LBS attended the premier for 4th and Forever, a new show that will debut on Thursday, May 26th on Current TV. The show chronicles last year’s season at notable football factory, Long Beach Poly. Former Poly grad, UCLA receiver, and current Washington Redskins receiver Terrence Austin was in the house, and LBS had the chance to speak with him. We talked about his experience at Long Beach Poly, his years at UCLA, and his time in the NFL.
Austin said his time at Poly and UCLA was great, though the football team was kind of disappointing given the winning he was accustomed to in high school. He talked about the Redskins quarterback situation, what it was like in the locker room with all the turmoil between the Shanahans and Donovan McNabb, and he dispelled Willie Parker’s notion that the Skins are party team. He also called Redskins fans the best in the country. Here’s our interview:
In case you can’t watch the entire thing, here’s a transcription of some of his answers.
Talking about John Beck who may be in line to be Washington’s starter, Austin said “Beck came in from Baltimore, I worked with him on the practice squad. He was the third quarterback so he was mainly throwing me the football. [He’s a] good guy, real smart, intelligent quarterback, good leadership capabilities … if he works hard, he can be someone.”
When asked if he thought Beck could do well as a starting quarterback, Austin answered “Yeah, anybody can. As long as you work hard, the offense isn’t that complicated, as long as he gets in there and works on the playbook he could make it happen.”
Asked if the locker room was uncomfortable because of the problems between McNabb and the Shanahans, Austin brushed it aside. “No, no, a lot of times the media escalates a lot of things and that was kind of like a problem I guess. People would say something and it would get twisted around in the locker room and it wouldn’t be seen the right way. But for me, I didn’t look at it that way. I was looking at it from the inside and it was just a problem that teams have all the time. I wasn’t upset with anything, it didn’t bother me at all, it was just something that we had to deal with — adversity is something you have to get used to as a team.”
Austin has been working hard and keeping in shape during the lockout, and he’s hoping to keep his spot on the Redskins roster when league business resumes.
