Just Had “The Talk” With My Son

[kleese]

A little ironic perhaps, but tonight encapsulates why I still go through the routine and why I still enjoy it so much. 
 

This was a horrible football game— that much is indisputable. But my son and I talked about the game a little today, he was looking forward to watching it out on our deck and getting to stay up later than usual. All of my kids (even the 6 year old girl) think the “Left Hand Up” viral clip is hilarious (which it is). So they had some good laughs about that throughout the day. 
 

I sat out there with my son and we watched every play tonight. This was not a “jump out of your seat” game by any stretch, but it was still entertaining and we still wanted them to win. He seems to grasp the baseline of the Snyder situation and knows no one likes him and that it’s hard for others to function under him. But it doesn’t zap the enjoyment from the game itself from him in any way. The only time I got out of my chair tonight was when Slye lined up to kick the FG (I knew he’d miss) and then again before the 4th down play. It wasn’t so much because I wanted the joy of a win as much I wanted to avoid the abject humiliation of losing that game. Was also happy my son didn’t have to suffer through back to back losses on the last play in a five day span. I guess happy I didn’t have to either. He was definitely a little animated saying “no catch!” on the replays of that last play. 
 

Now, the football weekend is a little more enjoyable and it makes the GB game at least a bit more palatable. Most importantly, we had fun watching and rooting and mocking the game all at the same time. I can’t imagine missing out on that. 
 

At the end of the game, my son just said just said “Hey Dad, left hand up” and raised his left hand in a victory fist with a little grin on his face. 

Edited October 14, 2022 by kleese

[Cooleyfan1993]

Left hand up? What’s that mean? 

[hail2skins]

5 hours ago, Cooleyfan1993 said:

Left hand up? What’s that mean? 

Is this where it's from?

 

 

Ed, gotta say that as jaded as I am about the NFL, you relating about your experiences about watching with your kids is cool. It brings to mind Om talking about that aspect too way back in the day.

 

Just know it'll come full circle with the "**** yeah Dad!" call some day! 😀

[kleese]

2 hours ago, hail2skins said:

Is this where it's from?

 

 

Ed, gotta say that as jaded as I am about the NFL, you relating about your experiences about watching with your kids is cool. It brings to mind Om talking about that aspect too way back in the day.

 

Just know it'll come full circle with the "**** yeah Dad!" call some day! 😀

Yep, that’s the clip. Love it. It’s pretty funny on Twitter that the reply “Left Hand Up” to Tweets about Snyder etc is now commonplace. Social media is like 75% misery, but 25% is pretty clever and funny and that’s what keeps me there. 
 

It warms my heart that you remember the “F yeah Ma!” story. It still lives in lore within my friend group. As a matter of fact one of them sent me that exact text when we scored our TD last night. 
 

I hope no one feels I’m talking down to them or being judgmental about their “fandom” by expressing that I still enjoy it. I begrudge no one. And if someone says they no longer derive pleasure or fun from it, then I would absolutely advise to walk away. And of course I am not enjoying this season on the same level or enjoyed 1991– having a good team obviously matters to the fan experience. But if someone asks me “Do you still enjoy being a Washington fan?” I sort of cringe, raise my eyebrows a bit and mumble “yeah, I guess I really do.” 

[tshile]

My son listens to my podcasts sometimes to/from school or practice. 
 

hes 7. 
 

Over the course of the last 4 years he’s watched me turn into someone who speaks very poorly of a team he’s been told is my favorite. And it’s always sort of been a confusing situation. 
 

when the name change I had my version of a talk with him and it went like this (kind of paraphrasing):

I loved that team and it was a huge part of me, but the owner is a terrible person. He treats people terribly. He’s a bully. And I don’t like bullies. And I won’t be a fan again until he’s gone. 
 

so this afternoon he caught sheehan’s rant after the cooley film breakdown, where Sheehan said that plus a lot more including they can’t possibly be a winner on any level until he’s gone. 
 

When we got out of the truck my son was like “so they can’t win with that guy huh?” And he had no idea what was being talked about. 
 

we had a quick conversation like this:

remember when I told you <what I wrote above>? That’s who he’s talking about. Everyone thinks that about him. He’s an awful person and a bully. I won’t be a fan again until he’s gone. 
 

 

bullies and such are a huge conversation, weekly conversation, in school for first and second grader

 

he agreed and told me how bad it is to be a bully. 
 

when he’s older I’ll happily tell him the stories of how dreadful our teams have been over some beer. Swinging gate. Etc.  For now this is all that matters. 

[Cooleyfan1993]

Watched last nights game with my dad. We trashed the team the whole time they were playing bad. Let out a sigh of relief when we “won”, and both agreed the “win” doesn’t give us any confidence. That bonding during the away games is what keeps me being a fan I guess. And people on here (most people, with a few exceptions lol)

[FLAIR2000]

My son is 28 and has known nothing but losing football.  He used to tease me when he was little when the Skins would have one of their 4th quarter meltdowns and I was losing it.

 

I didn't want to have his first live NFL experience ruined, so I got tickets for a home game vs the Browns.  I figured that there weren't be many Browns fans there, and that the Skins would win.  We had a good time, but we barely won.  

[kleese]

50 minutes ago, tshile said:

My son listens to my podcasts sometimes to/from school or practice. 
 

hes 7. 
 

Over the course of the last 4 years he’s watched me turn into someone who speaks very poorly of a team he’s been told is my favorite. And it’s always sort of been a confusing situation. 
 

when the name change I had my version of a talk with him and it went like this (kind of paraphrasing):

I loved that team and it was a huge part of me, but the owner is a terrible person. He treats people terribly. He’s a bully. And I don’t like bullies. And I won’t be a fan again until he’s gone. 
 

so this afternoon he caught sheehan’s rant after the cooley film breakdown, where Sheehan said that plus a lot more including they can’t possibly be a winner on any level until he’s gone. 
 

When we got out of the truck my son was like “so they can’t win with that guy huh?” And he had no idea what was being talked about. 
 

we had a quick conversation like this:

remember when I told you <what I wrote above>? That’s who he’s talking about. Everyone thinks that about him. He’s an awful person and a bully. I won’t be a fan again until he’s gone. 
 

 

bullies and such are a huge conversation, weekly conversation, in school for first and second grader

 

he agreed and told me how bad it is to be a bully. 
 

when he’s older I’ll happily tell him the stories of how dreadful our teams have been over some beer. Swinging gate. Etc.  For now this is all that matters. 

The fact that he is a lousy person makes it worse, but I’ll be honest— that stuff doesn’t matter much to me in the long run. I don’t think JKC was any sort of Saint and there are plenty of stories about him that would likely get him cancelled today. 

I also want to be consistent with how I judge morality in general and I figure I’m trying this on an iPhone thst I choose to own knowing full well the CEOs and leaders of the companies that manufacture these products are quite possibly very bad people. 
 

Tyreke Hill had an amazing moment in an all-time great game last year that had fans across the world on their feet and cheering in amazement. He also once punched his pregnant girlfriend. 
 

End of the day, I don’t really know any of these people. I have no doubt some of them are terrible, some are likely decent people with flaws, and others are probably salt of the earth. I’m sure it runs the gamut just like all other aspects of society. 
 

I once had a convo with someone that knows a Redskins legend personally. He described him as “terrible” and went on to detail why. A little disappointing to hear perhaps, but it honestly didn’t change my feelings about said player at all— he was a football player and I am a football fan. For me, that is the extent of our “relationship” and what they do outside of the field is sort of neutral for me. 
 

My problem with Snyder is that he’s terrible at owning a football team. It’s quite likely that his personality and how he treats people is a big part of why— but the main thing for me is that he sucks at being an owner. 
 

If Snyder sold tomorrow there would be  immediate jubilation and rejuvenation for the fanbase. Wouldn’t matter who he sold to. Wouldn’t matter if the new guy/gal also had a shaky rep. That relief would carry the fans for awhile with the new owner regardless of results. But it would fade. If the new owner was a great person but also terrible at being an owner, the fans would turn on him too. If new Owner was a top notch human but went 5-12 for 7 straight years, the stadium would be full of opposing fans, we’d still be a punchline, and there would be constant calls for changes. 
 

In the end, it’s just about the winning and losing. Perhaps with Snyder, now that so much is out of the can, it will be impossible to put it back for him even if they do somehow manage to field a winner someday. But make no mistake, the new owner would ABSOLUTELY need to win in order for there to be any sort of true return of the fanbase. 

[tshile]

@kleese

I hear all that. I guess I just cashed out on the “he’s a terrible owner” thing years ago. I was willing to give him a break when he hired Shanahan. My god look where all those assistants are now. When it ended the way it did I was done. 
 

But I went into this mode when the cheerleader video thing dropped. The toxic workplace environment was just even more of a reason. 
 

I don’t really care about what’s fair. This is a special and specific circumstance. And he’s no longer just bad for the product on the field, he’s bad for everyone that works there. He’s bad for our community. Get him out of here, by any means necessary. 

[86 Snyder]

1 hour ago, kleese said:

The fact that he is a lousy person makes it worse, but I’ll be honest— that stuff doesn’t matter much to me in the long run. I don’t think JKC was any sort of Saint and there are plenty of stories about him that would likely get him cancelled today. 

I also want to be consistent with how I judge morality in general and I figure I’m trying this on an iPhone thst I choose to own knowing full well the CEOs and leaders of the companies that manufacture these products are quite possibly very bad people. 
 

Tyreke Hill had an amazing moment in an all-time great game last year that had fans across the world on their feet and cheering in amazement. He also once punched his pregnant girlfriend. 
 

End of the day, I don’t really know any of these people. I have no doubt some of them are terrible, some are likely decent people with flaws, and others are probably salt of the earth. I’m sure it runs the gamut just like all other aspects of society. 
 

I once had a convo with someone that knows a Redskins legend personally. He described him as “terrible” and went on to detail why. A little disappointing to hear perhaps, but it honestly didn’t change my feelings about said player at all— he was a football player and I am a football fan. For me, that is the extent of our “relationship” and what they do outside of the field is sort of neutral for me. 
 

My problem with Snyder is that he’s terrible at owning a football team. It’s quite likely that his personality and how he treats people is a big part of why— but the main thing for me is that he sucks at being an owner. 
 

If Snyder sold tomorrow there would be  immediate jubilation and rejuvenation for the fanbase. Wouldn’t matter who he sold to. Wouldn’t matter if the new guy/gal also had a shaky rep. That relief would carry the fans for awhile with the new owner regardless of results. But it would fade. If the new owner was a great person but also terrible at being an owner, the fans would turn on him too. If new Owner was a top notch human but went 5-12 for 7 straight years, the stadium would be full of opposing fans, we’d still be a punchline, and there would be constant calls for changes. 
 

In the end, it’s just about the winning and losing. Perhaps with Snyder, now that so much is out of the can, it will be impossible to put it back for him even if they do somehow manage to field a winner someday. But make no mistake, the new owner would ABSOLUTELY need to win in order for there to be any sort of true return of the fanbase. 

Bull ****ing ****.

[DiscoBob]

Welcome to the fandom... try not to become an alcoholic, cuz we suck and our owner is a douche

[Renegade7]

My Dad never gave me "the talk", no warning at all.

 

By 2001, he'd seen it could be bad in so many different ways. Ways I never will, like being last team to integrate.

 

The focus for us was always on our relationship and spending time with each other, win or lose, because he worked so much.  2001 was first season I committed to watching every game no matter what, asked him if he thought we'd be good. He shrugged his shoulders and first game we got blown out.

 

Idk, I guess growing up losing made the possibility of never winning easier to digest and no need to further prepare me for it.  When he gave his blessing to switch from Yankees to Nationals because DC finally had their own baseball team, he kinda told me without telling me he wasn't going to hold me back from making any other switches.

 

I'd love for my kids to only have to deal with possibility of jus being a bad football team instead of folks calling the name racist and an owner everybody hates and cant wait for him to leave.  No more congressional investogation, no more sexual harrassment scandals.  My Dad put me on to Extremeskins at 14, so at that point I was able to find out jus how bad it was on my own, I'll do something similar with mine.

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by Renegade7

[clskinsfan]

On 10/10/2022 at 9:42 PM, kleese said:

So we ride together I guess

I posted something similar in the gameday thread. My 21 YO son is a "Skins" fan. Because his daddy is a die hard fan. Although he sees my interest in this debacle decrease weekly. I honestly do not ever remember being as pissed as I was after a win as this past week. Just everything about this franchise enrages me at this point. Sad but true. But my boy stays with me. Dont know why exactly. Maybe because he was coached by his dad and doesnt want to disappoint him? He was a hell of an LB by the way. Maybe because of the fun times we have had together at games, family functions when the "Skins" play or maybe just because the DC region is home. He is in the Navy now and still talks to me every Monday about the game regardless of the outcome. I miss him incredibly. Maybe the lesson is that football bonds dads and sons as well anything else we do together and just gives us something to talk about weekly. And that is what I take away from it now. F this franchise. But my boy likes to talk about them so they are an entrenched part of our life. 

Edited October 16, 2022 by clskinsfan