Are the skins FANS the ones carrying the rivalry?

[NoCalMike]

As little as the Dallas fans care, it is still obvious that the cowboys teams get hyped up for the games against Washington. Now since standings and playoff-wise these games are not important, you have to wonder who it means the most too. Since we have lost 10 in a row, to our fans it is a near death experience every game, which in turn may rub off on the players in the urgency to beat the cowboys, but in return it also gives the cowboy something to do besides go 5-11, I bet the Cowboys love to come to OUR HOUSE and stick a stake in our hearts every year. So who is to say that Sunday's game is ANY MORE meaningless than 8/10 of the last 10......I don't care how meaningless, what the score is, what controversy is going on where, what it impacts on next season and/or the draft......I Don't give a SH!T I want the Redskins to beat the FU*KING COWBOYS, and I want it NOW~!

[Brave]

It appears right now that the rivalry ONLY means something to the fans and the Cowboys' team. Only Darrell Green remains from the days when these games meant something in the playoff races.

The fans in Dallas still have a good hate for the Skins. There have been other teams that have developed a short-lived rivalry with them: San Fran and Green Bay come to mind. But, no matter the respective records (or how many times in a row they beat us), Washington/Dallas still brings something special to the fans. This streak is all they've had for the last 5 years so you know they're enjoying it.

We, of course, have been on the short end of this rivalry stick for too long. Can't wait for that to change.

[Skins87]

When I was in dalass for Thanksgiving, I asked that of several cowgirl fans. They all said it was still the Redskins.

[TennesseeCarl]

There's a fundamental difference in 'team spirit'...elan...whatever you want to call it. When I was in Dallas for the 'Jeff George dragging Game', I noted that all our players would sit on the bench, chatting with each other. All the Cowboy players not on the field were standing at the sidelines cheering.

On Thanksgiving, I watched the same thing. The Cowboys are making a comeback and the Redskins not in the game weren't even paying attention - they were sitting on the bench talking to each other. At the end of the game, Stephen Davis comes out with that irritating little grin and he's hugging Emmitt Smith. It's enough to make you puke.

The fans get into The Rivalry. The Dallas players get into The Rivalry. The Cowboy coaching staff gets into The Rivalry.

The Redskin players are absent.

[Chief skin]

The Redskins players make it very obvious that they could care less

[NavyDave]

Skinsfans and redskins players on the team prior to freeagency

[rv581]

I don't think "team" rivalries have much meaning any more to the players. Many Redskins/ Cowboys are probably friends and have the same agent. After the games they're hugging, praying, chatting, etc.

With both teams no longer in the playoff hunt, the biggest thing going through the player's minds is probably not to get hurt and lose value during the post season.

This game is impossible to predict. On one hand we're at home and Dallas is in complete disarray with a lameduck coach. On the other hand there's that streak and the Cowboys might be pumped to send Campo home with a final win.

:shootinth

[RiggoRanger]

A few of the players DO care. Samuels said earlier this week that he's tired of losing to the 'boys and that all he wants for Xmas is a win over them. D. Gardener has expressed serious hate for Dallas too, now hopefully this offseason we get rid of a few players who seem indifferent or resigned to losing to them, and start a winning streak of our own! :cool:

[SPare]

I actually think that if Spurrier is good for one thing as a coach of this team it is to re-ignite the rivalry with the Cowboys.

If you hear anything from how he was as a college coach, you know that he lives off the rivalries (and that he plays musical quarterbacks, but that's another issue )

Let's face it, the rivalry really started because of one coach (Allen) who developed a hate on toward the boys. Throw in a few big games and voila.

I get the impression that the only player on the Dallas sidelines who really views it as a rivalry game is Emmitt Smith. But for whatever reason, he seems to be able to infect the rest of the team with that feeling that no matter the score, they are going to beat the REdskins. Nobody on the Redskins seems to be able to do that.

And that is why they constantly seem to be able to beat the skins.

[Joe a Cowboys fan]

What we have here is a failure to communicate;

Doom's Day

Campo Awaits Axe, Cowboys in Disarray

By Mark Maske

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, December 27, 2002; Page D01

The Washington Redskins, for a change, will be able to look across the field as they wrap up a season and see a team with a future that's far more uncertain than their own. The Dallas Cowboys arrive for Sunday's season finale in disarray, with owner Jerry Jones trying to hire Bill Parcells as his coach, Dave Campo resigned to losing his job and running back Emmitt Smith among those wondering whether they will be asked to return.

"There's a lot of distractions," Campo said yesterday. "As a matter of fact, if the Redskins don't beat us this weekend, they may never beat the Cowboys in the history of the game of football."

Say what you want about Dave, he knows what the rivalry means, in his whole 13 years in the Pros as a coach he has been a Dallas coach.

He said it, Mark Maske wrote it and I believe it. I also know in the Dallas Cowboys Darkest days in 1989 the one thing that salvaged the season was rising up and beating the Skins. Besides Emmitt, Woodson knows it, Larry Allen knows it and if they have had any influence on the youngsters they know it too.

I know you guys visit some of the Dallas boards and see posts asking should we try to win this game, and does this game matter as much as our next head coach but the bottom line remains, most of us fans want to win Sunday and I really hope we do one more time.

Pretty catchy exit line by Dave, hunh?

[TennesseeCarl]

Campo may be largely remembered around the league as Jerry Jones' stooge and that's too bad. But he'll also be remembered in these parts as a Redskin killer.

For whatever it's worth, I think Campo deserved a heckuva lot better than Jones' flirting with Parcells the week you guys are playing the Eagles. If Snyder had pulled that, the media would be in the process of organizing a lynch mob.

[RF4L]

Hi TC,

Funny you should mention that irritating SD grin. I know it bugs the $hit out of me (especially after he puts it on the ground), but I didn't think anybody else noticed.

7-9 is going to sound a whole lot better with no. 7 coming against the Cowboys (I'm praying:notworthy ).

It's our playoff game this year and I'll be at the sports bar taking it all in.

[Ignatius J.]

When I go back and watch that dallas game, all I see on the field is want to and heart. What I don't see is interior line run blocking. We had more fight for that dallas game than any game i've seen in a while. Weurfell pushed himself hard and refused to slide on several occasions. We suffered 3 season ending injuries. I didn't see all this chatting you're talking about. I saw people talking to thier coaches more than anything else.

As the game slipped away from us you could see a look of helplessness on the faces of the players. When Roy williams caught his interception there was nothing we could do to stop him. Galloway's waltz into the endzone destroyed us.

Relying on heart is dangerous because if you go into a game with heart, it can get broken and serve as a weakness. In these last ten losses to dallas I have seen more and more of that than a feeling of not caring.

-DB

[Sonny Joe Hog]

When one bad team pounds another bad team 10 times in a row, I don't think it qualifies as a rivalry. Rivalry games are knock down drag out affairs played in front of rabid fans. The W-L records of rivals can be disregarded because anything can happen when they play. If a team loses to a rival, you can bet your bottom dollar that the next time they play the losers of the previous game will be lusting for revenge and play like they're possessed. No way is either team going to suffer three losses in a row to their rivals. They just could'nt stand to have their manhood questioned like that. These are not just football games; they're legendary events. Those of us who were part of the incredible event that was the 1982-83 NFC Championship game vs. Dallas will never forget it. The RFK upper deck swayed so much from the fans stamping in unison that I truly feared the stadium would collapse! That's how it was; but what was once the greatest of professional sports rivalries is no more. The Redskins players killed it by not caring enough to put out their utmost efforts to beat Dallas. I hope we finally win one vs. Dallas today. Nevertheless, the rivalry will not be restored until both teams once again play each game against one another with the intensity of desperate warriors.