Evening star., 1945-11-06
Redskin Profit Under
Last Year 5 Despite
Capacity Crowds
BY LEWIS F. ATCHISON.

Although they still pack 'em in
with a shoehorn at Griffith Stadium
and have the high-powered mag
netism of medicine show on the
road. the Redskins will show a.
smaller profit this year than last
At this writing they're thousands of
dollars behind last years figure, ap-
parently making good George, Mar
shall's threat to spend ourselves
broke" getting winner.
The Skins could have muddled
through with another second-class
outfit. They did last year and came
within an ace of getting into the
playof, but the big chief wants the
best. He figures the fan who pays
the freight Sunday after Sunday is
entitled to the best the club can pro-
duce even if it hits the stockholders
where 1t hurts most.
Thus, when XII Aldrich and Dick
Todd became available last week,
Marshall grabbed them, although it
meant hiking the payroll without
adding anything at the box Office.
The Redskins don't need help at the
turnstiles because the remaining
games practically are sold out. and if
Marshall wanted to cut corners he
could do it very nicely. at substan-
tial saving for the club.
Payoff Wouldn't Help.
Boarding unknown rockies, pay
ing their medical bills and picking
up their checks for incidental ex-
penses has cost a pretty penny, and
when you wind up trading off most
of them it goes down in the books
as loss.
The playoff melon won't pull the
Redskins up to normal even if they
cop the Eastern crown and play
Cleveland before an 10000 crowd in
the latters municipal stadium. In
1912 when Washington beat the
Bears here for the championship,
the clubs share amounted to 81, 400
and Marshall promptly spent $1,000
for gold footballs for the squad and
neWspapermen.
Players get most of the playof
money, or 10 per cent of the net
receipts, including radio rights, after
taxes and IS per cent for rental Of
the park. OF that money the two
second-place clubs in both East and
West receive S per cent, and the
playoff winner takes so per cent OF
the remainder, the loser 40 per cent.
The Redskins already are dreaming
of big, round dollar marks from the
playoff although it's still a long
way from December.
De Gr0ot Reshapes Backfield.
While the front Office pondered
the financial picture, Coach Dud
De Groot today began reshaping his
backf1eld for next Sundays return
game with Boston, which Is re-
garded as a possible turning point
in the campaign. If the Skins take
the Yankees, thereby atoning for
their opening game defeat, they fig
ure to be sufficiently Strengthened
out with their new talent by the fol-
lowing week to meet any situation.
1t should be a breeze from there in.
De Groot can't see it that way.
He thought the way his men backed
up the line in the second half last
Sundays game with the Cardinals
was "atrocious" The pass defense,
even with such dependables as
Sammy Baugh, Wilbur Moore and
Bob Seymour in the lineup was
not good. Statistics show that the
Cardinals passing average was bet
ter than the Tribes, and Paul
Christman had no trouble picking
out targets for his throws when the
Chnagoans were marching to their
third touchdown.
The club also is making another
personnel change that does not have
the board Of strategy's unanimous ap-
proval in calling for waivers on Mike
Micka. Black Mike played a bang
up game Sunday, with his dash to
the 1-inch line after grabbing a
pass from Baugh featuring his work,
but the little fullbackis lack Of heft
put two strikes on him this year as
soon as prewar behemoths began
treaking back from military service.