Your Redskins Story

Om · Status: Offline

Your Redskins Story

MarkPSkins · Status: Offline

Born with B&G blood. Once had Gary Clark and his extremely hot GF in my backyard for a barbeque (hot GF worked with my wife). Also had Lorena Bobbit over (again, Wife's friend), not at the same time as Gary, but that's a story for another day.

Once met Mark Mosely in the MickeyDees in Rosslyn, I said hello as the young cashier was shouting, "it's Mark Mosely!, It's Mark Mosely! it's Mark Mosely!" much in the same way one might imagine Hattie McDaniel from Gone with the Wind would.

I had Joey T himself call me out in a crowd at the Byron Neslon Golf Tourny in TX as he was schlepping arthritis meds and he praised me for wearing my Skins hat in hostile country.

Most recently, I met Sir Joe Gibbs at a NASCAR event here in Texas. I was working as a food slave at the courtesy tents for a fundraiser for my daughter fastpitch softball team when he popped out from behind the Interstate tent where his entourage awaited for him. I told him I was a Skins fans and, being in Texas he kind of gave that "I feel for you" look. He offered me a autograph and of course I took it. I shook his hand while holding a tray of chicken sandwiches with one arm. Nice.

Oh, and my son went to Art Monk football camps for a few years back in the day and I actually had many normal convos with the big guy, not to mention a life-size image I got from a going out-of-business sports store he signed for me. HOF baby.

Other than that, I'm just your normal, loud, bitterly disappointed Redskins fan.

-- Edited by MarkPSkins on Thursday 26th of March 2009 12:04:20 PM

Jimbo · Status: Offline

Somewhere around 1966 I "discovered" the Washington Redskins. My Mom got my Dad season tickets for his 50th B-Day in 1965. In 1966, they added a third ticket. We still have three seats to this day.

My Dad would occasionally leave his game programs in the back seat of his car. Whenever we would go someplace in the car, I'd read through the program. I learned all the player's positions, stats, which college they went to and their faces. I even read the advertising for places like Tom Sarris' Orleans House, Routh Robbins Real Estate and Lustine Chevrolet. I came across one of those programs from 1966 a few months ago. It was from the final game of the season against the Eagles, a 7-7 tie.

Every Sunday, we would listen to the game on the radio. I don't recall if all the games were televised back then or not because we were always listening to Steve Gilmartin (play-by-play), Len Hathaway and Mal Campbell on WMAL. Maybe it's because my parents were from the radio era but the radio in the dining room was tuned to WMAL from the time my Mom and Dad got up in the morning until they went to bed at night.

In 1967, my Dad took me to my first game at RFK, it was still called D.C. Stadium back then. The Skins were playing the San Francisco 49ers. I didn't know what the hell a 49er was but I was just happy to be at a game. I had also seen my first baseball games, a double-header against the White Sox, that summer but the smells at a football game were different. The air was crisper, and the smell of popcorn was replaced by cigar smoke. There were more adults and less kids at a football game. It felt more special. I also noticed the stadium was a lot more packed and a LOT louder than at the baseball games. There seemed to be more camaraderie. We all seemed to be in this together. This was something I had never experienced before and I LIKED IT! The Skins came from behind to win the game 31-28 on a TD pass from Sonny Jurgensen to Jerry Smith and I was hooked.

I probably saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 games at D.C. Stadium/RFK and traveled to a couple Super Bowls. Yep, it's an addiction. One I don't ever want to cure.

-- Edited by Jimbo on Friday 27th of March 2009 01:30:32 AM

Hog Fever · Status: Offline

I've been a Skins fan for as long as I can remember. I remember George Allen being the coach but things get a little fuzzy past that. I'll throw out a couple of my earliest Skins' memories. I was born in 70' so most of my George Allen memories are second hand.

I remember begging my parents to stay up and watch the Skins play the Colts on Monday Night Football in 1978. The Skins lost.
I remember getting a Redskins dirt bike for Christmas in 79' or 80'. It came from Sears.
I remember telling my father at 10 years old that Jack Pardee just needed some more time and it was a mistake to fire him. My father wasn't buying it. See, I was a genius even then.
I remember my favorite book as a kid was one from our crappy school library called (I think) “Over the Hill to the Super Bowl” about the 1972 Super Bowl season by Brig Owens.

Years passed and through the ups and downs I've always been there. My 8 and 6 year olds had to take school pictures this week and my wife was having them go through their closet to pick out something to wear. They both wanted to wear their Redskins sweatshirts. Like father like sons.

stevenaa · Status: Offline

My fathers secretary and her husband had season tickets. Her husband was not in well enough health to attend cold weather games, so she invited me to go. I was 10-12 years old and had no real exposure to football. My father was not a sports fan at all.

I initially turn down the invite, but for some reason thought I made a huge mistake. Fortunately it was a mistake soon recitified and I was hooked. We sat low on the 40 yard line. I can still feel the pumping in my chest as the bleacher section bounced up and down. It was an incredible experience. I attended numerous games for several years. I get chills thinking about it.

-- Edited by stevenaa on Saturday 28th of March 2009 11:39:26 AM

B&G · Status: Offline

My Dad was a great and very knowledgeable NFL fan and taught me to enjoy the game. Up until the point Vince Lombardi left Green Bay and came to Washington (when I was about 16) my father and I rooted for Green Bay but after that we both became rabid Redskins fans.* Dad's gone now but I reared my son the right way and he lives and dies with our beloved Skins just as he should. We watch every game together and either my precious wife cooks us a wonderful dinner (ready just before kickoff) or I barbecue. Great times!

* In 1968 just shortly before it was announced that Mr. Lombardi was going to coach the Redskins, my Dad took me to a local DC forum to hear the famous coach speak. He was simply the most inspirational and motivational speaker I ever heard bar none and what he said that evening had a huge positive impact on my life. I remember and am guided by much of it even to this day.

Anyway, when he took over in Washington (1969), my entire family starting rooting for the Redskins so this is my 40th anniversary year as a fan. Just thinking back and sharing a little, remember how you felt when you heard Joe Gibbs was coming back to coach the Redskins? Well, double that and you will understand the excitement in Washington associated with Lombardi's hiring. The entire town went absolutely nuts!

Thanks for letting me wax nostalgic and bend your ears a little.

Read Lombardi's famous speech:

What It Takes To Be Number One

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their head. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization - an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win - to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don't think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there - to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules - but to win.

And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

I don't say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has to work his heart out in a good cause and he's exhausted on the field of battle - victorious."

-Vince Lombardi

-- Edited by B&G on Saturday 28th of March 2009 03:59:02 PM

Larry Brown #43 · Status: Offline

I was born and raised a Skins fan. My grandparents on my father's side were diehards, so I was exposed to the team at a very early age.

My earliest memories of really watching the games with interest was the '82 season, which ended magically. Back then, everyone in town was into the Skins. If you weren't, people assumed there was something wrong with you. I miss those days.

As the years have gone on, my interest in other teams in other sports has risen and fallen, but my obsession with the Skins just seems to grow every year. I can't explain it, nor can I fight it.

Cardas · Status: Offline

Born into it. As have my children and if I have any say... as will theirs.

It's just one of those things... like breathing. It's automatic.

WallyG3 · Status: Offline

My dad was a Colts fan, and so was I - until I was 6 and the bastards deserted me. The Colts that is, not Dad. We started watching the Skins instead, and a year or so later, the Hogs, the Diesel, a Superbowl win and the too cool Fun Bunch was way too much for a local boy like me to overlook. I was hooked and have been ever since.

Dan T. · Status: Offline

The leaves in the yard were defenders, and I was Charley Taylor dancing past them, ball in hand. The radio on the front porch was tuned to the game, because the NFL blacked out home games then, even though DC Stadium was sold out. That's my earliest memory, the onset of the affliction.

Midweek I would flip through the Washington Star, right to the sports page. I gave only a cursory glance at the standings, because there was rarely good news to be found there back then. I jumped quickly to the individual stats. The list of leading receivers was blanketed at the top with Redskins - Charley Taylor, Bobby Mitchell, Jerry Smith. And the red-head, Sonny Jugensen always among the top passers. Top Redskins rushers listed? Not so much. That would come a couple years later, when an unheralded college player named Larry Brown joined the team and ran with a reckless abandon I grew to love.

~

I grew up rooting for, frankly, a crappy team, but one that was oh so fun to watch, due largely to the swagger of Sonny J. and his prolific targets. But those years of mediocrity made the winning era that much sweeter. We had a taste of success when St. Vincent Lombardi came on for a tragically short span, then again when George Allen brought his Future Is Now philosophy to town. I was an adult when Coach Joe finally led us to the Promised Land that evening at the Rose Bowl against the Dolphins, and I cried like a baby when John Riggins casually flipped the ball to the referee after breaking off the greatest run in Redskins history to secure the Super Bowl win that night.

So now it's deja vu all over again. We've hit a long dry spell. To be fair, this latest incarnation of the Washington Redskins doesn't approach the depths of lousiness that characterized those old squads. But still, it's been a long time since the team was on top of the football world, and for a fan with a lifelong affliction, that dry spell will make it that much sweeter when the team finally reaches the pinnacle again. It has to happen sometime, right?

-- Edited by Dan T. on Monday 30th of March 2009 12:32:41 PM

GSF · Status: Offline

My family moved to DC from the west coast in 1980. I was in 5th grade. My Uncle worked for WMAL at the time doing the traffic. Some of you guys might remember him - Captain Dan. He did traffic in DC for years and was kind of a local celebrity there. My Uncle was pretty good friends with Jonny Holiday, and he knew a lot of the Skins players and coaches through the station.

He took me to a few games at RFK. I got to go into the radio box and sit behind Jonny Holiday and Sam Huff for a little while during the games. I also met a bunch of players and coaches at various events, family parties and stuff like that. My Mom threw a birthday party for my Uncle 1 time at our house and about half the Redskins team and staff were there. I totally didn't get it at the time. I quickly became a Skins fan though, and by the time I was in my early teens I was going to as many games as I could. Those games at RFK in the 80s were completely insane. I'm sure a lot of you remember what I'm talking about. Those were some fun times.

Dan T. · Status: Offline

GSF wrote:

My family moved to DC from the west coast in 1980. I was in 5th grade. My Uncle worked for WMAL at the time doing the traffic. Some of you guys might remember him - Captain Dan. He did traffic in DC for years and was kind of a local celebrity there. My Uncle was pretty good friends with Jonny Holiday, and he knew a lot of the Skins players and coaches through the station.

Captain Dan was the traffic MAN back in the day! Things were good when WMAL had the Skins broadcast rights, too. AM-630 had a BIG strong signal that reached to the outer fringes of the area. Ken Beatrice talking sports 16 hours a day. And the Skins were really really GOOD, so that was a bonus...