Commander PK

For me there are a few years that really stand out. 2000 with Norv. In 1999 I really thought we might go all the way. After demolishing Detroit in the playoffs we get eliminated in a heart breaking nail biter loss by Tampa Bay. Trading out eventual Super Bowl Champ Brad Johnson for Jeff George in the off season was one of the very early mistakes of the Snyder era. 2000 was a huge let down. Bye Norv. 2005 played out very similar. There was no hotter team in December 2005 than Washington. I felt going into the playoffs they might legitimately make a run for the Lombardi. All of a sudden the offense can’t score to save their lives in the playoffs. 2006 here comes Al Saunders with a 700 page playbook and we supposedly had the problem fixed. 2006…another massive let down. The Al Saunders offense I believe screwed up the chemistry of the team. 2007, the death of Sean, another improbable run into the playoffs only to lose to Seattle again. Joe Gibbs retired. Zorn starts out 2008 6-2, and some of us started believing…then Pittsburgh crushed that on Monday night. All down hill from there. 2012 is magical until a knee injury to RG3 in the playoffs turns that game (and everything that was going great) into utter **** overnight. 2013 is a debacle. 2016, again no sustained success after a promising 2015. 2020, the beloved brand is finally put to bed, but the team rallies and wins the Division during a pandemic. Strangest time I can ever remember. 2021…here we are again. Lot of ball left to be played, but repeating as NFC East champs looks highly unlikely right now.

so it's basically as you would expect. Joe Gibbs 2nd retirement in 2007 led to a massive drop off in enthusiasm for the maroon and black from which we have never really recovered. There were a couple spikes in the Zorn/Shanahan years, (RG3), Rock Bottom during the Gruden years, with the exception of 2016...I'm sure due to excitement over a playoff NFC East Champion potentially going even further. The bottom of Rock Bottom in 2018, and 2019, and then the 7th level of Hell in 2021.

I have an easy answer to this question. I am still a fan because a 7 year old boy watched this Super Bowl play live with his family in his living room nearly 40 years ago. I had never seen adults so overcome with joy in my life. I was hooked from that point forward. Despite my complaining and griping I have faith hope that one day we will get to see something like this again.

Such a pessimistic view...can't say I blame you. 😏

I agree, there were a lot of technological advances made in the late 90's early 00's. Fed Ex was built at a time right before all these things really started picking up. Bottom line, JKC wanted the place built before he passed on, and he could have never conceived of a time that the Washington Redskins would not have been a big enough draw on their own. I doubt he would believe that it's been 20 years of mostly futility. I say it all the time, but this team was setting NFL single game attendance records in the Gibbs 2 era. I was present for the 2005 Sunday Night beat down of Dallas. The place was electric. The potential is still there, but I don't think there is any question the fanbase is as apathetic right now as it has ever been. Even in the 1946 - 1970 era of suckage...people were still attending the games. I didn't really start to notice the major decline in game attendance until the Gruden era. I think the RG3/Shanahan debacle is really when things started to take a significant downturn. We took some pretty significant beat downs in primetime games as well over the last 10 years at home also. There are so many negative things that have brought us to where we are now. One of the biggest things is that we all believed that eventually things would just HAVE to turn around. The fanbase has been burned so many times before many people just don't believe it will anymore, or they are at a SHOW ME don't tell me point. Any kind of sustained success and things will pick up, but it's not going to happen overnight.

Problem is it’s taking too long. They had no plan B and now it’s become a nagging drain on the fan base. If we were winning on regular basis season to season maybe it wouldn’t be as big a deal. They have mostly sucked for the last 30 years, but at least we had the glory years of the Washington Redskins to cling to. People don’t feel that connection anymore. I just cannot conceive of paying 50 dollars for a ticket to watch them lose again. My heart just isn’t in it anymore. If they take the games off TV I probably still wouldn’t go. It really is a giant **** sandwich. I hate that I feel this way about going, but I will hate more feeling like I was suckered again when I shell out too much for an ass beating.

I had a big post typed up…then deleted it. I don’t want to argue with other fans about this anymore. I just think it’s playing a bigger role in the lack of interest than some people realize. Winning is the most important thing and they haven’t done that. I still don’t think we’d be doing much better attendance wise this season if we were undefeated though. The enthusiasm just isn’t there. I think part of that is definitely to do with losing the old brand. They took their fan base for granted for too long and now the chickens have come home to roost.

The loss of Redskins and the lack of a respectable brand to replace it is also playing a HUGE part in this whether people want to believe it or not. People have emotionally checked out.

Great post, and here is what those things are not: 1. Leadership is not "know your why" 2. Toughness is not refusing to slide and letting defensive behemoths beat on you to prove some kind of half-assed point. 3. Football Smart is not in year #2 refusing to run certain plays, and insist on being molded into something you are not overnight. We had a guy like that here once. He was drafted very high in the draft, and was crowned from day #1. I was part of the problem. I crowned him also. I don't know that he ever understood how lucky he was to be here, and most importantly what it would take for him to stay here. Measurables are VASTLY overrated. Not everybody follows the same path to success in life.

One of the Russian Mob guys in Grand Theft Auto 5

Far more likely. More often than not a QB taken in the first round does not meet the ridiculous level of expectations...and surprise...produces (at best) the level of play that Taylor Heinicke is producing right now. All things remaining equal, I'd rather spend the first round pick on the secondary. I don't really subscribe to the "Suck for Luck" mentality. The high first round QB "messiah" that comes in to save the day and makes you a contender every season for a decade. Those guys are so few and far between, and it's really a crap shoot despite what the "experts" will tell you. As an example, I remember the night Mark Sanchez was drafted. I watched him in his suit on his couch, sipping his wine, with a smug look on his face when the phone rang, and my impression was immediately...this guy doesn't get it. There is no way 51 other football players are going to follow him to hell and back. There is nothing wrong with enjoying your success, but an ounce of humility would do a lot of these guys some good.

Hard to believe it has come to this but here we are.

Washington Agents?

I like Taylor a lot. Sometimes people like him emerge and exceed all reasonable expectations. People who had to work twice as hard to get where they are often appreciate it more. He seems to understand how blessed he is to have this opportunity. I hope he never forgets how fortunate he is to be here. The opportunity he has to play in the NFL for a long time. For me, he just has some intangibles that draft position and hype can’t account for. Like sick leave abuse, you know it when you see it. He has a fire in him that I can’t recall seeing out of a Washington QB in a long time.

I couldn’t participate in this thread this week, but I’m quite certain without reading a single page that it was just as neurotic as last weeks, and the week before that, and the week before that lol. I watched the game at work. Some quick takes.… Heinicke may legitimately be our QB of the future right now. He is not perfect but he just seems to have the right stuff. I think he is going to get even better. Our defense played better at times today, but they still gave up crucial third downs. They are not playing at anything close to what we thought or expected. Not sure what the issue is. Scary Terry is an absolute beast. Best player on our team right now. They are 2-2, which is infinitely better than 1-3. They could also easily be 0-4. I really feel like this is the modern NFL though. A win is a win these days. They still have a lot they can improve on and they will need to improve with the tough schedule coming up.

"Or else Pizza...is gonna send out for you!" "You're delicious....hahahahahahhaha"

"Well, if it isn't Lone Starr, and his sidekick, Puke"

I don't necessarily disagree, but I do think they are better than they have shown so far. The season is long. 14 games to go.

Washington is usually the cure for whatever ails you in recent decades. I hate to say. However, I have faith that this week things start to look up. Sometimes getting your ass handed to you is a wake up call.

this would not be a shocking outcome.

Absolutely, if you don't like it...do something about it.

https://nypost.com/2021/09/26/toppled-trash-cans-are-perfect-symbol-for-john-maras-giants/

impossible for me to offer an opinion on this without getting political

As much as we don't want to hear this it's the truth. You don't throw your guy under the bus publicly. If he is doing his job correctly he will give all the credit to his team when things are going well, and say it's on me when they are not. We should never know what they are saying behind closed doors.