After a spring and summer full of endless lockout talk, the NFL is back and so are the Washington Redskins. First thing’s first though, the elephant in the room is Dan Snyder’s lawsuit against the CityPaper for publishing The Cranky Redskins Fan’s Guide to Dan Snyder. It is still unbelievable and to paraphrase something what a friend of mine from Belfast used to say about his one-time idiot brother and law, “oh sh!t for brains, he just doesn’t understand.”

That lawsuit and the ever-changing rationale for it makes it hard to root for the local team, doesn’t it? He actually squashed some decent momentum in image repair and brought so much more attention to the article than it would have ever received. He hasn’t actually read it either which means the whole premise of the lawsuit is intellectually dishonest, according to this Q&A with The Times (INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED.). By the way, that is the New York one, not Washington one.

Enough about Snyder though, there is very different football team this year. Gone are QB Donvovan McNabb and DT Albert Haynesworth. Replacing McNabb is Rex Grossman, who has lost as many Super Bowls as McNabb (one). John Beck, thought by many to be head coach Mike Shanahan’s preferred option is waiting as second-string. The post-lock out training camp and preseason were largely free of distractions for a change and the official word out of Redskins Park is that the team is much more cohesive. That is probably true. It can’t overcome a lack of talent though. Still, I don’t buy into the 2-14/3-13 predictions that people keep dropping on them. I believe the Redskins will match and possibly exceed last year’s 6-10 record. I believe they win at least 2 divisional games and seeing them win 3 would not shock me. They usually split with the the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys and the New York Football Giants are reeling from injuries. Anything more than 3 NFC East wins would be a shock though. The most intersting thing about the season will probably figuring out when they are going to wear gold pants.

Lastly, I bought a Redskins jersey which is kind of weird.

The great news is:

• It is #11, my favorite number
• There is no name on it which is good, because I don’t wear another man’s name on my back
• It was purchased on ebay and is about 20 years old — Snyder did not make a cent off of it

I figured that even though I’m kind of over jerseys, I might as well have one of another D.C. team, since I have the Nats, Caps, etc.

Oh and the guest prognosticator series resumes this afternoon.