Redksins Fans are not to Blame

The hot topic in Washington this week is the Redskins fans.

Well, that’s not quite true. The Presidential election has electrified the town. In fact, the spontaneous dancing in the streets Tuesday night into Wednesday morning is something the town has not seen since, well, the 1980s when Joe Gibbs was leading the Skins to Super Bowls.
Back to the second hottest topic: Redskins fans.

The beginning of the conversation could be found on the Front Page of Tuesday’s Washington Post in Liz Carpenter’s story about the Pittsburg drubbing of the Skins Monday night.

"Then, in the third quarter of the Redskins' showcase game this year, Campbell's first interception came. It arrived on a soft pass tossed high to running back Clinton Portis in which the ball bounced off Portis's hand, then landed in the arms of a Pittsburgh Steelers player named Deshea Townsend. And when it happened, a great roar filled FedEx Field, and three levels of stands rising to the sky were filled with the twirling golden rags called Terrible Towels that have become a talisman to Pittsburgh Steelers fans. It would be that kind of a night for the Redskins in their 23-6 loss to the Steelers: Their quarterback's prodigious streak had come to an inglorious end and their home stadium had ceased to be exclusively their home. "Man, was that weird or what? All I saw were terrible towels in the stands," said Redskins defensive end Demetric Evans. "Even when we were on offense and it's supposed to be quiet, all you could hear was the Steelers fans cheering."

Wednesday the Post’s Dan Steinberg had a story with players’ reaction to the offense having to use a silent count for a home game. The discussion reached its peak on Thursday with Washington Times’ David Elfin and Post’s Michael Wilbon both having pieces about the fans. Wilbon’s column was the strongest for taking the fans to task for selling their tickets.

This is not a fan issue! The selling of a large number of tickets is a recent phenomenon. It can be traced back to Dan Snyder buying the team. It never happened before.

The High Priest of Greed treats the fans as cash cows. Dano is milking them for every dollar. Mooooo!

When Snyder bought the team, the stadium had a capacity of 85,407. He expanded it to over 90,000. Of course, this was done without adding parking places around the stadium. Finding a parking spot would be easier in a pasture. Herd the fans. Make them pay big time parking fees to park miles away and bus them. Mooooo! They do things like raising the parking prices but forget to update the parking map.

In 2007 the Redskins had the second highest ticket prices in the NFL. The value of the Redskins has risen over $700,000 since Dano bought the team but this year the team stopped the bus rides from the Metro stations. Mooooo!

Try bringing in a bottle of water to the stadium. Not allowed! They will tell you it is for security reasons. However, this is not the case at other stadiums. Mooo!

When you finally get into the stadium you are greeted with six-pack prices for a single beer. Mooooo!

Then the fans are treated like dumb cows. There is music BLARING over the speakers. S ome DJ tries to fire up the crowd before the game. In the old days, the stadium announcer use to give the ball carrier’s name, the yardage made or lost, who made the tackle and the new down & distance, all in a very civil tone. Now the DJ is shouting things like “third and looong.” Like, the cows are too dumb to know.

Dano promotes the StubHub ticket selling site. Why? Because he makes more money. What he didn’t consider was that the cash cows would take a chapter from his playbook selling their tickets to the highest bidder, other team fans.

Anyone remember when moooo-ing at RFK was a good thing?