TK Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=62008&ran=183781 The pleasure of not rooting for the Redskins The Virginian-Pilot © November 7, 2003 A dozen or so years ago, I watched a woman buy a Washington Redskins flyswatter cover. She was incredibly happy to have found it. Her husband had countless Redskins items, but none to cover a flyswatter. Last week, the husband’s beloved Skins lost their fourth football game in a row, despite a zillion promises by team owner Dan Snyder and the team’s $5 million-a-year coach Steve Spurrier that fan support would be rewarded with victories. I worry that the woman who bought the flyswatter cover and her husband are feeling down. I wonder who to blame for the team’s poor showing this year. All I know about the coach is what I deduced from a single joke: How are God and Steve Spurrier opposite? God doesn’t think he’s Steve Spurrier. The owner is young, filthy rich and quick to blame and fire coaches after his millions buy losses. Someone wrote that Snyder doesn’t believe he is God but does think he can hire and fire God. There are noble losses, after battles well fought, and ignoble losses, after repeated opportunities are botched. From what little I’ve read, Skins losses are of the ignoble variety, filled with, as one former quarterback put it, “fumbles and stumbles and bumbles.” If actors underperformed as badly, they’d forget their lines and miss their cues. The leading man, in a fit of confusion, would kiss the butler. This season feels particularly degrading for Redskins fans because the team started off winning but got progressively worse as the season dragged on. Now the team only loses. What I love most about the Redskins is that I don’t care whether they win or lose, or how. It feels so good not to care about the Redskins that I can’t understand why more Hampton Roads residents don’t follow my lead. Not rooting for the Skins feels like not dropping bowling balls on your toes. It feels like not getting your eyeballs tattooed. It feels like not telling your wife that she has put on pounds. If the Redskins played in Hampton Roads, I would feel obligated to mourn their many losses. They’d be my home team, win or lose. When the owner or coach or a player said anything, no matter how moronic, I’d listen intently and try to twist the remark into some form that made sense. I would read the weekly injury reports and wonder how the team’s many hurt players could ever be replaced. For me, the best thing about not being a Redskins fan is that it frees up time for naps. But anyone could find pleasure in not caring about the Redskins. The public ought to learn two important lessons from the Redskins’ hapless struggles. One, employees matter. Spurrier is halfway through his second seasons, longer than most coaches last under Snyder. He might soon be canned. And it won’t matter. We’ll still have the same owner hiring the same players, and they’ll lose. While it is true that you can have a bad company with good workers but bad management, it is equally true that a company, or team, cannot be good, no matter how wonderful management might be, without motivated good workers. Two, the world needs a pill to help fans not care about teams that ill deserve their support, such as the Redskins. I, for example, am a Chicago Cubs fan. They win one World Series every century, like clockwork. Two pills are needed, actually: one to make me not care about the Cubs, and another to make me resume caring should they play in another World Series before I die. A professional athlete once said, “Losing hurts worse than winning feels good.” As a Cubs’ fan, I cannot speak to the second half of that statement, but I can confirm that losing hurts. Hell is rooting for the Cubs any year and the Redskins lately. Reach Pat Lackey at 446-2251 or pat.lackey@pilotonline.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HapHaszard Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 I have tried not caring, say to myself, I won't read the articles in the Washington Post and Times. Redskins adiction is a hard adiction to overcome. Perhaps we need a support group, Redskins Recovery Group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fansince62 Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 I've contributed my share of criticisms - early on, before the losing streak when you could see the weaknesses for what they were - but must confess that this kind of *rap is tiresome. the writer has nothing to say - just filling space to make a deadline. didn't think I'ld get to this point, but the Panglosses on this board are right: it's time to circle the wagons and pull for the Skins. Eff everyone else....(and maybe the front office!)...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyDave Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 Poor guy is a wilbon clone Hampton roads will always be redskins country Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sisko Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 He might soon be canned. And it won’t matter. We’ll still have the same owner hiring the same players, and they’ll lose. The truth hurts. Sigh I have a sick little secret that I've harbored for some time that I think may be, in part, the cause for all our woes. Back when we were still coached by "The Man" there were times when I actually got bored with the Skins because more often than not, we could be assured a victory in most of our games. At the time, I remember thinking things along the lines of the only excitement would be how many points we won by. It kind of reminds me of an ancient Chinese curse. "May you live in interesting times". It actually sounds like a well wish....until you really give it some thought. What I wouldn't give for some of that good old Gibbs "boredom" now. Sigh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WallyG3 Posted November 7, 2003 Share Posted November 7, 2003 I have 2 problems with this article. 1. Someone who admitedly does not follow a team has absolutely no right to criticize that team. His opinion is by definition, ignorant. 2. A Cubs fan criticizing anyone for caring about a losing team is one of the most hypocritical things I have ever heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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