December 25, 2007
The Redskins, Dan Snyder, mojo and female football fans
Well if this photo in the Washington Post doesn't bring back memories of the glory years of the Fun Bunch, as Clinton Portis celebrates a score Sunday night against the Vikings:
There's an expectant hum for hundreds of miles around D.C. whenever the 'Skins are in the playoff hunt. Tomorrow they play Dallas, and if they do well, we can credit a couple of public gestures by owner Dan Snyder, long derided as a meddlesome twerp, in bringing team, coach and owner more closely together than before.
Snyder got the entire team to Miami for Sean Taylor's funeral, and, by private jet, he sent quarterback Todd Collins to Boston to see his newborn son.
The gestures went a ways toward mending a rift that occurred between the team and owner that seems to date from when LaVar Arrington felt stiffed on a handshake deal with Snyder for an additional $6 million. With Arrington and his family still living in Anne Arundel County, and the Redskins and Ravens two teams that socialize with each other and with former players who remain in Maryland, the lingering effects of the Arrington affair appear to remain.
With a coach like Joe Gibbs, and an owner that finally seems to care on a personal level for his players, and a quarterback -- Collins -- who doesn't fold under pressure, we have a transformed team.
The photo above from the Washington Post illustrates for the first time, Snyder, shown at far right, is now coming down to the sidelines at the end of games, because he senses he is more welcome than he was before.
As enthralled and connected as I remain as a nearly lifelong Redskins fan, I do have to agree with a recent commentary in the Post about how miserable and profane the actual attending of games in person has become.
In "No Game For a Family," Dick Meyer notes:
I went to my last professional football game this month. My son and I braved frigid, remote FedEx Field to see our beloved Chicago Bears, the fallen Super Bowl champions, humiliated 24-16 by the struggling Washington Redskins. It wasn't the depth of our despair that will keep us away from football stadiums for good but the depravity of the fans.
I suppose depravity is a strong word. But what better describes drunken adult men, egged on by other grown beer-swillers, belly-shouting the most spectacular obscenities imaginable as they stand next to a 13-year-old boy? Every play was a competition to produce a more vile insult or a different suggestion about which Bear body part might be stuffed up which orifice. When the Redskins scored their first touchdown, four young women -- I'm guessing they were in high school -- turned around and did a little stripper's dance that made my son blush as I cringed. Even putting aside their ages, it was too cold to bare flesh.
While this kind of behavior is probably pretty typical of many NFL games, and actually tame compared to what can go on at a Ravens game (let alone the old Baltimore Colts, with the brawls in the stands), it really isn't what Redskins football was historically about -- which was having great and knowledgeable fans whose language wouldn't scorch the ears of the teams' many female and kid fans.
This article got 312 comments, many preaching "Amen."
I e-mailed my friend Ann Sjoerdsma, who has had season tickets for many years, and even took me in 1991 to the NFC championship between the Skins and Lions, a wonderful experience. She wrote back:
I agree down the line with what he said. In fact, I was thinking about writing a "I second that motion" letter. We gave up our club-seat contract because of all of the obnoxious and potentially dangerous drunks. I read the column hurriedly, but I'm fairly certain that he and his son sat in the club-seat section. The fans are much, much better in any other section of the stadium. I've tried them all.
It's a shame the frat boy and drunk element has taken over the games. The Redskins used to bring everyone together when they played at RFK, and gained a lot of women fans because of Joe Gibbs (whom my mom loves) and because the stadium atmosphere had a lovely and friendly feel, from the team band, which gave the stadium more of a college than a pro feel, to the Hogs cross-dressing and long-time fans such as Chief Zee.
Footnote: We had our Christmas game-in-the-street in Annapolis Sunday, and I caught a first-down pass and a l-o-n-g touchdown by getting behind the defense and screaming my brother-in-law Rob's name, who noticed me and sent a big fat throw right into my palms. S-w-e-e-t! I was impressed with my nephew's fiance, Andrea, who calmly caught two slants, Rob was quite accurate. Nephew Michael plays football at his school and seems to have an excellent understanding of the game. A good time was had by all. It's always useful to have Rob drawing plays on his sweatshirt front, throwing bombs and changing the rules to favor his teammates.
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