The Washington Post already has one of the best sports blogs on the sports blogosphere. Now, by way of local ties, the WaPo invited a beloved Washingtonian figure, former Redskins great defensive back Darrell Green, to blog his way through Super Bowl XLII from Arizona.

Green is widely respected in Washington, and known as the “ageless wonder” because of the way he maintained his playing shape and skills through his 20 years with the Redskins. He is also one of 15 finalists for the NFL Hall of Fame class of 2008.

This has to be one of the best parts of the new age — old greats of sports adapting to the new Web 2.0 where everyone has a blog, everyone wants to be heard, and even newspapers have adjusted their websites to adapt to the new era.

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

Kudos to The Washington Post for getting Darrell to blog his thoughts on their site.

And, more importantly, kudos to Green for taking his well-respected persona online for the rest of us to enjoy. Hopefully this will help keep him on the minds of HOF voters, and get him inducted this year. The HOF would be a better place with a person of his talent and character in.

Once an arbitrator ruled that Terrell Owens had to pay back the last $769,120 of the signing bonus the Eagles gave him after they unceremoniously split back in 2005, he threw the NFL Players Association under the bus during an interview yesterday on Mike Tirico’s ESPN radio show –

“It is what it is,” Owens said. “Honestly, I’m disappointed in the union. The second time that we’ve kind of used their services, I’ve been very, very disappointed in that.”

So, to recap, it is the fault of the NFLPA that Owens signed a contract in Philly, wanted to tear it up a year later, then proceeded to put up a tantrum before the Eagles organization had enough and showed him the door?

Doubtful.

Owens’ reaction is nowhere near surprising. He threw most of his quarterbacks under the bus also. Ask Donovan McNabb, who openly campaigned for the Eagles to bring Owens in, and by the end of his stay they were speaking through intermediaries. Jeff Garcia experienced the beginning of T.O. at his peak “give me the damn ball” years, when Owens blamed Garcia for many of the 49ers struggles when they were teammates. It would have been quite entertaining to be a fly on the wall a year ago when Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb roomed together in summer training camp. Their exchanges must have prompted quite a few chuckles about how no matter how much they kept throwing and throwing, nothing was enough for the man who likes to say (and show) “I love me some me!”

So now here Owens is again, showing off the side most people have seen the most out of him — the side that dishes out blame in every direction but his own.

Sure, he may have squeezed off a few tears for his current QB, Tony Romo, but do not be fooled, folks. The real T.O. is always dying to jump back out into the spotlight and expose his true colors. If those colors are ones you do not enjoy, that is not T.O.’s fault. That blame rests solely on your own shoulders.

Maybe this did not work out completely according to plan in the mind of Johan Santana. But nonetheless he is headed to New York, to a competitive team, and is guaranteed to receive one of the fattest pitching contracts in the history of baseball.

But surely Santana was banking on joining either of the two early favorites to land the soon-to-be-ex-Twins pitcher — the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox.

After months of brushing away big deals for Santana, the Minnesota Twins finally bit on a deal that sent their ace to the Mets for four minor leaguers. The trade will be complete when the Mets open up their checkbook and unload truckloads of zeros on Santana’s bank account.

This trade is a minor win for the masses who are sick of hearing about how the Yankees and Red Sox are the only two teams in baseball when it comes to free agency and trades in the off season. Year after year, star after star, the two most competitive teams sword fight with their checkbooks and, eventually, land whatever great talent is available, sparking yet another round of speculation as to which of the “only two teams in baseball trying to win” are going to be the last standing in the winter.

Hearing about the Yanks and BoSox every trade and signing gets tiresome after a while. I understand completely that the two teams are simply taking advantage of an imbalanced system where the richer teams benefit from their larger markets and can overpay as many players as they want. The Steinbrenner family has shown through the years that the Yankees are indeed a business and much like the biggest, most successful businesses of all time — John D. Rockefeller, anyone? — they have to keep their foot on the pedal until the league shuts them down; or, in Rockefeller’s case — and Microsoft, and all those who damn-near reach the monopoly level — when the government shuts them down.

But I am past being tired of the teams for their currently legal tactics, and for the story inevitably coming out of every big signing or deal that falls through their fingertips. The league has more important issues to deal with — Clemens, Bonds and other great ball players being accused of using illegal enhancers to help their performance through their Hall of Fame caliber careers — and even in those cases they have done a poor job.

Here’s a question smarter minds should try and answer for me:

Which has a better chance of happening — NCAA football adopting a playoff system or the MLB implementing and enforcing a salary cap?

The Boston Globe jumped the gun, and is set to publish a book now available for pre-sale on Amazon.com, entitled, “19-0: The Historic Championship Season of New England’s Unbeatable Patriots.”

Not to be outdone, Sports Publishing, Inc. is set to publish a book entitled, “New York Giants: 2008 Super Bowl Champions.”

We typically see this kind of preemptive sales move when it comes to hats, shirts and newspapers, but books? This is new to me.

It is only Tuesday and already we are willing to start publishing books in the name of fan loyalty? Get a hold of yourselves!

Meanwhile, the mayors of the two competing Super Bowl cities have put together their deal to see who gets what when a winner is decided Sunday night. Needless to say there’s some trademark clam chowdah and pastrami sandwiches involved. I’m hungry thinking about it…

Two of the sports journalism industry’s best were hit with unfortunate events yesterday:

• Washington Post writer and PTI co-host Michael Wilbon suffered a minor heart attack last night at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is reportedly back at his house after doctors had to clear up a minor artery blockage. We wish him a speedy recovery.
• Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan’s son, Keith, 37, reportedly took his own life. His body was found at his residence in Islamabad, the city of which he worked for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Our thoughts go out to him and his family.

The last time I stayed up late watching a tennis match-up was when the 25-year-old James Blake battled 35-year-old seasoned vet Andre Aggassi in the 2005 U.S. Open. That match was a classic, with the two battling back-and-forth well into the night, with Agassi defeating Blake well after midnight had passed.

This morning, I find myself up at 4 in the a.m. watching two of the best young stars in tennis duke it out for the 2008 Austrailian Open title.

With the old seasoned veterans out, only the young bucks of the game remain.

The Tiger Woods of tennis, Roger Federer, was knocked out courtesy of 20-year-old Novak Djokovic. The Phil Mickelson (please forgive my golf references) of the sport, Rafael Nadal, was knocked out courtesy of 22-year-old fellow Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

This will be the first time in three years that the winner of a Grand Slam title will be someone other than Federer or Nadal.

The finale is exciting so far and as you know, I am rooting hard for Mr. Tsonga, the young ARod (think: Seattle) of tennis. The great part about rooting for him is his pops, sitting front row, is fired up like crazy. This is already proving to be an insta-classic, and as I type, Tsonga — the one who looks like Muhammad Ali — just took the first set at 6-4.

So as everyone on the East Coast is either sleeping or doing naughty things, I will tune in to the great match-up of the best young stars of tennis. I’d drop off updates as the match continues, but of course no one is awake to read them.

If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound?

UPDATE:

Djokavic defeated my boy Tsonga to capture the 2008 Austrailian Open title.

The match was hard-fought on both ends, but Djokavic found a way to hold off Tsonga’s late rally to win in 4 sets. Check the set-by-set stats.

The crowd seemed to be pulling for Tsonga the entire match, motivating Djokavic to play with an added fire. Even in his postgame speech, Djocavic pointed out the crowd’s bias — “And I know the crowd wanted him to win more. It’s alright, I still love you guys, don’t worry.”

During the match the crowd got very into it, jawing to Djokavic for his elongated serve routine and for what seemed like a cockiness air he had around him after some points. The crowd jawed at Djokavic and Djocavic jawed back, unshaken by the imbalance of support.

Both players have great futures ahead of them. Tsonga is a raw talent, with a strong forehand and a sneaky drop shot that has the potential to shock plenty of greats. He could use work on his backhand and on getting the most out of his first serves. Djokavic is disciplined as hell, with excellent control on his shots, even deep into matches. He is young at 20, but he’s been a pro since he was 16, so he has plenty of experience.

Like plenty of his opponents, I hate Djokavic’s serve routine. He bounces the ball anywhere from 10-20 times before he serves, which prompted Tsonga to complain a few times, and the crowd started to harass him as the match went on.

All in all, the match was great to watch. They both have bright futures, and this classic match was as great as advertised. Three hours of an all-out slugfest completed, the player who looked like Muhammad Ali fell in defeat. But I have a good feeling we will be seeing plenty of Ali’s clone, Tsonga, as well as Djokavic, for plenty of years to come.

Gregg Williams and Al Saunders were given the ol’ heave-ho today.

Now in the Redskins household ex-Seahawks coach Jim Zorn is the new offensive coordinator and veteran defensive coach Greg Blache is the new defensive coordinator.

Remember that continuity we spoke of the other day? Dan Snyder disagrees wholeheartedly.

What is the Redskins front office mindset these days?

I know I’m not the only person on the Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bandwagon, right?

Maybe it was the sleep stuck in my eyes, or the fresh dew in the air, but watching the Austrailian Open highlights this morning, Tsonga looked like an absolute beast on his way to upsetting the No. 2 — the capri pants-wearing Frenchman, Rafael Nadal.

Check the clips of Tsonga putting in work, and note the nifty drop shots.

After the match Nadal didn’t seem too sold on Tsonga’s consistency:

“He’s improving,” Nadal said. “He improve a lot. But the truth is I think he can’t play at this level every time, no? Running unbelievable, physically very explosive, everything. What I can say?”

Here’s an idea of what Nadal can say — “Wow, that bastard just beat me! Lucky punk!”

And if it’s any bonus to the hype, doesn’t Tsonga look like Muhammad Ali in this picture?

Is Jim Fassell really set to become the new head coach of the Washington Redskins? Latest word out of Washington has Fassell as the front-runner, but has yet to be offered the job as successor to the second-coming of the Gibbs era.

And the Washingtonians ask — Really? What happened to the players and coaches all lobbying for continuity and stability? What happened to keeping it within the family, with Gregg Williams?

If Washington owner Daniel Snyder has taught us anything through his 9 years of team ownership, it’s that he is a man who likes to make plenty of noise in the offseason. So if any sign would indicate he has settled down and abandoned his old ways, it is us who are mistaken. Not Danny Boy.

Let’s all step back and reassess the situation in a different mindset: What Would Danny Do?

After the Redskins team withstood tragedy this season with the murder of their best defensive player, safety Sean Taylor, signs indicated Joe Gibbs eyeing re-retirement, ready to hang up his coaching cap and head back to his easy livin’ as full-time NASCAR owner. When this became a reality, it seemed a foregone conclusion Snyder would hand over the reigns to his highly paid defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams. Not so much.

WWDD?

Danny decided to interview Williams — four times — to give him a fair shake at the head coaching job. Apparently Snyder was less-than enamored with the thought of Williams leading his team. After neglecting to offer Williams the job, Snyder began openly flirting with other potential big name coaches (albeit some of them just to go through the motions) — Bill Cowher, Pete Carroll, Ron Meeks, Jim Mora, Jim Caldwell.

As of today, none of the coaches have been signed. That may be Williams’ best hope in the entire process.

But if Fassell is really the front-runner, I remain skeptical of the Redskins’ approach to holding together a very fragile, reeling team after such an exhaustive year. The Redskins players fought through the final stretch of the season and made the playoffs despite all odds against them. It would be a pity to see the unity forged around the team’s recent pain and suffering be lost by way of a complete and total coaching “clean house.”

Inserting an entirely new coaching staff would place an immediate disconnect between the current players and management. New coaches would have a hard time relating to what the team went through last season, how they were able to join together and keep showing up to play every Sunday. The Redskins played tough and, most importantly, together this past season; the least Snyder can do is provide them with some kind of continuity.

Consider it a small reward for the team providing Snyder with one extra game to rake in more dollar$$ for his bottom line.

• Hey, Archie Manning, Mr. Doyel wants you to get out of the spotlight.
• Someone actually thinks the Patriots are beatable? Go on…
• The Dolphins continue to build their staff with ex-Cowboys coaches.
• Did the most talented team really lose in the NFC title game?
• Larry Brown says the Knicks had spies all over the arena during his final days with the team.
• Some love for the successful outdoor hockey experiment.