Administration REALLY Rooting for Redskins on Sunday

Since the Redskins became the "Redskins" in 1933, the result of the team's final home game before the presidential election has correctly predicted the White House winner: if the Skins win, the incumbent wins; if they lose, the incumbent loses:

"It's kind of amazing," coach Joe Gibbs said. "You wouldn't think something like that would line up that many times."

Gibbs said the statistic doesn't really mean anything, but he can at least pretend that it does — because he's solidly in the Bush camp.

"Hopefully we'll have a lot of people pulling for us," said Gibbs, who voted when he traveled to his North Carolina home over the weekend. It was the Redskins bye week.

Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards has been quoted as saying he's rooting for the Green Bay Packers, the Redskins' opponent on Sunday. While no doubt thankful for the endorsement, Green Bay coach Mike Sherman is concerned about more rudimentary matters, such as the health of quarterback Brett Favre.

"It's going to take a lot more than Packers fans to determine the outcome of an election," Sherman said.

....Until recently, the Redskins had been the subject of another political quirk. For 52 years — from 1946 to 1998 — they failed to make the playoffs under a Democratic administration. That one went by the wayside when the team won the NFC East in 1999, when Bill Clinton was president.

Some players are puzzled by all the talk of the election — and how the team's success seems coincidentally tied to it.

"I'm not much into politics," linebacker Marcus Washington said. "All I know is this is going to be a tough week for us. Brett Favre's going to be tough. Ahman Green's tough. Those are two tough candidates right there." [SI.com]

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