August is a strange month on the professional football calendar. It connects the summer with the regular season by teasing fans, who waste no time trading in their desire to watch live NFL action for impatience with sloppy exhibition games.
That is the reality of the NFL preseason, which, for the Washington Redskins, finally begins Thursday in Foxborough, Massachusetts with a game against the New England Patriots. The final score will be quickly forgotten, but the game matters more to certain players than casual fans realize.
When new Redskins receiver Paul Richardson was a rookie, he did not know the preseason opener would be his first time wearing his full Seattle Seahawks uniform.