Game Girl

Watching the last game of the season a few years back, I was reminded once again how frustrating it can be to be a dedicated fan. The Redskins were playing well, and actually WINNING! Had they been able to win a few more games earlier in the season, they might have had a chance to make the play-offs This was the team I had expected to see all season, the team I schlepped from Annapolis to Ashburn in the sweltering heat of August to watch during training camp...the team I bravely defended in the face of blistering attacks from Ravens fans in my mixed Redskins/Ravens Maryland neighborhood. I watched helplessly as the Skins pulled off a stunner of a win, but it wouldn't matter. They were going home, and the other teams (many of which I HATED!) were moving on to the playoffs.

Oh, the joy of watching them take to the field with such fearless abandon! It was magical, especially when the defense sacked the opposing quarterback, recovered the fumble and rumbled to the end-zone to set up the game’s only touchdown. It had been weeks – months, really – since I had enjoyed myself this much watching the Redskins play. Instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop (or a field goal to bump off the goal post, a fumble to fall into the hands of the other team, or any number of other hapless calamities to befall them), I was actually having fun! Why, I wondered, couldn’t they have played with this kind of fire earlier in the season? Where was this team earlier in the season? Why, oh why, couldn’t they have won just one more of those close games back in October?

Of course, you know the end of this tale. The Redskins were eliminated from playoff contention once again, making their post-season appearances VERY few and far between over the past 15 years. And the hopes of thousands of Redskins fans were shelved for another off-season, during which we will all ruminate and speculate and hope and pray and gear up for next year. The hardiest fans might suffer significant withdrawal at first, meeting in the blog spots to chat about Redskins draft picks, the Senior Bowl and the new coaching staff. Other, more casual fans simply move on to other sports without much fanfare, perhaps even occasionally throwing on their Redskins baseball caps without even a hint of angst. But most, if not all of us, will continue to ponder what might have been, at least for a little while.

And so, I thought about the trials of being a die-hard Redskin fan. It’s easy for the casual observer to laugh it off and say, “There’s always next year!” But for those of us who truly love our teams, that sentiment simply won’t be enough. We’ll fret and we’ll worry and we’ll argue and we’ll listen for any scrap of information we can find about our teams. And to add insult to injury, we’ll have to suffer through the indignity of other fans’ ecstasy, as their teams move through the playoffs on the annual march toward the Super bowl. In some ways, it can be a relief to be released from the anguish of it all, especially since the Redskins, at least, never seem to really dominate anymore, and when they have made the playoffs recently fans are left holding their breath until they are eventually and inevitably eliminated. In some ways, it's easier to just enjoy playoff football without all the stress. But it's not nearly as much fun. And it certainly can't take the sting out of a day in December that started out with so much promise, and turned out to just be too-little, too-late!