[over the mountain]

holy shit fellas. after posting in this thread i checked my email and low and frakin behold, the man responded. pretty sweet. i know i come off all lame in kissing his ass but hey, ill kiss a mans ass if he sacrifices his body for the skins.

Craig,


Thanks for the e-mail and the comments


I do remember the play you were talking about. We were in Cover 1, and Steve ran a post route on Champ (who was playing outside leverage).


My only option at the time was to try and get the ball out, but give it to Steve--he held on and Carolina eventually stole that game for us. Don't have any time at all to think in that situation and you just let your instincts take over.


-Matt

On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 10:24 AM, Craig < @yahoo.com> wrote:

On November 16th, 2003, you had 5 tackles, 1 interception and 1 forced fumble in a Redskins' 20 to 17 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

One of those tackles came with about 2 and half minutes to play in the 4th quarter, with the Redskins leading the game 17 to 13. Carolina and Jake Delhomme had the ball at our 37 yard line.

Delhomme threw a 30 yard completion to a then relatively unknown wide receiver named Steve Smith at our 7 yard line. On that play, you absolutely blasted Steve Smith as he was in the act of catching the ball. Somehow Steve Smith maintained possession, got up and did the "brush my shoulders off" move.

Do you remember that play?

Did you think your only hope of dislodging the ball from Smith was to blast him?

What went through your mind immediately after blasting Steve Smith but realizing he held onto the ball?

Knowing that you were coming off a concussion one week prior to that hit, if you had the chance to go back, would you have just wrapped up Smith and conceded the catch at our 7 yard line or would you do what you did, which was sacrifice your body to a train wreck collision knowing it was the only way to possibily jar the ball loose and negate the completion?

My brother and I are huge skins fans, we had always liked you but on that play you and Steve Smith instantly endeared yourselves to us. We actually work together as attorneys now and he just came into my office, saw I was writing an email to you (but not the subject content), he got a big smile on his face and started talking about the hit you put on Steve Smith. I didn't tell him I was writing to ask you about one of our more memorable redskins hits, I'll wait and hope to get a reply then shove it in his face.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. This is actually the thrid time I have tried to ask you this question over the internet but everytime my question wasnt selected so I figured I try the man himself.

Thank you for your time reading this and your dedication to the skins. I really hope you can replace Chip Hernandez or someone else involved in the DC Metro area sports coverage. Looks like your well on your way.

With Regards,

Craig