The blossoming shrub that was the Washington Redskins’ successful 2005 season bore fruit yesterday, as it was announced that the team will play in the inaugural Monday Night Football game of the 2006 season. The synergy is practically PTI-tastic, as it will also be the first MNF game for area sports curmudgeon Tony Kornheiser. And because Monday Night Football moves from ABC to ESPN this year, nobody will be watching the game without buying something….

Going into the weekend, Redskins fans had a lengthy wishlist. A New England win over Tampa Bay, a Pittsburgh victory in Minneapolis, and Atlanta loss in frozen Chicago (which was aided and abetted by Rex Grossman, which means we can no longer say that Steve Spurrier never did anything for us), and, of course, a December victory over arch-rival Dallas Sunday evening at the Jack. So, umm…check, check, check, and, CHECK. The end result…

Well, that didn’t take long. Patrick Ramsey’s tenure as the Redskins free-and-clear starting quarterback lasted just three offensive series, after which Joe Gibbs named Mark Brunell as the new starter going into next Monday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. The decision was made at a news conference yesterday. Gibbs expressed some measure of regret at the announcement, telling the Post “You don’t like doing this. I don’t. Sometimes you don’t chart the circumstances or…

The sports world is alive with the story of old favorites returning to their former haunts. Even as our new and fresh-faced colleagues at Bostonist contend with the time-travelling brain-melt that is Antoine Walker returning to the Celtics after a year-plus sojourn in Tejas and the ATL, we at DCist are just now getting the news that the Redskins front office is in deep trade talks themselves, 2003 style. If you cast your mind back…