It was. Two days later, Lenny Bias is dead and the Celtics still haven’t recovered.
Now we come to football. As a New England native, I started as a New York Giants fan, switching to the Patriots after the Giants 16th rebuilding season. I watched in complete despair as the Bears annihilated the Pats in Super Bowl XX, again in 1986.
So, now I am a home town Washington Redskins fan. Never in my life have I lived and died with a team as I do with the Washington Redskins. There are other teams in the Washington area, but this is a one-horse town – a Redskins town.
And we have gotten everything we could hope for in coaches. Norv Turner and Steve Spurrier were thought at the time to be the second coming, the cure, the fix for the next ten years. Marty Schottenheimer could have been the answer, but he ticked everybody off (as he does so often), so he was gone before he got a chance to turn it around.
And then the unimaginable happened: Joe Gibbs, a guy who brought home the glory ten years before, was coming back. Dan Snyder had finally done something right with his glorified, real-life fantasy football team.
I said in 2004 that if Joe Gibbs could not turn this club around, no one can, and that would be the time for Dan Snyder to sell this team to someone who in more interested in winning than making money.
Dan Snyder, Peter Angelos, George Steinbrenner… no matter where they are, they are arguably the smartest guys in the room. I don’t dispute that. But they are NOT the smartest baseball or football minds in the room. If Snyder would stick to the business end and let the football guys run the team, maybe they can win some games.
Get Vinny Cerrato out and hire a real football guy. I can imagine the exchanges between these two:
Deion Sanders is available. Let’s get him! (“Sure, Mr. Snyder, you’re wonderful. And Deion's initials are the same as yours.”)
Bruce Smith…I love that guy! (“Great choice, Mr. Snyder. Why didn’t I think of him? I am in the presence of greatness.”)
Players in the Daniel Snyder era come to Washington to get a big paycheck and ensure their financial future. Then they go elsewhere to win games and championships.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Please don't ever root for any of my teams, Rick.
2 - Rick Vassar
Matt,
My dad used to scout part-time for the Giants when they had a Single A farm team in Springfield, MA in the old Eastern League (1957-65). He was also a fill in umpire for the Eastern League. His claim to fame was that he threw Earl Weaver out of a game when he managed Elmira (1962-65).
Some of the guys who came through there were quite impressive:
Juan Marichal
Felipe Alou
Matty Alou
Tom Haller
Jim Ray Hart
Jim Duffalo
Bill Hands
Frank Linzy
Hal Lanier
Manny Mota
Jose Pagan
The team moved to Amarillo in 1966 and old Pynchon Park burned down shortly after that. I spent my entire childhood trying to pick up bounced radio signals from Chicago and Philly. The next day, I would get the partial box scores from the West Coast games in the paper (no ESPN in the 1960's).
I thinking about give up on the Giants and rotting for the Diamondbacks. What do you think, Matt?
3 - Mike
"Please give us our Washington Redskins back"
If you switch teams with the regularity you do then they're not really yours are they. Real fans have grievance, fakes don't.
4 - Rick Vassar
It depends on your perspective. The beauty of sports is you can root for whomever you want, whenever you want.
If you are right (and I'm not saying you aren't), then where would all the expansion teams get their fans?
Not to justify myself, but most of these changes are geographic:
Giants/Red Sox to Orioles and now Nationals (btw, not a lot of Montreal Expo fans around here...)
NY Giants(NFL)/Pats(AFL) to Redskins
Celtics to Wizards.
I have lived in DC much longer than I lived in New England. I felt nothing when the Sox and the Pats won (finally).
It still hurt bad with the Giants in '02
You may not agree, but that's you.