Sadly, I feel very much the same. I've been following the team since '87, I've seen almost every game since then, and I will of course continue to follow them. I admit I've tried a few times to start following other teams and to forget about the Redskins, but I can never follow another team for more than a few games, and I can never make myself miss a single Redskins game. Despite this, my level of passion, as you say, has definitely dropped over time.
Then in 2012, for the first time in a long time, I really felt it. Even early on when we were losing, I felt it. I was excited to just watch the team play. Wins and losses were somewhat irrelevant. But when we went on the winning streak which led to the playoffs, I thought "finally! We're back!" It was probably the most optimistic I've felt about the team and its future since the early '90s. It felt like there was a curse, and it had been broken.
What I've taken from that excitement juxtaposed against where we are now is that it's not even worth thinking about the future, that doing so is a foolish game. In fact, my plan is to not even start thinking about Gruden as head coach, nor his coordinators, until the season starts. And even then I only plan to watch and see how things go.
I've watched and listened to Gruden enough over the last week or so to realize that he certainly addresses what Bruce Allen perceives as the problems. Gruden is personable, charismatic, inspiring, organized, detail-focused, etc. I think he's likeable. But who knows if that will translate into wins.
If Bruce has our problems correctly identified, then I think Gruden may end up being a really, really smart hire. But, as I said, I'm not going to bother to predict or think about the future because this could very well just be a Sisyphean swing. It's, sadly, easy to think that if we lose for the next few years, our next coach might be the counter to Gruden -- and we'd all think "finally!"
I will say this about the future and in agreement with the original post: this is Bruce's house. He's built it. Winning or losing will happen from here, maybe regardless of Bruce's decisions, maybe because of them. But if we lose, then that will be it for Allen. No bump to president or whatever. I'm sure Snyder and Allen have talked about it. I'm sure Snyder let Allen know that he needs to produce a winner. I believe if nothing changes and it's two, maybe three years later, that Snyder flushes the front office and starts over again -- new GM, new scouts, new coaches, clean slate. Who knows what that will look like, but it will happen.
On the other hand, if we can hover *around* 10-6 or better (Gruden's bar for a good team), then I think that result says Allen was right, he figured it out, he deserves the credit and job security, it says he put the right people in the right positions, and then maybe fans like me can finally drop our guard.
Us (us, us, us, us): 36 And them (them, them, them, them): 33
