The Voice of Redskins Fan

I have lived in Northern Virginia since 1992, and in that time Washington has generally been terrible in all of the major professional sports. By any fair measure, the Redskins, the Wizards, and the Nationals have been some of the worst franchises in sports. But, for the most part, you would not know this fact from listening to D.C. sports radio or reading the Washington Post. Most of the sportswriters and commentators in this area come from other towns, and they don't really care whether the local teams win or not. Most of the coverage in town takes the tone of saying, well, they're doing their best and if they just had a little more luck . . . . maybe next year . . . . just be patient . . . . remember it's just a game . . . . they're showing signs of life. And, of course, the teams never get any better.

After awhile, you sort of grow numb to the whole thing. My kids, who all grew up here, think the whole notion of being a sports fan is sort of ludicrous -- why would you want to waste your time watching teams that never, ever compete for a championship? And, in fact, I spend a lot more time worrying about UK basketball than about all the D.C. teams put together.

But underneath it all, I do have a great deal of anger and frustration over the whole situation. Anger that my kids have never had the chance to see what a decent local team looks like. Frustration that people in the local media don't put more heat on the teams to improve their performance. (And yes, I'm talking to you, Andy Polley).

Anyway, on Monday night the Redskins hosted the Eagles in a must-win game for both teams. The Skins were 4-4; the Eagles were 5-3. It was a huge game -- but I didn't bother to watch, because I knew the Redskins were going to lose. And boy, did they lose -- they were down 0-28 at the end of the first quarter and lost 28-59. In fact, the loss was so bad that the usual happy mask in the local media cracked and for once, we got to hear the rage so many D.C. sports fans must feel. I really, really enjoyed listening to this.