Catfishing with Sidney Ackerman: The Ending

Spring-Summer 2012 - We keep in contact with throughout the year of 2012. We don't text each other as much as we used to but we still tweet and DM each other. I invite her to some stuff throughout the year, she declines. I find out that she's doing a Redskins Podcast with Dre and LL, 2 guys from twitter that are also Redskins fans so I figure that they have at least met her at some point. At one point, she DMs me and is convinced that they are trying to kick her off the podcast. (in retrospect, she probably was trying to make sure I was on her side in case her secret comes out)

Fall 2012 - I do not remember the exact game, but Sidney invites me to a Redskins game but like 2 hours before. I thank her but I cannot go. Looking back on it, that was probably a half assed invite because there was no way I could make it from Germantown to Fed Ex Field in time for kickoff.

December 18, 2012 - Dre and LL break the story that Sidney was using fake pics. I had been suspicious just because of the mysterious nature of Sidney but I had nothing concrete. After Dre and LL outed her, she locked her account and changed her twitter name from Red_Ridn_Hood to Red_Ridn_H00d. Honestly, I didn't really care. Whoever "Sidney" was had hooked me up with 2 Redskins tickets in the past and given me $50 and had been cool to tweet with so who really cares what he/she looked like.

December 23, 2012 - Tweeting with people and somehow catfishing gets brought up and I tweet that I am 98.8% percent that Sidney is a catfish. I get 6 DMs and a couple of texts that night from her and I can tell that she's kind of pissed. I respond in the morning

December 24, 2012 - I respond and she really isn't making sense. She sends me a bunch of screenshots and threatens to sue me for slander (I'm pretty sure if that lawsuit actually went through, I'm sure the judge would dismiss it if she actually showed up in person) and threatens to subpoena my DMs.  Eventually, she blocks me on twitter and I just tell her to lose my number and I haven't communicated with her since then.

January 10, 2013 - I figure the whole Sidney Ackerman saga is over. Jeff Darlington from the NFL Network follows me on twitter and asks me to follow him so he can DM me. I do it, and I notice that he said the same to other Redskins fan so I assume it's in reference to Sidney. I do it but I never get a DM

January 19, 2013 - I find out from LL that Sidney had another screen name. "Rideordiechick" or something like that. Totally different pics but still following other athletes. I'm told to say nothing, so I do not.

January 23, 2013 - The story breaks nationally. It was kind of funny seeing other news outlets picking up the story. I already knew Sidney was a non existent person but I had no idea this would become a national story. I tweet Dan Hellie from NBC 4 that I have 3 years worth of Sidney stories and eventually NBC 4 interviews me

 

 

In the end I am still confused. I feel like this is a real life version of The Usual Suspects. Each of those stories individually is not suspicious, but looking back and reflecting, it becomes totally obvious that she was a catfish. I have not called the number I have for her. I'm curious, I have a lot of questions for her, but I don't feel the need to contact her. I religiously watch the show "Catfish" and I get pissed off when the person being tricked is really naive. I know one of the indicators of being a Catfish is not having a lot of pictures. Sidney was the exact opposite, she changed her picture every other week,The thing that is kind of funny (and a testament to how good a catfish she was) is that I endured 3 years of flakiness and her profile was of a totally different woman and still , people were confused.

                                                                          Sidney 2009

                                                                            The right is Sidney 2012

I have had a couple of people think that I had actually met her and another person on twitter says that she gave him great medical advice when he was having an emergency. Another thing is that Sidney had an account on foursquare. (If you don't know what Foursquare is, Click Here. If you don't feel like clicking, it's basically a social media app that is based on your location)I kind of believe part of her story is true (who kills off 2 parents in order to perpetrate a fraud, but then again everything about this story is weird) Funny part is that my friends Steph and Liz saw the movie Catfish in 2010 and they immediately thought of Sidney but I refused to believe them. I watched the movie myself, and I was like "no not really"  and I actually wrote a list of 10 reasons why Sidney is not a Catfish to them.
I guess the moral of this story is you should call everyone you meet on twitter a catfish. If they flip out, they are one. If they don't, they aren't.

Catfishing with Sidney Ackerman: It's Hard to Indistinguish the Invisible from the Nonexistent

January 25, 2011 - A bunch of us decide to meet up in Bethesda at a restaurant. I invite Sidney and she actually agrees to come. The day after she is flying out to Florida or somewhere warm. The week of the event, the DC area was expecting a winter storm, so she tells me that she reschedules her flight for the day of the event. (There legitimately was a snowstorm coming so this did not seem suspicious to me at the time)

Winter/Spring 2011 - My friend Rob develops a plan to guarantee that Sidney doesn't flake. We should ask her if she wants to go to a comedy show months in advance and buy tickets so that she cannot flake out on us. We decide to buy tickets to Patrice O'neal on Friday, April 15. We all anticipate the show, 4 or 5 days she texts me saying that her softball team has a tournament on April 16th so she has to go. She looks into taking a flight in the morning but is unable to. She says that she is going to pay us back double the face value of the ticket since she can't go. I say no, I do not want to seem like an ingrate because she gave me two Redskins tickets no questions asked. Rob ends up selling the extra seat for a profit on Craigslist so it is not like he is out any money. Months later, she asks for my PayPal account and sends me $50.

April, 2011 - Out of nowhere, she mentions that I should come over for dinner at some point during a weekend. I called her out on it once, obviously no dinner happened.

May 4, 2011 - A bunch of my friends go to BGR Dupont to eat a 15.4 pound burger . I invite  Sidney and she says she might drop by the event. Our event ends, she doesn't so I text to see where she's at. She said she ended up at a friend's house in Dupont and is Skyping with a Redskins player who is still on the team. I suggest that we get a drink and she says that she'll be able to meet up in 15 minutes. 15 minutes passes, not there so I text again to see where she was at. She still hadn't left. At that point, I just went home.

Summer, 2011 - We're still in contact. She casually mentions to a common follower (who I have met and can guarantee that she is real) that she is on vacation but when she gets back, she will hold a twitter pool party. Obviously, I'm excited, and I casually bring it up to her a couple times, but nothing gets done.

November 18, 2011 -  Previously that month, we agree to meet up at a lingerie football league game in Baltimore. We text/tweet/DM and I buy tickets for myself and my friend Matt and she decides to buy tickets for her and her friends. I told her that I would buy tickets in a certain section, just to make sure we meet. Day comes, Matt and I go to the event, I send her a text to see where she was at. She texts back saying that she is at BWI picking up her friend and she will be there soon. At halftime, she says she is at the game but she didn't get tickets in our section. I see from the picture Sidney is tweeting that she is on the other side of the arena and I we exchange texts on how she should come over to my section but it doesn't happen. After the game, I hang around hopeful that we meet, she sends me a text that her battery is running low. I call/text but to no avail (I was kind of mad cause if she was with friends, she could've easily gotten my number from her phone and texted using her friend's phone) Matt and I hang out at Hooters for a while then I went home. As I was almost home, Sidney texts that she has a hotel room so if I wanted to get drunk in Baltimore, I would have crash space. (That message did me no good as I was almost home)

November 27, 2011 - Its a normal Sunday, watching football at home and my friend Matt who was following Sidney, decided to unfollow and she got mad. (Personally, if someone I had never met wanted to unfollow me, I would not care, and besides you had 10,000+ followers by then, who cares) And I think it is bad taste to publicly call out your unfollowers. I get a some texts from her. I stay out of it cause I'm not gonna tell a friend who to follow/unfollow. She tweeted something about how I told her that Matt needs help getting girls (I never told her that) and refuses to deny that. Matt's smart so he does not believe her.

Catfishing with Sidney Ackerman: Chasing A Mystery

January, 2010 - We agree to go to a Wizards v Lakers game. I love the Wizards and she is a Lakers fan. I offer to buy as a gift for getting me to skins tickets twice, but she says something about how she has a friend working in their ticket office so she'll get really nice for free. If for some reason, that is unable to happen, she found a bunch of $ at post office that no one claimed as missing, she'll use the money to buy great seats.

January 12-26, 2010 - Earthquake happens in Haiti so she and a bunch of nurses from Johns Hopkins go down to help out. She comes back, develops whooping cough goes to the hospital for it and gets treated. Immediately, I'm I let her know that I don't care about the tickets and I just want her to be healthy. She still insists on wanting to go to game, because the Lakers come to DC once a year

January 26, 2010 - Since I know she's been sick, I keep in contact with her via text, make sure she is ok, before I go to the Verizon Center. Her friend that works there is delivering the tickets to her house in Potomac and she will drive down. (Why her friend couldn't leave a ticket in my name and her name in Willcall, I don't know but I did not question it at the time) She calls me, and I hear her coughing really bad so she is in no shape to go but she says her neighbor will deliver the ticket to me. She gives me his number and I call and text to arrange a time and place to meet up as I am already at the Verizon Center. Friend lets me know that he is about to park but after that, he doesn't text/call or return my texts and calls so I end up waiting outside of the Verizon Center. I let Sidney know and she is unable to talk to him but later on he tells her that he could not find me. ( I am a large african american fella and I was wearing an orange Gilbert Arenas jersey, I'm not hard to miss, plus, we have cell phones) Me and Sidney talk about maybe meeting up at a sports bar in the future, but we do not make definite plans.

Spring, Summer , 2010 - We keep talking via text/twitter/DM. Her father had a heart attack in May and died. She and the Redskins player I alluded to early get into an argument about flying her private plane. She mentions how some musician was trying way too to holler at her when she was in Los Angeles (I'd never heard of the guy so I'm not even sure it is worth it to namedrop and I can't even find a wikipedia page for him) and how he dropped off a bunch of dresses and a car at her place after one date. I see that the musician follows her so I assume she is telling the truth. We keep mentioning trying to meet up but no firm plans are made. At one point, I'm at tweet-up and she texts me about wanting to go to a tweet-up but she doesn't come out and I don't go out of my way to try to meet up with her. I know at one point, we talk about Cypress Hill's new album, and she offers to have B-real send me a copy, but I decline.

Week of August 15, 2010 - Sidney pisses off one of my twitter friends with conservative political talk. Somehow I get caught up in the firestorm and Sidney thought I was making fun of her behind her back and we got into a twitter argument. (I don't know, apparently me telling my friend Becky who was bothered by your birther tweets to ignore them, and doing this on a public forum where I know you can see it and then telling you that I did all this when you message me complaining Becky isn't responding to your tweets is talking shit behind your back )She forgave me later that day, but I felt weird how she apologized via text and not on twitter but for a woman that hot and rich, I overlooked it.

September, 2010 - My friend Kevin gets to know Sidney via twitter/text and he won President's Club tickets. He invites me, our common friend Jerry and Sidney.

September 16, 2010 - There is a shooting at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Sidney was a medical student there at the time so I worry about her. I send her texts to make sure she is ok and I do not get any responses. Some of her friends tweet me to see if I know the situation cause I actually live in Maryland, I tell them I have no news. Eventually news is realeased that there is only one self inflicted casualty so I stop worrying about Sidney.

September 23, 2010 - Through casual conversation on twitter, Sidney mentions she has a boyfriend and I make a joke to her that her boyfriend is the musician I alluded to early. She texts me back with the twitter handle of her boyfriend and how he is not her type and how she wants to accidently on purpose sleep with someone just so her boyfriend dumps her. And she also texts me that I should know that she likes black guys. I text back but nothing too intriguing but I do wonder what she meant when she said that she likes black guys

September 25, 2010 - This was the game Kevin won tickets to. He wants us to get there early, so we can enjoy the Presidents Club and walk around on the field as he has pregame field passes. Jerry, Kevin and I arrive early and Sidney calls me and says that her boyfriend stole her keys and that she is waiting for a locksmith and will get here when all of that is done. She doesn't show up. Luckily, we found Tracy, who is also a huge Nats fan and he used Sidney's ticket and left Tracy's ticket for Sidney at Willcall. Later on she texts me with the name and phone number of the locksmith and says I can check if needed (unsolicitad, I believed her. I dont need to check to see if you actually have a locksmith working on your house)

October 2, 2010 - I send Sidney a text about hanging out at Hard Times in Germantown for the Redskins v Eagles game. She says that she is going to Philadelphia for the game (not the first time she has road tripped for a game) but she did offer to drive me up and back to watch the game. I would've had to pay for the ticket but it would've been below face value. I decide not to go because I would be getting home near midnight and I had to wake up at 5:30 to get to work.

October 25, 2010 - Sidney texts and DMs saying that a Redskins player (still in the league but no longer with the Redskins) was coming over to her house. He facebooked her on Friday and they skyped on Saturday. Later on in October, I see that the Redskins player and his friend tweet her and they all follow each other. Also, she sends me a pic of the player in his house (I remember seeing something on tv that the player's gym was a certain color) so this also proves to me that this is true.

November 15, 2010 - I was going to watch the Redskins v Eagles game at a bar with friends but a couple of hours before the game, Sidney texts me and says that she is going to be sitting in a suite and her tickets are available. She offers to hand deliver them to me at the stadium, but I decide not to go because there was bad weather and I knew her track record of her flakiness.

Week of November 28, 2010 - We agree to go to the Redskins v Vikings game together. She agrees to pick me up from home so we can head to the stadium and tailgate together. The day before the game, she is in North Carolina but says that she will be back before the game. The day of the game, she drives back to Maryland at 5 AM takes a nap, but wakes up too late for her nap for her to go to the game.

Catfishing with Sidney Ackerman: The Begining

So, the story broke about the Redskins Catfish this week. (For those of you who do not know, "Catfish" is a term for people online pretending to be someone they are not) I had 3 years worth of Sidney Ackerman stories, and I felt the need to share them. I ended up typing over 4000 words on her, so I deceided to split up the stories year by year, otherwise no one is going to read my ramblings.

August/September 2009 - Found Sidney's profile (RedheadedSlut) on twitter and started following cause I was still new to twitter and she was a local skins fan. We talked but she didn't follow back.

October 2, 2009 - I'm at home just on twitter, I see her tweets about being at a bar and I half jokingly say that we should drink together and she direct messages me and says she is at some DC club and says I should come out. It was late, I had to work in the morning, and I didnt have a car, so I say no, and don't come out.

October 3, 2009 - Sidney follows me back and she DMs me and asks if I want to go to the Redskins game the next day. I was having my fantasy hockey draft the next day but she says I should let her know if I ever want to go to a Redskins game because someone who was on the 2009 Redskins but no longer in the league can get her extra tickets if needed. (I don't know the legality/etiquette of naming the players involved in the catfishing, but because the legitimate press didn't, I won't but will give vague clues) I see that Sidney and the Redskins player she is talking about actually talk to each other and follow each other on twitter, so I have no reason to think she is lying. She tells me that she lives on Hackamore Lane in the River Falls neighborhood of Potomac. She also gives me her phone number and says to text her, cause it is easier. All of this is unsolicited. I never asked for tickets or asked for her number or address but I give her my number and am pretty stoked that I might be going to a Redskins game soon.

The week of October 5, 2009 - I text her Monday, saying that I want to go to the Redskins v Chiefs game on October 18th. She agrees. We text/tweet back and forth between those 2 weeks.

October 16, 2009 - Maryland is having some bad weather, so Sidney goes to Atlantic City for the weekend but says she will be back for the game.

Ocotber 18, 2009 - Due to daydrinking on the 17th, I blacked out and was too hungover to go to the game. Good news! Sidney stayed in Atlantic City because I wasn't answering texts so no harm no foul. We agree to meet up for the Redskins v Broncos game on November 15th.

October 31, 2009 - I see Cypress Hill in concert. I tweeted about it prior because I was pumped because this was the first concert I ever attended. I do not believe I specifically told Sidney about it . But when I'm at the concert, before Cypress Hill took the stage, Sidney tells me that she is backstage with B-real smoking weed with him. She knew him from a paintball tournament and they have the same birthday. (My friend Rob, who is more knowledgeable about Cypress Hill than I am is able to confirm that B-real loves paintball) Since we both happened to be at the same concert, we text back and forth, I'm trying to get her to at least come out and say hi or even try to get backstage myself. I have a good time at the concert, without seeing her, but we are still on for the Denver game. (Rob is suspicious but sometime later on, I look at some of Sidney's favorited tweets and I see that there is a tweet from B-real wishing her a happy birthday so I figure she was legitamely there.

November 11, 2009 - Sidney changes her twitter username from Redheadedslut to Red_Ridn_Hood

November 14, 2009 - Sidney's mother dies from an aneurysm. I dont have the tickets and she has to go to North Carolina for the funeral. Somehow, through StubHub, she leaves the tickets at Stubhub Willcall, all I had to give her was my email address and name.

 November 15, 2009 - Everything goes fine without a hitch, I get the tickets at Willcall. I enjoy the seats with my friend Arun. The seats were about 8 rows up from the field, and behind the Redskins bench. The last time I sat that close to a football game was when I watched high school football. She calls me afterwards to see if I had a fun time and see how everything worked out.

December 6, 2009 - During the Redskins v Saints game, the Redskins have a lead and she tweets something about having a party if the Redskins win. I let her know I am interested but no party because the Redskins lose. During the game, she texts me a pic of the 2 guys behind her and asks if they were at the game in November. I had a crappy phone so I was not able to view the pic but I remember that a woman sat directly behind me so I know it is not them.

December 9, 2009 - Through casual twitter conversation, she tells me she has a website. (It is no longer active now, but it was backed up using Wayback Machine.)Here , here and here. She tells me to sign up and become a member so I do. No payment necessary, didn't have to enter a credit card. Site was a bunch of pictures and some blogs. I don't think I visited often.

December 19-20, 2009 - There was a snowstorm in the DC area, Sidney lets me know that she might have an extra ticket for the Monday Night Football game vs the Giants.

December 21, 2009 - I am able to get the extra ticket. Again it is at StubHub Willcall, but it is no problem. I go to the game, sitting by myself but we agree to meet up after halftime. I had a problem getting texts because there was so much data in the air at FedEx Field so I ended up getting texts about 10+ minutes after they were sent. We did our best to text back and forth. The Redskins were getting blown out, it was cold, so she left early. She texts me that she's coming by my section, but with my text delay, I got the text after she left. Again, I fail to meet Sidney.

Doing Stuff on my Bucketlist (If I had One)

Yesterday, I crossed an item off my bucket list (if one exists, which I won't confirm or deny that one exists). I had turducken. For those of you who didn't grow up in the 90s/00s watching Pat Summerall and John Madden do football broadcasts on Thanksgiving, a turducken is when you stuff a chicken inside a duck and then you stuff all of that and stuff it into a turkey.

My friend Ashley (who I solely know off of twitter) invited me up to Baltimore for Thanksgiving dinner, this is the second year of her tradition of inviting people in the area for turducken. We're not sure who is crazier, her for inviting an internet stranger to her house or me for going to Baltimore to a houseful of internet strangers who could've been gang or KKK members.

Traveling from Germantown to Baltimore without a car wasn't that hard. I spent less than $7 to use mass transit. There's a bus that goes from my local metro station to BWI airport for $5, and then from there I took the light rail the rest of the way. I kind of wonder, how much theft happens on there. I mean, there really isn't a surefire way to make sure you paid. I've heard that they have random fare checkers (I've ridden twice and I've never been asked to show proof). I guess when rides are less than $2, there really isn't a point of stealing rides. Coming back was more expensive, Amtrak isn't cheap, but all in all, I made the trip and back and I only had to sacrifice $35, 35% of my laptop screen and some of my dignity when I tripped infront of a lightrail-ful of people getting off, but I digress...



The turducken was awesome. I wish I took notes when I was eating this. It was just full of awesome that's hard to describe off of memory. I didn't really notice the difference in the meats but it was very filling. It tasted a lot like turkey and chicken, I didn't really notice the duck meat. There was other fixins, stuffing, biscuits, mashed potatoes, which I had and those were delicious. There were some green beans too, I honestly cant remember if I ate them. I was too in love with the turducken to pay attention to healthy vegetables. I finished off three massive plates of turducken and fixins yesterday.

It was a great day. One of the highlights was when Sush (one of the guests) and I were somehow talking about the KKK and how they would be after her as well. And I asked her if she was black and she laughed and said she was Jewish. (I wasn't thinking, I had been drinking all day and half of my blood was busy digesting turducken.) For the record, Sush does not look black or mixed at all.

Another highlight was when the Redskins beat the Cowboys. It was weird, Ashley is a Cowboys fan, and I'm a Redskins fan but each of us thought the opposing team would win. It was like the movie Face-off. I have a list of Top 10 Sporting Events I Have Attended . I do not have one for games I have watched on TV (too many to consider, I've watched over 1,000) but this would probably make it.

It was nice getting something crossed off my bucket list (if one exists) The next thing I hope to cross off is attend a Super Bowl or attend a victorious playoff game for a DC Sports team. I've been to 3 Capitals playoff games and 1 Nationals playoff game, all of them have been losses

Tolu Robertson, Stand-up Comedian

I finally decieded to do stand-up. I kind of wanted to try my hand at stand-up for a while, but never had the balls to do it, until recently.

I'm sure one of the factors is the fact that I made a little bit of a stir in the comedy world as Tolu Robertson . And part of it was seeing a couple of friends go to some open mike nights and doing okay. I figured I've listened to enough comedy albums (true story, I would listen to comedians' records before going to sleep or when doing homework my junior year of college), and I have enough funny stories that I can come up with 5 minutes of decent stand-up comedy.

I pretty much came up with most of my set on a lazy Sunday waiting for the Redskins v Rams game to come on. A lot of it was self referential, I figure if I'm going to go onstage and be nervous and talk, it should be about a subject I am an expert in (myself). Plus its impossible to steal material (intentional or unintential) when most of the jokes you're making are about yourself and are based on real life experiences. At an open mike once, I saw a guy pretty much do Mitch Hedberg's act but with his own material. Technically it's not stealing but when you go out and take someone's delivery and manerisms on stage, you're not being yourself and I'd rather go out on stage and bomb/suceed with my own material.

Here's video of my standup. It was performed at the Blue Banana in DC on September 25th.  I'm very self critical of myself, I still haven't watched it and I probably won't watch the video for a while. Before going on stage, I felt really nervous but once on stage, I really didn't feel anything. Maybe it was cause I knew my material, maybe it was the alcohol or maybe the cheatsheet I had on the side of the stage helped me. I felt like I did a good job, considering I'm an amatuer and had no idea what I was doing. I got some groans from the Jerry Sandusky joke I did, but that inspired me to write more Jerry Sandusky material... But I am kind of mad that I forgot to include a really funny herpes joke in my set. It was fun, I can't wait to do this again

Predicting the Redskins Schedule

I'm going to try and attempt to go through game by game and predict the Redskins' record. First time I've ever tried to do this. Most seasons I convince myself that they will win 10+ games with no real reason, though last season I predicted 5 or less wins at the start and I was right.

Week 1 @ New Orleans W

I'd normally pick the Saints but considering Bountygate, I am going with the Skins for this game. Their coach and interim coach (as well as other players) are suspended for this game. I want to see the interim interim coach suspended or get thrown out to see if Skynet becomes self aware and starts coaching in this game.

Week 2 @ St. Louis W

With a third offensive coordinator in three years, Sam Bradford is slowly following the same gameplan Jason Campbell followed to mediocrity. Another road win for the Redskins.

Week 3 vs Cincinnati L

I see RGIII's first game in DC (Well Maryland technically) as a loss. With a true offseason under their belt Andy Dalton and AJ Green will find a way to expose the Redskins biggest defensive weakness, the secondary.

Week 4 @ Tampa Bay W

RGIII bounces back from his first professional loss to win big in Tampa in a nationalized televised game. I'm not buying Tampa as legitimate. I hate Josh Freeman cause he was a bad backup QB in fantasy football and I distrust college coaches making the jump to the NFL (see Spurrier, Steve; Petrino, Bobby and Saban, Nick)

Week 5 vs Atlanta L

RGIII will get his numbers but it will not be enough with Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez and Julio Jones catching passes for the other team

Week 6 vs Minnesota W

Redskins get "revenge" for the Christmas Eve game last year where Joe Webb and Toby Gearhart took over the injured Christian Ponder and Adrian Peterson. Supposedly Adrian Peterson will be healthy enough to play all 4 quarters, but the front 7 should be able to neutralize him.

Week 7 @ New York Giants W

Redskins win for the 3rd time in 3 tries vs the Giants.

Week 8 @ Pittsburgh L

Dick LeBeau and his zone blitz defense will be in midseason form and they will eat RGIII alive in this game.

Week 9 vs Carolina L

2 highly rated black quarterbacks going against each other in this game. I will give the edge to Newton in this one. Hopefully we see this matchup many times in the playoffs in future years.

Week 11 vs Philadelphia W

I am planning on going to this game (birthday weekend) and the Redskins are 8-4 when I attend their games. If for some reason I cant go, I'm sure a nagging injury from Vick will limit his effectiveness and the Redskins will capitalize off that.

Week 12 @ Dallas L

Redskins are 0-6 on Thanksgiving Day games vs the Cowboys and with a rookie quarterback playing on short rest, I do not see him being the stopper. May later in his career he will get a Thanksgiving Day win but not today.

Week 13 vs Giants L

RGIII will play well but Eli will go on a run at the end of the game to rally his team to victory.

Week 14 vs Ravens L

RGIII will hit the rookie wall and not play well against a perenially good Ravens defense.

Week 15 @ Browns W

Rookie vs Rookie QB, probably in a cold weather game. Both teams have storied pasts but have stunk as recent. Redskins win in an ugly, run dominated because Morris + Helu + Royster > Richardson and his balky knee.

Week 16 @ Eagles L

No real reasoning, just feel like the Eagles will win in this game.

Week 17 vs Cowboys W

Home game featuring 2 mediocre teams, I'll pick the home team for this one.

This season is going to be a lot like a previous Shanahan seasons, a hot start but then a regression back to reality in the 2nd half of the season. But there is stuff to look forward to. 8-8 would be the Redskins best record since Zorn's first year in DC. Plus every single Week 1 offensive starter is under 30 and only 2 Week 1 defensive starters are over 30. Maybe next year the Redskins can make a run at the playoffs.

I hope Shanahan gets a Year 4. You don't pay a guy 7 million dollars a year and give him partial GM power for 19-29(which includes my 8-8 prediction) over 3 years, but the Redskins had one of the oldest rosters in Year 1 of the Shanahan takeover and now have one of the youngest. The team is in better shape than the one he inherited.