Is Terry Donahue secretly running the Redskins?

It appears the Washington Redskins are convinced the 49ers of the Terry Donahue era were bad because of their stadium, their coaches, their uniforms,the foggy weather or the cable cars. It certainly couldn't have been because they had average players.

So when Mike Nolan started purging his roster of failure after failure and bad apple after bad apple, the Redskins saw opportunity. They jumped at the chance to land such prime talents as Brandon Lloyd, Mike Rumph and Andre Carter (not to mention the great Pierson Prioleau, who clearly just needed a chance to play on a good team).

Well, guess what? They've done it again. To the former 49ers locker room cancer and disappointing first-round picks the Redskins have already accumulated (and begun to get rid of themselves), add one washed-up former Pro Bowl fullback. The Redskins have signed Fred Beasley.

Now, I mean washed-up in the nicest possible way. Beasley had a nice eight-year career with the 49ers, but he had clearly lost something by the time Nolan let him go (he had also had problems with new running backs coach Bishop Harris). Beasley was somewhat washed-up then, two years ago. He's all but worthless now.

But somebody in the Redskins organization obviously thinks otherwise. Somebody who also still thought Lloyd, Rumph and Carter were worth huge contracts. I think Terry Donahue found a new job and didn't tell anyone.

Then again, it could just be that Dan Snyder really is that big of an idiot.

SPEAKING OF IDIOTS, everyone's favorite, Dennis Erickson, is once again creating misguided optimism for yet another new team — this time at Arizona State.

The really troubling thing about this is that Erickson still appears to be a decent college coach, which means he'll probably be successful even while intoxicated. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I'll be rooting against Dennis Erickson wherever he goes for the rest of my life.

If he fails, though, maybe he can join the rest of our castoffs with the Redskins. What a perfect marriage that would be.