Jerry Smith at an Arby's on Rockville Pike. Very nice guy .... and no I did not sit on his lap guys so stop thinking it.

I've met many of the Redskins over the years and most of them we're very cool. The one's that stand out as going above and beyond, Jess Akinson very nice guy. Clint Didier, Monte Colman, Dave Butz, Don Warren, Curtis Jorden Doug Williams all good guys.
The most interesting meeting came in Ocean City MD in 1985. I was on a 1st date with a very pretty girl. We we're at Fager's Island. There was a lot of laughter coming from the bar, when we looked to see what was happening there was John Riggens dancing by Himself and putting on a little show for the crowd, (Yes He had some drinks in Him), My date said Riggens is Her brothers favorite player and went to get His autograph. Riggo kind of tried to get out of giving it but finally relented. He signed Her paper then put His arm around Her and licked Her up the side of Her face. I thought to myself sh*t now I have to get tough on Riggo but to everybody's relief, mostly mine, My date laughed it off. But when She looked at her autograph there was only a bunch of circles no name. Oh well it was a interesting 1st date.