[dgack]

Also, to counter the DG story, I will say that I met a lot of current and former guys from the late 80's / mid-90's Redskins at a charity signing event at the Elks Lodge in Frederick MD when I was a teenager. Russ was there, Joe was there, I think Monte Coleman was as well, Tre Johnson and Jumpy Geathers, that whole crew, but none of the "superstar" marquee guys Art, Darrell, etc.

One very vivid memory I have about the event was that they were there to do a charity raffle for a sick child, but they also had agreed to do some autograph signings (for free). At some point, very early in the event, a lot of really snotty kids started sort of ignoring the auction part and started trying to get the players to sign STACKS of papers, cards, etc. It was the first time I realized, "hey, people are trying to take advantage of this, this is kind of fucked up". A lot of the older guys from the Elks lodge who had organized it were kind of stunned as the kids mobbed the players and you could tell they had lost control of the event.

Joe Jacoby stood up and just BOOMED out a loud "HEY!" and everybody in that room just froze. He then very calmly but sternly admonished the kids, reminding them what they were there for, a sick kid who they were trying to raise money for, and told them to sit down and ONLY after that auction would they sign autographs, and they weren't going to be signing stacks of index cards and merchandise, that people had better be considerate of their fellow fans.

The whole event went off without a hitch after that, it was pretty amazing. I think that was probably the time I realized how important "The Hogs" really were, and what kind of leadership qualities all those guys had.