John Beck, Rex Grossman get along fine, and their battle for Redskins QB job could be a long one

There was a bit of an awkward moment Thursday night in Baltimore after the Redskins’ preseason game. John Beck was patting his faux mullet with a white towel, carefully explaining how he doesn’t root for Rex Grossman to self-destruct as much he roots for himself to outplay his only competition for the starting quarterback gig.

“The best way I can explain it is, we know what each other has been through, you know what it’s like trying to be the guy to succeed,” Beck said. “But,” and he clearly enunciated the “but” part, “each of us want to be the guy.”

“There’s no way either of us are going to stand to the side and, well, you know . . .”
Beck stopped talking suddenly because I motioned with my eyes that Grossman was standing immediately behind him, gathering his belongings. (Like most players on NFL teams who play the same position, their cubicles were adjacent to each other.)
At the moment I don’t know why I felt the need to let Beck know Grossman was there.

Maybe I didn’t want Beck to say something that would have rattled Grossman without him at least knowing Rex was behind him.

Maybe Rex-Becks, 24-7, was feeling stale, that a training-camp duel and three exhibition games have produced a majority draw; enough already, it’s time for Coach Mike Shanahan to decide who will start.

Or maybe it was simple as this: Rex had fashioned a shiv out of his facemask and I needed to warn Beck before it was too late.

“Believe it or not, it’s not like that,” Beck said.
What?
“Everything’s normal,” Rex added. “I don’t know how else to put it. I mean, how do you not root for a guy like that? He’s a really good guy. It is what it is.”

Beck: “Here’s the thing: you want to see your team do well, see guys catch balls, touchdowns scored. You want to see all that because you want to be part of that. But ultimately you want to be the one to play better.”
So much for two scorpions in a jar, huh? Two journeyman quarterbacks entering the octagon and one leaving sounded great, but it’s not reality.
This might come as a shock, but neither Beck nor Grossman roots like hell for the other one to throw three interceptions returned for touchdowns, so they can be guaranteed the starting job against the Giants in two weeks.

We’ve been pitting them against each other for a few months so much they almost seem inseparable, as if they might morph into a single hybrid: Ron Grossbeck? Rex starts the first preseason game, Becks starts the second. Rex gets two possessions against the Ravens, Becks gets the next two. Afterward, they trade turns in the postgame interview room — Becks first, Rex second.
Probed deeply for that tiny granule of information that could lead to a revelation of which one will start or who has the edge, they answer most everything diplomatically before dressing in relatively the same outfits, short-sleeve plaid shirts and jeans. They hop on the team bus back to the practice facility — each unsure whether he did enough to clearly emerge as the choice in Shanahan’s mind.

And the world of Ashburn turns.

Washington Post