A Tinge of Blue at Redskins Park

By John Roth
Blue Devil Weekly

Aug. 11, 2003

ASHBURN, Va. - One of the first players to emerge from the locker room, his uniform crisp and pristine white, Lennie Friedman signs autographs and poses in photographs for over a dozen early-arriving fans before heading down to warmups.

Drenched in perspiration and among the last to leave the field after a two-hour workout, Bernard Holsey and Richmond Flowers delay their retreat to the locker room to autograph countless caps, yearbooks, shirts and footballs for a burgundy-laced crowd that has swelled to over a thousand.

It is the fifth day of preseason training camp for the Washington Redskins, and the three former Duke players are immersed in fierce battles for coveted roster spots on the National Football League team. But they are not too self-absorbed to lose sight of the club's rabid supporters or to lose perspective on the month that will determine their paychecks for the next year.

Not one of the three is guaranteed to have a nameplate on a locker when the Redskins open the NFL season on Sept. 4 against the New York Jets. Not Holsey, a veteran who could fill a need on the defensive line with the departure of two regulars from last year; not Friedman, who was a part-time starter on the offensive line in Denver; certainly not Flowers, who is in his third NFL training camp but has yet to begin a season on an active roster.

But all three are solid players and solid people, talented and hard-working. They have a chance. And it can't hurt that their resumes all show degrees from Duke, a university that has long held a favorable spot in the heart of Redskins coach Steve Spurrier, who guided the Blue Devils to their last ACC title in 1989.

Bleeding royal blue, however, won't get these guys on the roster. Last year on his maiden voyage as an NFL coach, Spurrier overloaded on players from his alma mater, Florida, and several didn't work out during the team's 7-9 campaign. It was Spurrier's first losing season since his 1987 Duke team went 5-6. The playoffs are an expectation this year, and sentimentality will play no part in who is chosen to make that happen.

But, at least for now, the Duke connection is still breathing at Redskins Park as the team works its way through the preseason. The roster still includes over 90 players, about 40 of whom will be released before the real season begins next month.

Three of the staff members who will help Spurrier make his final personnel decisions for 2003 also have strong Duke ties. His defensive coordinator is George Edwards, who was a senior linebacker on his 1989 Blue Devil team. The assistant linebackers coach is Jim Collins, who coached with Spurrier at Duke as well as at Florida. And his receivers coach is his son, Steve Jr., who played wide receiver at Duke under Spurrier's successor, Barry Wilson.

Among the Duke players in camp, Friedman's career overlapped both Holsey's and Flowers' in Durham. Holsey lettered on the defensive front from 1992-95, playing on the Devils' last bowl team in 1994. Flowers caught passes at Duke from 1996-99, graduated, then transferred to Tennessee-Chattanooga to play a fifth year as a grad student. Friedman played on Duke's offensive line from 1995-98, the last three years as a starter.

"Bernard was a senior when I was a freshman," Friedman notes. "He's an excellent football player, a big powerful man and a really good human being. Richmond is a tough, hard-working receiver and a good person to have on a team.

"I know Coach Spurrier is a legend at Duke," he continues. "Sonny Falcone (a Blue Devils' strength coach) loves Coach Spurrier and has always talked me up about him, and when I was presented an opportunity to play for him I thought it was a great opportunity. I'm really looking forward to it."

Friedman was a second-round draft pick after Duke and spent the last five years with the Denver Broncos. After missing his rookie season with a knee injury, he played in 33 games and started 22 over four seasons. Due to a broken thumb, he played in just two games last year, when he was Duke's highest-paid NFL player at over $550,000.

Friedman signed with the Redskins in March as a free agent, attended all the offseason workouts and minicamps, and now feels he's battling for one of the last two spots on the line. He is primarily a left guard, but in the name of versatility he'll take a turn at right guard and center, and he's been observed working at wedge tackle on the kickoff return team.

"There are a limited number of positions on the team and they are looking for guys who can do multiple things," he says.

"The first goal for anybody is to make the team and that's not an easy task because there's a whole bunch of talented men on this team at every position, especially on the offensive line. Every day my goal is to get better at things that I need work on. This training camp I'm working on pass protection, staying low, stuff that linemen always have to get better at. I'm trying to be the best player I can be."

Holsey became one of the newest Redskins when he signed a free agent contract just three days before training camp started. Initially he aligned with the New York Giants out of college and played there four years, 1996-99. He spent the 2000 season in Indianapolis, where he made 76 tackles, two sacks and returned a fumble 48 yards for a touchdown. He was out of football in 2001, but jumped back in with the Dallas Desperados of the Arena League in 2002 and parlayed that into a job with New England last fall, seeing action in eight games as a reserve.

Holsey has played in 80 games and started 17 over his six NFL seasons, mostly at defensive end. But his best chance to make the Redskins probably is at tackle after the club lost its two starters from last year. Daryl Gardener signed with the Broncos and Dan Wilkinson was released in a salary move at the start of camp. The defensive staff is exploring numerous options during the preseason and has not ruled out trading for another D-lineman before the season begins.

"Bernard was out of a job, we brought him in for a workout a couple of weeks ago, liked what he did, liked how he played on tape, so we signed him to a contract. He's going to be a good addition for us," says Collins.

Flowers faces perhaps the stiffest competition to make the roster at receiver in Spurrier's pass-oriented offense. The team likely will keep six wideouts of the 11 in camp, and a few are virtual certainties, such as free agent pickups Laveranues Coles and Patrick Johnson and veteran Rod Gardner.

But Flowers says he's learned from past camps not to spend much time counting heads.

"You can't get in the minds of the coaches, you just have to play within yourself," Flowers says. "Don't play the numbers guessing game because all that does is get you out of your game. This being my third year, I'm just going back and trying not to make the same mistakes twice.

"We have a great receiving corps here. But I think I have a lot to offer. I'm multi-dimensional. I can play special teams. I'm not afraid to fight and scrap and go across the middle. I pride myself on catching every football and I think I have the speed to get deep. I just have to concentrate on my game, within myself, what I can do to get better as a football player, and avoid the temptation to look elsewhere or to concentrate on other guys trying to make the team."

Flowers used his sprinter's speed and exceptional hands to catch 98 passes and score 11 touchdowns in four years at Duke, then had a school-record 86 receptions for 1,035 yards in his 2000 season at UTC. Jacksonville drafted him in the seventh round, released him during training camp 2001, signed him to the practice roster and released him again. The Dallas Cowboys added him to their practice roster that October and later dispatched him to a spring in NFL Europe, where he lived on the beach in Spain while catching 34 passes and a league-high six TDs for the Barcelona Dragons.

The Cowboys, who once employed his father as a wide receiver, had Flowers back in training camp last summer but released him halfway through - in a segment televised on the weekly HBO series that documented the camp. Flowers then went to New York to take acting lessons and continue training. The Redskins added him to their practice roster in November, he traveled to a few road games - including Thanksgiving in Dallas - and was activated for the regular-season finale against the Cowboys, though he didn't play.

Before returning to training camp this summer, he spent time in Oxford, Miss., with his younger brother, who plays for Ole Miss, catching passes in oppressive 110-degree heat from quarterback Eli Manning, whose football bloodlines run as deep as his own.

"I was just working on my craft," says Flowers, before stepping into a waist-deep ice bath to soothe some muscles after practice.

"I'm fortunate that I'm still able to follow my dream to play professional football. At this point in my life, 25 years old, I'm prolonging the inevitable by doing unconventional things and seeking unconventional jobs. Right now my main and only focus is trying to make this team and being a Washington Redskin."

The same goes for Friedman and Holsey.

"All you can do is go out and work and play as hard as you can, and Coach makes his decision off of that. If you feel like you've put in a good day's work, that's all you can ask yourself," says Friedman, moments after visiting with several wheelchair-bound youngsters from a local children's hospital who came to watch the morning workout.

"They are playing hard and practicing hard every day and we're pleased to have them," Edwards says of his three fellow Duke alumni in camp. "Hopefully they'll have a chance to be with us this year."

Look for a profile of first-year NFL defensive coordinator George Edwards (Duke '89) of the Washington Redskins in the August issue of Blue Devil Weekly.

A Tinge of Blue at Redskins Park

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