The Fedex Field Experience Still Needs Some...Uh...Tweaking

Update: The Redskins contacted us and are looking into the situation. It's great to see quick action when it comes to fan experience. HTTR.

Ken and I have been going to every Redskins home game for a long time. The game experience prior to this year was abysmal, which ESPN noticed, so it was awesome to see that Bruce Allen included the fans on his To Do List of things to fix. The facility before this year was laughable, but I personally never had any problems with the ushers over the years. We always had the same one, Terry, year in and year out and it was a blast those first weeks of the season catching up with him. Given the poor stadium rankings, the Redskins for their own reasons decided to make everyone re-apply for their jobs:

All of the 800 or so game-day staffers were required to reapply for their jobs, and were asked questions about the stadium and why they wanted to work there. About half did not reapply or were not re-hired, and many others switched positions.

And that makes sense. Weed out the people that can't even put forth the effort to re-apply or don't care. I love the new Fedex - the no commercials blasted over the Jumbotron - it's a real game day experience.

What surprised me was the 2 emails I received from regular Hogs Haven readers this week. One highlighted how the parking staff attendants spent the whole day bumming cigarettes and tailgating, and the other email mentioned how the PG County cops threw him against the wall for simply cheering. Unacceptable. I'm not attacking the Redskins since I can't even imagine trying to manage a staff of 800 workers, but it's clear there are some problems, and I don't want what happened to the second person to ever happen again. Full stories in their words after the jump...

Parking attendants (pictured above)...

HH reader: We parked at 12:15 and the guy sitting in the chair was trying to bum cigarettes off of one of my buddies. They just plopped themselves down at a tailgate beside us. While we were there I saw the guy with his legs crossed get multiple cigarettes, sodas, hot dogs, a chicken sandwich, chicken wings, a cigar, a redskins hat, and even put a couple beers in a solo cup. They were from Africa and said this "was the best job ever, they gotta pay their bills"...

The guy was just walking around trying to bum stuff the whole game. They probably settled in these seats around 2 and they were still in them when I left to head into the game at 3:45.

PG County cops abuse their power to rough up a Redskins fan...

Redskins fan: My seats were in section 101. After hitting the bathroom during the timeout call, I walked down the aisle for section 142, which is right next to section 101. I was standing in the portal watching as the Texans were running setup plays before then game-clinching OT field goal. The usher asked me to stand in the empty seats just to the right so I wasn't in the aisle. I said, "No problem" and immediately moved. As I was standing there watching the Texans line up for the game winning FG, a PG County police officer told me I needed to sit down because I was blocking the view of those sitting in the 200 seats behind me. I responded, "No chance, it's the last play...everybody should be standing and screaming." He yelled at me again to sit down. When I didn't, I was grabbed by him and another officer, arm bent behind my back. Slapped hard in the head...pushed into the portal and had the left side of my face jammed against the concrete wall. After they screamed a number of expletives at me as they enjoyed their power trip, I was then pushed out of the stadium by both officers in front of a crowd that assumed I was getting arrested. A pretty humiliating experience for a die-hard fan of over 30 years that was trying to stand and make some noise while the opposing team was lining up for a game winning FG in a highly dramatic game. Hail to the Redskins. Fail to the PG County Police and Fedex Field.

I've seen over-aggressive ushers in other stadiums before, but I have definitely never heard of 5.0s attacking home fans for cheering. The fan nailed it on the head - they did not like having their ludicrous request ignored.