Victorious Redskins Bask in Last Hurrahs

Don Warren put the finishing touches on his 13th season with the Washington Redskins Tuesday morning as he stood on scaffolding overlooking an estimated 75,000 fans who’d come to the Mall to honor the winners of Super Bowl XXVI.

He listened as Coach Joe Gibbs thanked the fans for creating the home-field advantage at RFK Stadium and he smiled when a couple of teammates talked about repeating next season.

At 35, he has had one of the more remarkable runs in NFL history, having played in four Super Bowls, three on the winning side, and showed up Tuesday wearing jeans, boots and his rings from Super Bowls XVII and XXII. This season began with a broken bone in his foot that had him wondering if he had any football at all left in him. It ended with his teammates passing the Super Bowl XXVI trophy around. It ended with him appreciating another taste of success.

“I hope people understand how hard it is to do something like this,” he said. “So many things have to go right and you have to work so hard.”

He paused and waved toward the fans who came out on a near perfect morning of sunshine and temperatures in the mid-forties to hear high school bands and disc jockeys, to listen to Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly read a proclamation honoring the Redskins and to catch a glimpse of some of the players and coaches who defeated the Buffalo Bills 37-24 Sunday night in Minneapolis.

“This is what you begin every season hoping for,” Warren said. “But there are so many things that can happen on the way and some of them aren’t your fault. I think of a guy like Jim Hart who played 17 years and never got to the Super Bowl. Steve Bartkowski never got to one. My point is that when you do get there, you’d better cherish it. I’ve been very fortunate to go to four and win three. At my age, I never know when I’m going back.”

Warren and his teammates will begin their vacations Wednesday morning as the pace picks up upstairs at Redskin Park. Gibbs and his staff have a 10 a.m. meeting amid reports that new Minnesota Vikings Coach Dennis Green wants to hire two Redskins assistants, quarterbacks coach Rod Dowhower and wide receivers coach Jack Burns.

Sources in Minneapolis said Green had already asked permission to interview Dowhower and Burns, but General Manager Charley Casserly said he hadn’t been contacted. Gibbs is expected to discuss the matter with Dowhower and Burns Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Casserly began work on the 37-man Plan B protected list that must be submitted on Saturday. Several prominent veterans -- Gerald Riggs, Jeff Rutledge, Russ Grimm, Monte Coleman, Terry Hoage -- and young defensive backs Sidney Johnson and Alvoid Mays are expected to be left unprotected.

The Redskins must decide if they want Riggs and Grimm back but it’s clear they want everyone else on the list to return. In past years they’ve been able to hold on to players they didn’t want to lose, but as a team source said: “If you put a guy out there, you have to be prepared to lose him. Sometimes crazy amounts of money get thrown away.”

Safety Alvin Walton, who was taken off the active roster in favor of Hoage for the Super Bowl, will be protected. Walton said last week that he’d like to be traded, but the Redskins likely will do what they can to soothe his feelings.

Their thinking on two other veterans is unclear. Defensive end Markus Koch, who spent much of the season on injured reserve, has indicated he may retire, and Casserly hopes to get a decision before Saturday’s Plan B deadline. Likewise the Redskins probably want Matt Millen back, but may not be able to protect him because of a numbers crunch at linebacker.

Another name that will be discussed this week is that of quarterback Stan Humphries. He’s almost certain to be traded, but a deal probably won’t be made until April because there may not be enough time for that this week and there’s a two-month moratorium on trading during the Plan B signing period.