Cooley, Cast of Hundreds, Out for Season

We bet Skins owner Danny Snyder wishes there was a public option for professional sports health care.  His team is going through a devastating rash of injuries to their already thin ranks and today they placed two more players on the season-ending injured reserve list.

The team put tight end and media gadfly Chris Cooley on the list, a few weeks after he broke his ankle.  His return was always one of those best-case scenario type of things, and with the small number of games left, and the team's other injury problems, they needed his roster spot.

The other player placed on IR was rookie DL Jeremy Jarmon.  He tore his ACL Sunday and surgery will keep him out for the rest of the year.

These are the eighth and ninth players to make it to the season-ending list, which is a longer list of names than of players who've had great seasons.

Those are just the long-term injuries.  Shorter-term, Clinton Portis is still out.  Coach Jim Zorn told reporters that the team is going to proceed cautiously with him, as he recovers from a concussion:

"Clinton Portis is not going to play again for another week. He is going to have another exam on Monday after our game against New Orleans ... He may practice some this week, but he's going to be out for the game. We're going to try to get him going and try to see if we can get those symptoms to not continue to reoccur."

The $100 million man, Albert Haynesworth is expected on the field.  (Literally, when he collapses, panting for breath at some point).  He's missed the past two games with an ankle injury.

For all the mocking of his contract and cardio ability, yesterday's game highlighted how important he is to the team's success.  The Eagles ran right up the middle all game long, which rarely happened with him clogging the lanes.  And most importantly, Donny McNabb faced little pressure.  The Skins' big sackers weren't piling up the numbers when Albert wasn't drawing double and triple teams.

Fred Smoot's likely back, which just means there's a different member of the secondary that Drew Brees can abuse next week. Sharing the whippings improves team morale.

How much money do you suppose that the Skins have spent on gauze and Ben Gay this year?