Death of a Fanbase

[spjunkies]

I've been away most of the day, anyone else get arrested or anything today?

[hail2skins]

6 minutes ago, kleese said:

But ZERO playoff appearances between 1999-2017. Heck, we won two division titles and made it as a WC twice over same span. 

Yeah, if you go from 2000-2018, the winning percentages of the Skins and Bills are pretty much equal. The diverging starts with 2019, when one teams drafted QB started coming into his own, while the other team rolled with Dwayne Haskins.

 

And yeah, the Lions have definitely sucked. I was amazed to see that the Jags have matched the winless streak the Lions had in 2008 and 2009....which team did Detroit beat to end that 😀

Edited October 12, 2021 by hail2skins

[kleese]

9 minutes ago, hail2skins said:

Yeah, if you go from 2000-2018, the winning percentages of the Skins and Bills are pretty much equal. The diverging starts with 2019, when one teams drafted QB started coming into his own, while the other team rolled with Dwayne Haskins.

 

And yeah, the Lions have definitely sucked. I was amazed to see that the Jags have matched the winless streak the Lions had in 2008 and 2009....which team did Detroit beat to end that 😀

I was 100% sure we were gonna lose that game. I remember really rooting for the Lions the week prior. 

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

9 minutes ago, spjunkies said:

I've been away most of the day, anyone else get arrested or anything today?

No but it’s a day that ends in Y so we gotta have some type of off the field bull****. At least this guy don’t work here anymore. 
 

Story is about Jon Gruden but of course it came from our investigation 

 

[FLAIR2000]

8 minutes ago, BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 said:

No but it’s a day that ends in Y so we gotta have some type of off the field bull****. At least this guy don’t work here anymore. 
 

Story is about Jon Gruden but of course it came from our investigation 

 

As I was reading your post I got an alert on my phone about this.  Figures WFT would be part of the scandal of the day. 

[SkipJackSkin]

Ok, with the Gruden news breaking, I am fairly convinced there MUST be some terrible emails sent by Dan. Any whistleblowers out there?!

Edited October 12, 2021 by SkipJackSkin

[ananoman]

1 hour ago, hail2skins said:

Yeah, if you go from 2000-2018, the winning percentages of the Skins and Bills are pretty much equal. The diverging starts with 2019, when one teams drafted QB started coming into his own, while the other team rolled with Dwayne Haskins.

 

And yeah, the Lions have definitely sucked. I was amazed to see that the Jags have matched the winless streak the Lions had in 2008 and 2009....which team did Detroit beat to end that 😀

The fact that we are debating over which team sucked less over the past 20 years, the Bills, the WFT, Browns, Lions , or Jags  is just sad.

[BleedBNG]

1 hour ago, SkipJackSkin said:

Ok, with the Gruden news breaking, I am fairly convinced there MUST be some terrible emails sent by Dan. Any whistleblowers out there?!

 

NFL...please check DANIEL SNYDER'S emails with BRUCE ALLEN EXPEDITIOUSLY!

[tmandoug1]

And yet here we are...year after year. I will watch this team until my last breath. 1972 - 20--. May I rest in peace having watched all of their Superbowls. You guys head on out.....I will crack a beer everytime they play and scream or laugh every year. Be safe. 

[RichmondRedskin88]

You know I wouldn’t be surprised if Dan was clueless.  That’s not protecting him.  I think he might actually be that clueless he didn’t know it was going on.  I’m sure other people in the NFL are involved in this and you can’t convince me people didn’t know Gruden’s views.  Word spreads in the NFL.  Gruden was the obvious fall guy in this but 100% there’s others involved and might be deleting stuff as we speak. 

[petey hodge]

So, I'm watching the MNF game of the Ravens vs Colts...

Noticing that their stadium is at full capacity.

 

Now, how'd they pull this off when we are limited with covid attendance restrictions preventing more fans from entering FedEx Field? 

Aren't we in the state of Maryland too?

 

This is not fair.... It's not equitable.  LOL

[Warhead36]

We don't even play the same sport as the Ravens. They've got like thirty guys on IR and are still 4-1.

[skinsdude]

5 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

We don't even play the same sport as the Ravens. They've got like thirty guys on IR and are still 4-1.

We don't have the luck that the Ravens have. That would help. 

[BleedBNG]

45 minutes ago, RichmondRedskin88 said:

Gruden was the obvious fall guy in this but 100% there’s others involved and might be deleting stuff as we speak. 

 

 

 

[BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93]

8 minutes ago, skinsdude said:

We don't have the luck that the Ravens have. That would help. 

20+ years of luck seems like a fun time. 

14 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

We don't even play the same sport as the Ravens. They've got like thirty guys on IR and are still 4-1.

They could line up 5 fans at OL and 3 high schoolers on defense and still win 11 games. I hate that franchise solely out of childish envy 

[Boss_Hogg]

We are the antithesis of the Ravens. 

 

I used to get mad at fans for abandoning Washington for Balmer but now I couldn't care less. You want to switch? Do it. You have suffered long enough. There is no hope here. 

 

I will die a Washington Fan. My tome stone gonna say **** Dan Snyder 

[BleedBNG]

Ravens luck in 2 words

 

Newsome

DeCosta

[kleese]

54 minutes ago, RichmondRedskin88 said:

You know I wouldn’t be surprised if Dan was clueless.  That’s not protecting him.  I think he might actually be that clueless he didn’t know it was going on.  I’m sure other people in the NFL are involved in this and you can’t convince me people didn’t know Gruden’s views.  Word spreads in the NFL.  Gruden was the obvious fall guy in this but 100% there’s others involved and might be deleting stuff as we speak. 

This. 
 

Maybe someday I’ll be proven wrong, but my armchair shrink analysis of Snyder has always been this— he is more oblivious than nefarious. 

In the most basic terms, I’ve always felt he was the nerd in school who desperately wanted to sit with the jocks. He didn’t even necessarily need to be the star of the team— just invited to the parties and accepted by the group. 
 

I essentially think that’s what he’s done as owner here. He’s a fan and he wants to be included at the table. In his early years he was probably more petulant and childish when he didn’t get his way and has since become reclusive. 
 
I believe he is a poor judge of character and has no management/leadership skills. Things aren’t so bad if he has someone like Joe Gibbs around who can do the leading and is respected enough by Snyder to stay back. I think it’s similar with Rivera. But when he attaches to a sidekick like Vinny or Bruce, Dan is easily led into the dark. I firmly believe the majority of the the ugly behavior was happening without Dan having any real grasp of what was going on— now, he SHOULD have, but I don’t think he did. I don’t think he reads the room well at all and sounds like he’s pretty selective about which rooms he enters anyway. 
 

The women that came forward… none really called him out specifically— more of the lack of oversight stuff. There are a LOT of people that want to bury Snyder. A LOT. I believe if there was a smoking gun out there, it likely would have been revealed by now. Truth is, he’s probably just really, really bad at this job. But probably not doing anything that technically warrants removal. 

[JesseNeckred]

In spite of everything, consistent winning would fix it all.  Until that happens, it'll continue on the same route.

[Ghost of]

On 10/10/2021 at 6:11 PM, BRAVEONTHEWARPATH93 said:

It’s been a long time since I’ve made a thread here. I mean I probably was in college. I’m 28 now. Been coming to this site since I was 16. I love it. I love you guys. I love this franchise. I tried to quit but I can’t. 
 

I think we’ve all noticed that things are different (not on the field of course) within the fanbase. There’s not nearly as many people posting here as there were in 2009. I’m sure if you live locally you’ve noticed that the team has zero buzz. The best example I can give is back in 2019 when Haskins was drafted. A new young QB from Ohio State? City must be abuzz right? I don’t think he was ever in the top 5 most popular athletes in the city. That’s just unheard of in the NFL and in a historic franchise. Clearly , 30 years of suck has broken the fanbase. So this stuff isn’t new. 
 

Fast forward today and it’s just jarring. My uncles and grandfather have all given up their tickets and it wasn’t due to finances. The experience is just so pathetic now. 
 

 

I’ll leave with this tweet from Steve Czaban. It truly feels like the end times and I’m not sure how hyperbolic that really is. 
 

That tweet really gets at it. For me, I had stopped watching every sport years ago, I just find that my objections about what sports does, how it distracts, who plays it, coaches it---these aren't really individuals I would want my son to emulate other than physical courage (now that I have one.) The crass commercialism, dilution of the experience, Thursday night games, the politicization of my favorite sport, the constant need that even I would feel to be an apologist for this or that retrograde moron because they were paid millions of dollars to put on my particular corporate product's jersey (or hat like Gruden), and ironically, watching this team under Gruden was the last straw. I have never felt my interest in the team to be so futile, I really think years from now we will see how Gruden was the last coach of the Redskins and a franchise-killer. 

 

I simply had better things to do. Now that I have a family, my weekends are spent doing chores or going on walks or talking to family. It's fun to watch some highlights or hear a score but that's about it. I have tried to re-engage and I can sort of do it every so often but now I finally relate to those oldheads years ago, the ones who used to talk about not watching Sundays anymore (and this is back when we had some reason to feel our delusions made sense about a redemption of the Washington football brand.)  Now, true, I'm not the best example because I feel this way about all sports, not just professional but college too. But it all started with the first few weeks I slept through Washington games and didn't care that much that I missed them. This is about more than Snyder or even losing. Something special has been lost. Going with my grandfather who was proud of his season tickets, seeing Chief Zee, hearing the band, feeling the stadium rock, the smell of hot dogs and peanuts, in the air at RFK, the last gasp of American innocence in the 80s and early 90s, the feeling that the football team wasn't merely an organ of a massive corporate trust, an enjoyable Super Bowl experience that catered to actual football fans, a sense of loyalty (even if forced through restrictions on free agency) and continuity, NFL Films on the weekends before games---it's gone.  Maybe one day it'll come back but I don't think I'll be young enough to really enjoy it.

To quote Dillon (Carl Weathers) from Predator: I woke up, why don't you?

[hail2skins]

Ghost, nice to hear from you. I couldn't agree more with what you said. Its tough to not maintain some interest in a team that you've followed for close to 50 years and I watch on Sundays strictly out of habit, but, as with all sports, I'm emotionally checked out.

 

Hope all is well!

[Ghost of]

My son is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. Everything is good and I feel...freer by not being so invested.  I'm anxious about my family and our well-being, who has time to get wrapped up in outcomes you can't control? Hell, I have more fun playing computer games these days.  Sports is still fun, but it's best not to treat it like the fate of your people is at stake.  I had it wrong all those years (though I also wouldn't trade away my childhood love of sports.) 

 

People may think of sports (as in playing) as a young man's game, but so is being a fan.

[Franklin60]

4 hours ago, kleese said:

 
If the Lions haven’t sucked for 70 years, then no one has. They have ONE playoff win in approx 50 years. 
 

1958-2020: One playoff win. One. 

Yup. The common retort is that they have had more stadiums over that period of time than they have had playoff victories.

[abdcskins]

Wow, I knew the Lions were horrible, but geez I was not aware of that stat.  Makes you wonder how they are able to keep a team in Detroit.  

[profusion]

6 hours ago, Ghost of Nibbs McPimpin said:

That tweet really gets at it. For me, I had stopped watching every sport years ago, I just find that my objections about what sports does, how it distracts, who plays it, coaches it---these aren't really individuals I would want my son to emulate other than physical courage (now that I have one.) The crass commercialism, dilution of the experience, Thursday night games, the politicization of my favorite sport, the constant need that even I would feel to be an apologist for this or that retrograde moron because they were paid millions of dollars to put on my particular corporate product's jersey (or hat like Gruden), and ironically, watching this team under Gruden was the last straw. I have never felt my interest in the team to be so futile, I really think years from now we will see how Gruden was the last coach of the Redskins and a franchise-killer. 

 

I simply had better things to do. Now that I have a family, my weekends are spent doing chores or going on walks or talking to family. It's fun to watch some highlights or hear a score but that's about it. I have tried to re-engage and I can sort of do it every so often but now I finally relate to those oldheads years ago, the ones who used to talk about not watching Sundays anymore (and this is back when we had some reason to feel our delusions made sense about a redemption of the Washington football brand.)  Now, true, I'm not the best example because I feel this way about all sports, not just professional but college too. But it all started with the first few weeks I slept through Washington games and didn't care that much that I missed them. This is about more than Snyder or even losing. Something special has been lost. Going with my grandfather who was proud of his season tickets, seeing Chief Zee, hearing the band, feeling the stadium rock, the smell of hot dogs and peanuts, in the air at RFK, the last gasp of American innocence in the 80s and early 90s, the feeling that the football team wasn't merely an organ of a massive corporate trust, an enjoyable Super Bowl experience that catered to actual football fans, a sense of loyalty (even if forced through restrictions on free agency) and continuity, NFL Films on the weekends before games---it's gone.  Maybe one day it'll come back but I don't think I'll be young enough to really enjoy it.

To quote Dillon (Carl Weathers) from Predator: I woke up, why don't you?

 

I'm not that far off from your situation, and though I'm still watching the games on TV I'm starting to drift. For example, I didn't watch the WFT game on Thursday night a couple weeks ago because I get up really early for work on Fridays and just didn't want to be tired all day. That's not the choice I would have made a decade ago.

 

I completely agree about the league as a whole losing a lot of its charm. The gaudy stadiums and TV presentations, expensive tickets and merch, ticky-tack penalties and constantly shifting definitions of what constitutes a "catch" or "pass interference", spoiled-brat multi-millionaire players, etc. etc. etc. It's become a difficult league to love. Still a tough sport played by tough guys, but a lot less relatable than it used to be. 

 

And sure, some of it's me. Even with the changes in the game, football games all start to look familiar after you've been watching for enough decades. I never played the sport at an organized level, so I don't know all the nuances that can keep the hardcore guys invested in every detail.