Preseason towel wars as Redskins host Steelers

[mesaSteeler]

Preseason towel wars as Redskins host Steelers
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news...ns/?sports&nfl

Originally published August 21, 2009 at 4:29 p.m., updated August 21, 2009 at 5:37 p.m.

LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — The Terrible Towels made for the most embarrassing scenes in recent Washington Redskins memory. Owner Dan Snyder is determined to avoid a repeat.

Thousands of Pittsburgh Steelers fans dominated the lower bowl of the Redskins stadium during the visitors' 23-6 win on a Monday night last season. Steelers players, realizing their unexpected home-crowd advantage, began waving their arms to encourage more cheers. The noise was such that the Redskins had to resort to a silent snap count in shotgun formation.

The view from the sideline below and from Snyder's 50-yard-line box above was discouraging: a sea of twirling yellow towels — during a prime-time game on national television, no less.

"You see it. Believe me, you see it," receiver Antwaan Randle El recalled this week. "The last five minutes of the game, 'Wooo-hooo.'"

To counter another expected Steelers invasion — Pittsburgh fans travel well, even in preseason — the Redskins are distributing 50,000 "Redskins Rally towels" for Saturday night's rematch. The game will be an exhibition; the battle for towel supremacy in the seats will be real.

"I think it's great for fans," Redskins coach Jim Zorn said. "I think it's fun thatwe're doing the same thing. It's a preseason game, but you now what? We have great fans. Dan wants to continue to show his support and his enthusiasm for this team and this community. I think it's all in good fun. He's competitive; we're competitive. I don't know if there's going to be 'battles of the towels' or whatever, but it will be fun."

Of course, one difference is that the Redskins are having to resort to a giveaway to reclaim the atmosphere in their own stadium. Steelers fans have always had to buy their towels — currently retailing for $7.99 — with proceeds going to charity.

Told of the Redskins' plans, Steelers safety Ryan Clark — who used to play for Washington — said simply: "We're still going to beat them."

That's an unusual guarantee for a preseason game, and one that's likely to be forgotten once all the starters have been removed. Both teams are expected to have their first-stringers on the field for more or less a quarter.

Besides, for the Redskins, merely scoring would be an improvement from last week, when they were shut out 23-0 by the Baltimore Ravens.

"A lot of mistakes. We've got to cut that out," said running back Clinton Portis, who will make his preseason debut after sitting out last week. "It is really not the points — of course, we need to score more points and we want to come out of these games with wins — but at the same time we can't have penalties, we can't have mental lapses. We need to get rid of that."

The Steelers, coming off a 20-10 win over the Arizona Cardinals, are expected to play without Ben Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger has a foot ailment — he got stepped on by a lineman at training camp this week — but the injury isn't thought to be serious, and he did travel with the team to Washington.

Much of the game's emphasis will be on the usual jostling for roster spots. Both coaches want to see more from the backups, especially the rookies who looked overwhelmed in their NFL debuts last week.

"We need to play harder, we need to play faster, we need to play smarter," Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said. "We expect those guys to have adjusted to the tempo of the game, they know what to expect and, to be quite honest, we expect the quality of the detail of their work to vastly improve."

At least the fans should be in regular-season form, with all that towel-waving going on.

"Burgundy towels are a great idea," Randle El said. "But the bottom line is we've got to play on the field."

(As if some redskin rag can compare witth the Terrible Towel. - mesa)

[RoethlisBURGHer]

Wow, so many teams do this and FAIL MISERABLY!

Nothing beats the Terrible Towel!

DOWN WITH THE FORESKINS!

[MasterOfPuppets]

"I think it's great for fans," Redskins coach Jim Zorn said. "I think it's fun thatwe're doing the same thing.

i think its pretty pathetic that they can't come up with something original.

[Kaeg]

Everybody wants to rip off the towel! And since they're giving 50,000 of them away for free, they may actually have a chance of winning the "towel battle."

[hindes204]

there can be only one..................................THE TERRIBLE TOWEL

[alittlejazzbird]

Often imitated, never duplicated. Poor pretenders.

[steeltheone]

Yes, please try to be some what original...What a joke..

[Hotrodder07]

I'm tired of these other teams passing out towels. I'd like to see how many redskins towels would be there if they had to buy theirs.

Come up with your own thing. Stop trying to rip the terrible towel.

[Nighthawk]

I honestly don't mind the fact teams are trying to duplicate the terrible towel idea, but at least put some meaning behind it. I think the fact there is no real meaning behind it is the reason why all the other teams generally fail in comparison. Find a charity, create some value and it may stick... At least then I wouldn't mind seeing them knowing its going for a good cause - otherwise its just pathetic.

[slippy]

i wonder if the red towels come with instructions on how to use them.