Erosion Of The Redskins Fanbase

[hatchetwound]

4 minutes ago, JSSkinz said:

Actually I think it was a Texas fan, Guice was smack talking during the LSU vs Texas game when it happened but regardless it should give the players pause when deciding to directly interact with fans.

 

 

Eh, I'll go with they were a fan of both.

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

I hate watch every Sunday because I love talking to you clowns here and on twitter 

 

that’s it

 

Other than that, I basically resent the franchise 

[Koolblue13]

1 hour ago, Lombardi's_kid_brother said:

I think the Skins were a unique situation for 40 years. DC was a pro football town in a non-football region. This isn't Rust Belt/Big 10 country or Texas. The Redskins were good to great for a long time in a major city with no baseball team, a mediocre pro basketball team - save a few years in the 70s - and a hockey team, which really doesn't count. DC Metro is still not a football area. Maryland and Virginia don't exactly garner huge ratings either.

 

20 years of Snyder plus a whole bunch of sports options have turned DC into LA - except LA actually likes football.

Go Mexico City Aztecs!

[fearlessNelms]

I remember vividly the day I became a Redskins fan. I was 6 years old and it was SB VII where the Skins lost to the Dolphins in what was the Dolphins undefeated season. i have an older brother- a Raider fan- that would harp on me to get a team. When I saw that uniform with that logo on the helmet and they were playing in the biggest game in football, I was sold. i'm 52 now and the Redskins have brought me a lot of joy and heartbreak. Much like I remember the day I became a Redskin fan, I remember the day my son became a fan. it was New Years Day 2006 and when Sean Taylor scooped up a loose ball and dove into the end zone to clinch the game against Philly to get us to the playoffs, I yelled "YEAH"!, jumping up off the couch, as my 6 year old son did the same.  

 

He's 20 now and his 3 favorite players in his first several years of being a fan were Sean Taylor, Santana Moss and Clinton Portis. When it came time for him to apply to colleges in 2016, living in upstate NY, he applied all over the Northeast and one down south, Maryland, because it was Redskins country. At the last minute he slipped one more in and that was the University of Miami. it is a great school and he thought how cool it would be to go to that football history rich University, were his first three favorite players went to school. He was accepted at The U and is now in his junior year there. 

 

Anyway, the point is is that we love the Skins! Being out of market, I had to go to bars to watch Redskins games until 2003. That's when i bought a dish so I could watch every game at home. And ya know what? I don't miss a game no matter what! I get as aggravated as anybody during the games, but it's just a part of my Sunday's from September through at least the holidays and I look forward to it every week. Obviously, I look forward to the games more when we're at least competitive and the season is alive, but i still watch nonetheless. Honestly, as much as I long for the Redskins' glory days, i really want it more for my son at this point. For the people that are throwing in the towel and taking your Sunday's back, I can't say that I blame you. But for me, I will continue to watch and torture myself. I'll take my Sunday's back when the Skins' season is over and have them through Labor Day.

[The Consigliere]

10 minutes ago, BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 said:

I hate watch every Sunday because I love talking to you clowns here and on twitter 

 

that’s it

 

Other than that, I basically resent the franchise 

I stopped watching entirely a few years ago. Only so much football I can watch w/a 3 year old and a wife who hates my sports obsessions, and especially the cursed DC sports teams I follow and the misery they infect me with. 

 

For whatever reason, whatever didn't strike me down from 1993-2003, finally started leaving it's mark after the McCloughan firing and character assasination. It had started long before that, but that was the last straw for me. I grew to loathe the F.O. during the Cerrato years and couldn't imagine it getting worse, but it did, in a way (I think the scouting department is much better, but that Allen is flat out an evil cancer), and today I just don't care at all on sunday beyond seeing prospect development. I love eating my words on McLaurin, doesn't change my philosophy, I just view him like the other 5 or 6 top 40 WR's who didn't have an early breakout, and didn't have nice market share #'s, he's an outlier, and it's kind of funny to have finally drafted a quality WR, and done so by doing it completely wrong, but hitting on it anyway. 

 

Anyway, back on topic, I don't care beyond team building, and there's only so much we can do w/team building so long is Snyder is alive. Unless he dies on us, the franchise will only succeed in spite of him, not due to anything he's done, or any clever long term strategy he's applied. He's a clueless self-aggrandizing moron, and will continue to be, putting boot licking, and quick fixes ahead of sound, smart team building strategies. 

 

The other thing that needs to be mentioned is how much we have in common with the Bucs/Saints/Falcons/Bills/Colts teams of my youth (Born in December '74, first football games I remember are circa 1980, first redskins game I remember was the loss to the local Niners in '81). Back in the eighties, the Bucs, Lions, Saints, Bills, Falcons, and Colts were sucking for decades plural. That's what the redskins are. They haven't been a team that inspired fear in closer to thirty rather than 20 years. Instead we're like the Lions, Saints, Falcons, and Colts teams that would be bottom 5-10 in the league for 4 years, and toss in one odd ball playoff run before falling apart again for another half decade. We've literally been doing that nonstop since 1993. 4-5 years bad, followed by the periodic good w/the only exception being Gibbs II.

Playoff years in Bold

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

 

That kind of cements how bad it's been right? Especially when you note that the team failed to win playoff game in 3 of those 5 appearances. We basically are the Detroit Lions of the 1980's and 1990's. 

 

No player in the league remembers when we were anything other than garbage unless said player is at least around 40 years old. That's sad. 

[Malapropismic Depository]

We basically don't have any home games ever, considering we can't get enough fans to off-set the noise of the opposing fans.

It's really sad when the other teams scores and you hear mostly cheers, and you're in your home stadium.

[HouseBowlrz]

5 hours ago, ntotoro said:

This has gone beyond my desire to watch this team and is affecting my desire to watch any kind of football, period.

Nick ... this is my second year sans season tickets.  It was borne out of necessity (notification of contract ending and RIF notice two weeks before 2018 invoice due); given the chance to renew the same seats a month after aligning with a new contract (three months past the original deadline), I took a pass and did not watch a single game last season (and continuing into this season) for reasons inappropriate to discuss in this thread.

 

I do miss the folks at the ES tailgate in RedZone but remain satisfied with the decisions I've made ...

[Rex Tomb]

6 hours ago, Busch1724 said:

Been saying it for a couple of years, but the apathy is there. Apathy takes decades to overcome. 

Meh, look at the Patriots... no one was proud to call themselves a Pats fan until 2001.  It didn't take decades, it took a year.

1 hour ago, Malapropismic Depository said:

We basically don't have any home games ever, considering we can't get enough fans to off-set the noise of the opposing fans.

It's really sad when the other teams scores and you hear mostly cheers, and you're in your home stadium.

That's the really striking thing to me about the last 2 seasons.  Home games may as well be a neutral site.

[Burgold]

I came from a non sports family, but when I was in elementary school the Redskins were just beginning to become good and Dallas was the big bully on the block. I became a Redskins fan in part because of the obnoxious kids who weren't smart enough to know that you root for the home team.

 

Luckily, we became great almost immediately and stayed there until I was about twenty. Those who were bred into the Redskins family or came to it as I did because of regional loyalty have my respect. You have stayed a fan with almost no payoffs. The inducements to cheer for this team are few. Somehow, we are not lovable losers like the cubs were for ninety years or the Browns have been for my entire lifetime. 

The Gibbs teams were incredibly easy to support not only because they were winning but because the coaches, players, GM were all cool. Jack Kent Cooke was a bit of an ass, but in a loving curmudgeon-Thurston-Howell-the Third kind of way.

 

In any case, I hope all of us have reason to rally and cheer soon.  We don't have many malcontents or criminals on the roster right now. No dirty players. Jay is a lovable, clueless doofus... sort of the NFL's version of Winnie the Pooh, but without the common sense and far too many scars from bee stings. Bruce Allen is Darth Vader though which means he could possibly be redeemed if only his son would whop off his hand and he gets hit repeatedly by lightning. It could happen to Bruce. One can hope.

 

I won't bother talking about Snyder, I have more sympathy for him than most. Perhaps that's because I view him as Gollum, a being corrupted by greed and the desire to possess that one football ring forever being kept out of his reach. Frodo had sympathy for Snyder. You should, too. Don't be a Sam...

 

Wait a minute? Sam was the hero who brought the world to rights. Damn it! Be Sam. We must all be Sam! We need more Sams on this team. At least give us a damn Legolas and Gimli! Enough with these stupid Treants who think it takes a decade to rebuild a team. Gah!

 

(That was fun. :nerd: )

[daveakl]

My wife is(was?) a diehard Steelers fan (from Pittsburgh), we met playing flag football, had our teams championship game ball signed by everyone at our wedding, and our 4 kids have grown up with football on tv every Sunday for the past 11 years...but...over the past three years both of our passion for the game has diminished.  It's been a combination of things.

 

1) The injuries have changed the game. The players are to big and to fast for the current rules/field size/game. Its changed from coaching and scheming to a war of attrition. The healthier team is going to win. Especially when the injuries are at key positions. 

 

2) The rules dont make sense anymore. I used to know what a catch was, what interference was, when the ball should be blown dead, or when a play would be overturned. Now I dont. Calls are missed, made up, blundered. Every play I'm expecting a flag.

 

3) The game day experience in the stadium isnt for us anymore. Like I said, we have kids. We have gone to 2 games with them but will not anymore. The things that they see/hear in the stands make it just an awful time. We go to about 20 hockey games a year now and it's so much more family friendly. 

 

(As a caveat to #3. The training camp in Richmond has been amazing. My kids (and myself) love going and they ask every summer how many days until we go. THIS is something the Redskins to very very well.

[clskinsfan]

1 hour ago, Malapropismic Depository said:

We basically don't have any home games ever, considering we can't get enough fans to off-set the noise of the opposing fans.

It's really sad when the other teams scores and you hear mostly cheers, and you're in your home stadium.

thing is if you win and have an exiting young player you can change all of that. Think about the atmosphere in 2012. It was excellent.

[alwaysaskin]

I feel like the Redskins are a partner that gained 350 pounds, blew through my credit cards and only wants to watch the Gilmore Girls on Date Night. I watch but at this point it’s a hate-watch. I hate 3’6” Caligula, Drunk Bruce, and the fat stupid Gruden. The last excitement I felt was 2012. 

 

Honestly, I’ve kind of been cheating with the Rams since they moved back to LA. I almost wish I could make a full break up with the team, but I seem to trudge through out of a sense of duty. I no longer feel the need to defend the team and many of the homers annoy me more than the haters. There’s no change coming. This team is the living embodiment of time is a flat circle

[Spaceman Spiff]

I wouldn't know what else to do on Sunday afternoons.  I can't imagine not watching the Skins unless there's something else going on.  And if that, checking the score.

 

I feel like surviving this...whatever we're in...is a badge of honor.  If we ever get back to winning, it'll be really sweet.  I don't want to be the guy that stopped paying attention to the team that got bad, then come running back when they got good again.  

[SkinsHokieFan]

57k for the season opener last year vs Indy, a week after a terrific performance in AZ

 

If the Redskins opened up at home vs the Dolphins, it would have been the same pathetic crowd

 

The franchise is dead until Dan sells or Haskins turns out to be a miracle that can mask the BS in Ashburn 

3 hours ago, Lombardi's_kid_brother said:

 

I feel like Snyder has been catering to a rich old white fan base for 20 years. That's the type of fan that feels good about itself when you have the grandson of a Navajo code-breaker as an honorary captain or whatever BS he does.

 

And that has gotten him a 3/4 full stadium and low tv ratings. Because 1. That fan base is literally dying, and 2. Eventually, they are going to stop dragging their 60 year old bodies into that stadium to watch the team lose by 17 to Dallas.

 

He needs to replace his fanbase with younger fans. I mean, the Sports Junkies and their fans are all approaching 50.

 

I'm not even sure a winning season or two fixes things at this point.

 

Under Dan the only that fixes it is fin haskins becomes Tom Brady 

 

The fan base loathes this ownership, but are essentially tired of talking about him. And now FireBruce fatigue has set in. 

 

The Haskins stuff was barely a blip in April. If you walked down 15th street at 2 PM on a Wednesday afternoon, would more then 1 in 10 know who Dwayne Haskins is? 

[FuriousD]

I haven't been all-in on this team since 2012 and RGIII.  The aftermath of that draft pick and following Shanahan dumpster fire, Smac debacle, Cousins mismanagement, and the endless mediocrity have all diluted the remaining energy I have.  And the injuries as well... The shattered legs, torn-up knees, concussions and the whole CTE thing is very disturbing.  Never used to bother me but I guess I'm getting old.

[Alexa]

Snyder I feel may pick up and move the team one day. He's disliked here. I don't think he has an option right now for a new stadium. Plus this fanbase is dead. The Haskins pick was part need, part business. He needed to get the fans back like they were in 2012.  That would truly be a sad day. 

[ThomasRoane]

3 hours ago, Lombardi's_kid_brother said:

 

I feel like Snyder has been catering to a rich old white fan base for 20 years. That's the type of fan that feels good about itself when you have the grandson of a Navajo code-breaker as an honorary captain or whatever BS he does.

 

And that has gotten him a 3/4 full stadium and low tv ratings. Because 1. That fan base is literally dying, and 2. Eventually, they are going to stop dragging their 60 year old bodies into that stadium to watch the team lose by 17 to Dallas.

 

He needs to replace his fanbase with younger fans. I mean, the Sports Junkies and their fans are all approaching 50.

 

I'm not even sure a winning season or two fixes things at this point.

 

Winning fixes everything!  But we don't even have to win a lot.  Just be in every game and the fans will come back.  There are a lot of Va fans who would drive up for several games a year and playoffs in the past because we felt like we could at least be competitive.  If I thought the team was moving in the right direction I'd be showing up even if we weren't winning playoff games.  Unfortunately, it feels like they're just spinning their wheels.  The Dan Snyder malaise is a powerful disease that sucks the hope right out of you.  

[profusion]

1 hour ago, daveakl said:

1) The injuries have changed the game. The players are to big and to fast for the current rules/field size/game. Its changed from coaching and scheming to a war of attrition. The healthier team is going to win. Especially when the injuries are at key positions. 

 

2) The rules dont make sense anymore. I used to know what a catch was, what interference was, when the ball should be blown dead, or when a play would be overturned. Now I dont. Calls are missed, made up, blundered. Every play I'm expecting a flag.

 

3) The game day experience in the stadium isnt for us anymore. Like I said, we have kids. We have gone to 2 games with them but will not anymore. The things that they see/hear in the stands make it just an awful time. We go to about 20 hockey games a year now and it's so much more family friendly. 

 

These are all great points.

 

--It does seem like the number of serious injuries has increased in recent years. I'm not talking about the CTE stuff (which has really only been fully understood recently), but the constant parade of ligament injuries and even broken limbs. I think you've hit on it--today's players are so much bigger and faster than their predecessors, that the collisions are more severe and the stress on their bodies from just regular athletic moves is greater. Remember, RGIII's last injury here in Washington was non-contact. His body went one direction, his foot stayed where it was, and the ankle just said "that's it, I've had enough!"

 

--The mushy rules and interpretations (especially pass interference) and the micro-review of every call has sapped a lot of joy out the game for me, too.

 

--I've never experienced any problems at FedEx Field when I've gone there, but horror stories abound. I'll never understand paying through the nose for tickets and parking, only to get so hosed during the tailgate that you behave like a jerk and can't even remember the game. Might as well just buy a couple twelve-packs and get blitzed at home while saving money.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

1 hour ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

I feel like surviving this...whatever we're in...is a badge of honor.  If we ever get back to winning, it'll be really sweet.  I don't want to be the guy that stopped paying attention to the team that got bad, then come running back when they got good again.  

That’s the thing though, and I feel like I’m speaking for a-lot of the negative and critical folks here...we want to like them. Desperately.  

[Mr. Sinister]

1 hour ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

I wouldn't know what else to do on Sunday afternoons.  I can't imagine not watching the Skins unless there's something else going on.  And if that, checking the score.

 

I feel like surviving this...whatever we're in...is a badge of honor.  If we ever get back to winning, it'll be really sweet.  I don't want to be the guy that stopped paying attention to the team that got bad, then come running back when they got good again.  

 

They've been garbage for 25 years.  We are one of the very few teams to not have gone to at least a conference championship in that span, and among even fewer teams to not have won more than 10 games (pretty sure even the goddamn Browns have done that)

 

We all deserve attaboys for putting up with this crap

[Taylor 36]

I was at the game yesterday, and the amount of Cowboys fans there was beyond ridiculous.  That never would have happened in the Gibbs' years.  Even Gibbs II.  It felt like a road game.

[stoshuaj]

Guice has too much time on his hands and should get off social media other then friends/family.  It’s a cesspool and if he tries to tackle it, his head will explode.

 

I know the gameday experience can be a bit much for younger kids but I saw only a handful (if that when I really think about it but don’t want to exaggerate) of Redskins fans between what I would guess to be 12-21.  The Redskins core fan base is just like the church, older and dying off.

[c slag]

I still attend about 3 or 4 games a season, Baltimore Ravens would be a closer driving distance, however they weren't around during my childhood years and Gibbs I and all the division titles and Super Bowl appearances were 

[skins4eva]

This is a depressing thread but an important one as well. I didn’t come from a family that watched much sports. But as a young kid, I used to have my mom buy me those mini football helmets for a quarter at the grocery store. I would bring them home, line them up and play for hours. Having moved from Boston to northern VA at a young age, my first team was the patriots. I remember watching the 85 super bowl against the bears (the patriots got destroyed) and crying when they lost. I was five. My mom suggested that maybe I should root for the home team and that the redskins seemed good and we could watch them every Sunday. I’ve been a fan ever since. I’ve wanted to walk away and do something else with my Sundays for years. But the sad truth is that when Sunday rolls around, I get the same kind of nervous energy I used to get as a kid, and I always hold out some small sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, this Sunday will be different.

 

The adult in me with my own kids and work a commute, a wife and a mortgage knows it will never be different under Snyder. He’s a bad owner. He’s a troubled soul. I actually think he has serious anxiety and mental health issues and feel bad for him. But clearly, after two decades of incompetence, he’s not capable of change.  And we all need to mourn the loss of the owner and the team we wish we had and realize that a few pockets of semi-respectability are all we are going to get for the next 30 maybe 40 years. 

But the kid in me...that small kid still

wakes up every Sunday morning during football season and thinks this time, this time it’s gonna be different...

[hail2skins]

2 hours ago, ThomasRoane said:

 

Winning fixes everything!  But we don't even have to win a lot.  Just be in every game and the fans will come back.  There are a lot of Va fans who would drive up for several games a year and playoffs in the past because we felt like we could at least be competitive.  If I thought the team was moving in the right direction I'd be showing up even if we weren't winning playoff games.  Unfortunately, it feels like they're just spinning their wheels.  The Dan Snyder malaise is a powerful disease that sucks the hope right out of you.  

The team was 6-3 last season playing the Texans and the club and upper levels were half full. So much for the "winning" theory.