Question to the older Redskins Fans: What's it like to be a Champion?

[C.Taylor]

It's pretty cool. :cool:

[Dan T.]

I have to admire all the 20-somethings here who have stuck it out through all these lean years. You guys deserve a winner. And when it comes, it's a great feeling.

[ArmchairRedskin]

It's the bee's knees, whippersnapper. Now get off my lawn

[HigSkin]

Euphoric - It's a town gone mad, high fiving people on the street and waiting patiently for the next Kornheiser Band Wagon article. That was back when the Post actually like the Skins. When your Sunday family dinners were planned so not to interfere with away game times and you rolled out the TV cart to watch the game. You know, the TV with tin foil wrapped around the rabbit ears.

Man - those were the days...sigh

[Dan T.]

It's the bee's knees, whippersnapper. Now get off my lawn

[mtruslow]

I've been a Washington Redskins fan since 1970. The Dallas/Washington rivalry was at it's height in the early to mid 70's. It's not been the same since. The Gibbs era was just an unbelievable run with a chance for the Super Bowl every year. Joe Theismann and Jay Schroeder (the mad bomber) were fun to watch. We had a really good run at Quarterback with Gibbs as coach. The lowest time as a Redskins fan for me was the Norval Turner era. Turner was the worst coach the Skins have ever had. I would say Zorn is in there too, but he was just a puppet. I had plenty of hope when Joseph Jackson Gibbs came back for run number 2. I think that even though the game had changed Gibbs still inspired the Redskins to play for him. The 5 game winning streak to get us into the playoffs in 2005 was just memorable and beautiful. I think the 4 game winning streak to get the Skins into the playoffs in 2007 after the horrible Sean Taylor tragedy showed proof how much the players loved Gibbs and loved playing for him. They loved Sean too. It was obvious. The Gibbs years were the BEST. The organization just stood for class. I wish we had a fountain of youth serum to give to Coach Gibbs. I have to give Coach Shottenheimer props too. Forget Spurrier. Terrible hire.

[goldbean]

Imagine this: You fight Jack Bauer and Chuck Norris and kick both of their asses. Then the most beautiful, intelligent, Redskins-loving woman in the world (or your wife, if you are married ) falls head over heels for you. She gives you a scratch-off ticket which just happens to be a $1 million winner. You invest the money wisely and buy multiple mansions, yachts, a small island, and a private security force. You eat bacon with every meal, are utterly slathered in Burberry, and have diamonds dangling from every part of your body. You live happily ever after.

It's kind of like that...only it ended.

[Staxnet]

I was at all the playoff games in 83 and rushed the field after the win against Dallas (actually, it was during the game, as there were several seconds left on the clock). I remember running up to Dallas players as they were walking off the field and cheering in their faces. I was 13. It was awesome. Probably the best day of my sport fan life.

[Dallsux]

I still get chills thinking about those times. I still watch highlights from those years & every time I hear that Diesel horn...I almost cry I get so excited. I was 7 when we won Super Bowl XVII & I remember it vividly. DC went nuts-people climbing trees, traffic lights, & signs, screaming & singing Hail to the Redskins over & over! That was awesome!

I would say that the best feeling we've maybe had since 1991 was when we beat Dallas '05 in Dallas for the 1st time in 10 years. Monday Night Miracle is the closest thing we've had & I have savored every delicious moment of that & the 11.5.06 game when we won 22-19 at home (mainly because I was blessed to be there for that).

But NOTHING will beat being World Champs again! I can't wait for you youngsters who haven't had the pleasure to experience it!

[duggiefresh265]

By no means do I want to encourage anyone to do this but my adrenaline was so high during the Denver game that I drank half a bottle of jagermeister and never felt drunk.

Watching Danny White sit clueless on the bench in the 2nd half of the NFC championship was sublime.

The best moment, however, was watching us beat Buffalo in style and punctating a season that I would put up against any other in NFL history.

[Dallsux]

It's the bee's knees, whippersnapper. Now get off my lawn

:rotflmao:

If I had been drinking milk, I might have been killed when I read this.

[RichmondRedskin88]

Only championships I've seen are DCU and Man UTD which is great and all but I'd kill to see a Skins SB.

[SkinsOasis]

It's the greatest rush when you're watching the Skins in the Super Bowl, and they score a key TD....when Riggins had his epic TD run against Miami I was 20 and couldn't stop yelling and jumping up and down in my parents' family room. My mother was trying to calm me down even after 1 or 2 minutes after the play was over........you walk around like you just won the lottery for millions of dollars.

[War Paint]

It was great. I was a kid in the 80's and a teen in the 90's. I saw all the Super Bowls during the Gibbs years. The Redskins were great. During Gibbs I, we pretty much went to the playoffs every year. We went to the NFC championship on average every two and a half years. We went to the Super Bowl on average about every three years. We were such a great, great team. The Redskins left me with some great SB memories. The Raiders SB sucked though. The Redskins and 49ers dominated the league. We were like the Patriots are now, always good.

We were not joked about. We didn't hear anyone insult our name. We were a feared team. We were very respected.

[Commander PK]

I was 7 years old when the Skins won their first Super Bowl. I remember my parents having a Super Bowl party. I remember watching Riggins "70 Chip" run LIVE. Everybody in the house was going bonkers. I remember in Super Bowl 22 Elway throwing the first touchdown bomb, and thinking "uh oh." I remember watching "the quarter" LIVE and knowing the game was over early. I remember the 1991 season very well. Complete domination by the Skins. I was in 11th grade when the Skins won number 3. Super Bowl party at my friend's house.

I wonder who has had it worse over the years. Those fans who have never been able to experience winning seasons and Super Bowl wins, or those of us that grew up/lived through the great years and watched the franchise fall from grace.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

started following seriously when i was 5 back in '98...kept a record of every W and L

My highest moments were one NFC East title I barely remember and two wildcard births...smh

---------- Post added August-18th-2011 at 11:49 PM ----------

still remember '99 vs the Bucs in the playoffs and the botched kick...didnt understand what went wrong...mom brought me a Darrell Green jersey the next day

[WyomingRedskin]

Became a fan of the Skins in 1984 and had the pleasure of watching and enjoying their last two Super Bowl victories. The Gibbs team was consistently good. Every year, you were confident in the team for the most part. The funny thing is even back then you had your occasion QB drama. But you expected the team to be good year in and year out and for the most part they were. The single greatest football game I have ever seen in my life was SBXXII when we trounced the Broncos. I live in Wyoming which is Broncos country which made the victory that much sweeter. After being down 10-0 and Williams hurting his knee, it was bleak and you just felt a sinking feeling in your heart. Then I saw nothing perfection in the 2nd quarter. I have never and will probably never seen anything like it again. Putting 35 points on the board like we did just turned your low into an amazing high. It was absolutely indescribable.

[Enzo]

When the Redskins win a championship it is the mostest-awesomest-coolest thing ever. Does that answer your question?

[jflow78]

I don't think there's a different feeling at the beginning of the season, but when it happens, the best way I can put it is, it's like that last scene in Rudy where he finally fulfills his dream and you're in between jumping up and down and cheering for the guy, and fighting to hold back tears...........except is lasts for about a year.

[VRIEL1]

I feel sorry for you my friend. The last 20 years of the Redskins has been a black hole. That stretch under Gibbs in the 80s you felt like the team had a legitimate chance to win it all every year. We had team full good guys and the best coach in football. It was amazing.

Here I am scrolling down all the comments and amazingly enough yours I think really hit me.

1982- My sophmore year of high school. A shortened season because of the strike. Then there was the fact no one not even the media believed the Skins would get to the SB and at each step we proved them wrong again and again. Then at the SB all we read, all we heard, all we saw was how the Skins had lost to Miami once before and how Don Shula's Dolphins were expected to win and how they would perform a replay of the first SB against us. It was sweet revenge and justice to beat Miami. Then there was the SB parade and my high schools marching band was one of the school allowed to participate in the parade.... the bus ride, all the happy people down town. I think they shut the government down... or atleast it seemed like it.

1987- Yet again another strike. Another year of how the Redskins were not going to make it. Yet for some reason they did. Then at the SB it was all about Denver and how they were going to win because they were flawless all year. The Skins started out that game 0-10 in the first half and then came out fighting. Winning 47-10. It was awsome.

1991- What a year.... 11 straight wins. Funny how if I'm not mistaken it seemed other teams made the highlights, other teams were talked about, and the Skins with all their winning were an after thought. Yet again the Skins were underdogs. No way were they going to beat the high scoring Bills. No way could they match up with them on the field in the SB. Clearly Buffalo was going to win the game single handedly. Yet they didn't.

Through the 80's the media made sure to talk about how the Skins were not going do well for whatever reason. Yet for some reason the fans knew better. We were in the playoffs almost every year. The HC took all the blame for every mistake. Some how during the interviews Gibbs found a way to turn it into something he did wrong so the players didn't get hammered by the media or fans for mistakes that were made.

Then there was the hireing of Norv Turner. It was like an omen. Who goes out and flirts with the enemy in order to aquire a HC? This was the beginning of the "we are only one player away" attitude. Imagine having 10 yrs of believing the team can get to the SB and making the playoffs almost every year to expecting the playoffs and not getting in. always finding away to sabatoge their chances of being in the playoffs. Being pissed off every Mon. because the team found a way to shoot themselves in the foot.... false starts, fumbles, interceptions. Then 10 yrs of trying to buy a championship and failing miserably.

I think fans have been down for soo long that some have a hard time thinking positive. Others don't understand the building process and with being tired of being in last place expect failure so they complain.

[live4burgandyandgold]

Im pretty sure a thread like this comes up every year. maybe you should search for it and read it instead of creating a redundant thread.

[Timmy Smith]

'82 was my first season as a sports fan, having just moved to Washington D.C. from Washington state, as a 7-year old. Started watching football week 1 of that season, didn't understand the strike very well, and then the run to the Super Bowl was magical, but somehow, to my naive mind, expected. It was as though it had to end like a movie, with the good guys winning. There was never any doubt.

'83, I became a rabid Redskins and sports fan. All things Redskins: pajamas, beach towels, birthday cakes, etc. That 14-2 season was spectacular, with the 2 regular season losses each being 1-point margins: 31-30 to Dallas on Monday night, opening night, and 48-47 to Green Bay on Halloween, Monday night football. When we lost the Super Bowl, the shock was so violent to my 8-year old system that I started vomiting (lol, so ridiculous in hindsight) and missed school the next day. My Mom figured I'd been through enough to deserve a day at home, I guess.

'87 was my favorite season. Each playoff game and the Super Bowl felt as though we were the underdogs, and the 35-point second quarter was surreal. Timmy Smith rushed for 204 yards and set a Super Bowl record, only to vanish like a ghost, retiring with around 600 yards rushing total for his career. Check the youtube link in my signature - that was the level of excitement going around D.C. George Michael aired that video during Super Bowl week on channel 4, and I remember my little brother and I recorded it on VHS.

'91 was just plain fun. We destroyed teams that season, and nothing ever really felt stressful. No nail-biter playoff games, but after so many cardiac seasons, it was welcome.

[OuterBanksTarHeel]

I'm 33 and my memory extends back to '86 (I can remember most of the games from that season, including the upset playoff win @Chicago).

I feel sorry for people who weren't able to experience that period--not just for the Redskins, either, but as a general football fan. The NFL was so much fun back then. As others have mentioned, the same players stuck with teams forever. CBS was absolutely amazing when it covered the NFC, from those epic openings to Irv Cross and a sober Brent M. to Pat S. and John Madden calling the biggest game of the week. The vibe was very much like "college" in the NFC East, like the SEC or something, stud coaches across the board, rabid fans, unique venues (the Vet, w/ a damn jailhouse inside it and that awful surface, Giants Stadium with all sorts of trash blowing across the field, RFK, and Cowboy Stadium, which used to have all of those rain spots that never dried). Today, everything seems the sam--the stadiums, the fields, even uniform designs etc. Back then, teams and franchises had distinguishing features/traits/eccentricities that made the game fun.

One more thing: I really miss the days when the NFL opened on the same weekend as college football. Labor Day weekend meant opening day for both college and pro.

---------- Post added August-19th-2011 at 09:53 AM ----------

Famous Pots & Pan Theme....

[worstSeat]

Start of the season 1982, father asks me who is going to win the Super Bowl. As a fourth-grader, I say the Redskins. He tells his friends at work, and they get a kick out of it. No way the Skins win.

Four or five months later, guess what?

Losing the next year stinks, but wow, wouldn't I take a SB loss now. A few years later, ninth grade, they win again. It's nice to pick a winner, and to shut up all the fair weather 49er, Steeler, and Raider fans.

1991, first year of college, I've got a Skins helmet in the dorm room. Start of the second semester, and guess what? Doesn't hurt that my roommate was a Dolphins fan.

And the way they won was great. No trickery (well, not much). Good first down passing. Strong run right at-em ground game. Watching Riggins was probably the most fun. He just couldn't be stopped. It wasn't the greatest show on turf, where you'd score in a minute or two. It was pounding, clock-eating, physical domination. It was winning before the duh.

Look, this is the same feeling you get win you win your fantasy league, but so much less cheesy. Cheering for a team is a lot like playing in a well-covered keeper fantasy league. It's tough to pick a franchise that'll win the SB again and again as you grow older and allow you to continuously shut the mouths of all the guys who swap teams every few years to whoever is winning. It's nice to associate yourself with a winner, and to have some of the reputation of a winning tradition rub off on you, though it's not deserved (you're just a fan, after all).

Yeah, the last twenty years have mostly stunk. My expectations have finally sunk to the floor. Gibbs 2.0's playoff win, heck just making the playoffs twice, felt a little like old times. Now, winning as much as you lose and being close to the wild card race would be great. It's a sad, precipitous drop. That's not to say I didn't drop $20 on the Skins making the SB this year when I was in Vegas, just for fun, but that used to be my expectation, not a fantasy.

Ah, you poor, poor 20 somethings.

[polywog999]

It's not as great as wanting it....or thinking that it might be coming.

It's like revenge on the bully who used to shove you around, you end up being his friend more than any sort of perpetual euphoria from the act of conquest.