To be honest I grew up a colts fan, watching Johnny Unitas, slightl.y remember the super bowl loss to the Jets at the similar age of 7. The Colts and the O’s at memorial stadium, then in 72 Unitas was traded at the age of 10 I made the decision to become a Redskin Fan. The team who couldn’t beat the Miami Dolphins, yeah it was a shared heart as I continued to keep a close eye on Baltimore, but my team was the Redskins. Joe Thesiman, Joe Gibbs, John Riggins 1982 pulled me more towards the Redskins. The Date of full devotion to the morning after in March 1984 the Colts leave in the middle of the night, never again they are written off forever and The Redskins are now my one and only team…and still are.

Because the Skins sucked when I was growing up in the late 90s. I always wore Skins stuff that my parents bought me and always watched the games.
In fact, the first times I rooted for anyone in football was Brett Favre in 97 when i was 6 and then Favre again turned into Elway in 98.
First player I loved on the Skins was Stephen Davis.

Never was anything else. Never became, just “born” as one. Born and rasied in Arlington, I have watched the Redskins since mid-fifties on ( sorry, getting later on in life, I need to now say mid 1950’s – a different century!). I got season tickets when I was in high school (mid sixties). I remember Norm Snead! The trade in 64 with the eagles swapping QB’s. Got super excited after watching Sonny Jurgensen throw his first pass. The trade for Sam Huff was exciting. I use to go (sneak) onto the playing field during warmups – what an experience. I remember seeing Pat Fischer and thinking – Oh, my gosh, I thought all NFL players were suppose to big! I remember us playing the colts and the colts fans getting so drunk and not very neighborly. I remember Jim Brown and thinking can any one stop him? I wnet the game where YA Tittle got knocked down so much and was kneeling on the ground bleeding. I loved the Kenny Houston stop of Dallas’s running back at the 1 foot line! I also remember going to Fran O’Brien’s restaurant and eating and watching the news, when the gentleman sitting next to us heard us talking about Coach Lombardi and the Redskins and telling us he was his doctor and that Lombardi was dying of cancer. That was the official news the next day. I have watched the team that was almost always perennial non-contenders go to become successful. I lost the season tickets because I was poor in college and could not pay the cost in time. But I have still watched them through thick and thin. Old DC Stadium was a fan’s stadium. It rocked, literally. I will never forget hearing those bleacher seats rattle metallically with everyone on them jumping up and down. I will never forget the yelling and cheering after a win as the fans poured out and walked back to the parking lots. Or the mooing inside the tunnel. Anyone else remember the tunnel mooing syndrom? My last live game experience was the playoff win against Detroit in the great rain deluge that left everything wet and trash can liners were being sold for $1 a piece. It is a shame the DC government and Jack Kent Cook could not work something to keep the stadium in DC.

I have seen a lot of coaches come and go, some I could not stand and a couple that I admired (Lombardi and Gibbs). I have a feeling, maybe it is just wishful thinking, - but it is strong, either way - that Jim Zorn is going to make the Redskins fun to watch and more competitive this year. I really think the players are excited, as well – which is a very crucial sign.

I’ll try and make a long story short.

I was born in Dallas, Texas and have spent all of my 25 years in the state, never away from the great state I call home (although I have enjoyed much travel, especially for a 25 year old). My father, a Texan (born in Washington D.C. incidentally), didn’t perform his civic duty in indoctrinating me into professional football generally or the Dallas Cowboys specifically, as is tradition in this part of the country. As a result, I got into the NFL later than most Texans and managed to avoid becoming enamored with “America’s Team” (bullshit!).

That didn’t mean I wasn’t surrounded at all times by a constant mass of Dallas Cowboys fans growing up. As my girlfriend likes to point out, and as I’m sure you all know by now, I’m a contrarian person especially when it comes to trivial matters such as sports. I enjoy arguing. As a result, my formative years were spent disparaging the favorite team of other fans. This combative approach to NFL fanhood naturally resulted in me taking up with the hated rivals of the regionally loved Cowboys: Your Washington Redskins. It’s not a story I’m particularly proud of, as I’d like to tell you that I was raised burgundy and gold, that I was baptised at the alter of Joe Gibbs and George Allen but, alas, I’m a tourist.

I an only assure readers that, although my original intentions towards the franchise would hardly be considered pure or noble by the kinds of fans who think those concepts meaningful in determining fanhood, the place I currently reside is absolute, sincere, 100%, unconditional love for all things Redskins. I’ve spent countless hours reading, writing, discussing, fighting, shouting, arguing, cursing, and generally obsessing with the team. I’ve lost hundreds of dollars betting on them (and am proud to say that, despite being an awful gambler who has never met a prop he wouldn’t force the other lucky bastard to collect, have never bet against my ‘Skins), have suffered the agony of defeat more in my relatively short time as a fan than the thrill of victory, though have celebrated the latter with all the vigor of a lifelong ‘Skins fan.

In my defense - and isn’t it obvious how insecure of a fan I am? - I stumbled upon this franchise when it was at a historical low point, post the Joe Gibbs era but pre the… Joe Gibbs era. I think there is something to be said for those fans who suffer with a team but stay behind them even when the times aren’t so good. Until extremely recently, the times have been n’t so good, but here I am, with no intention of ever turning on the greatest franchise in professional sports. I may have not arrived at this point the right or traditional way, but I’m wearing burgundy and gold loudly and drunkenly on Sundays just the same.

I was brainwashed from a very early age. All of my family (with very few exceptions) are Skins fans, even though some have moved away from the area. My family moved to Texas when I was still in grade school, so I became a much more staunch supporter… much in the same way as SP. I cheered more because everyone around me liked the rival.

My grandmother likes to tell the story about how when I was watching a game with her (I couldn’t have been older than 3 or 4) and I turned to her and told her I liked watching with her more than my great aunt (her sister) because she used bad language. My great aunt was also the one who gave me a key chain that played Hail to the Redskins and that is the earliest song I learned that I still remember.

Simple brainwashing goes a long way. And yes, I have the language of my great aunt while watching the Redskins to this day.