Traditions, We’ve Got Traditions?

June 14, 2023

By Noonefromtampa

For some of you this may be considered a fairy tale.

Once upon a time, in a land called the greater metropolitan DC area there existed a football team that captured the soul and imagination of the people of the land. Every Sunday, people would stop what they were doing and for three hours they would watch the performance that the team put on. The team, called the Washington Redskins, had been very good, then fell on difficult times, but then became great again. When the team played, a quiet would fall over the realm, crime rates would drop, and families would gather in harmony to watch the feats of their team.

But alas, the king of the team died, and the new king turned out to be an evil sorcerer in disguise. The fortunes of the team once again turned dark, and the fans of the team slowly drifted away. The joys of game day quickly became forgotten, gatherings were no more, and financial backers of the team found other ways to spend their money. But recently, news was heard throughout the land, a new king was coming, and he was ousting the evil lord who now controlled the formerly beloved team. Would the team rise to new fortunes? Would the fans come back and support the team once again? Stay tuned for the next chapter in our story.

The End.

Well, not quite.

Old Times, Old Traditions

Personally, we had family members who attended games from the time the team moved from Boston in the 1930’s until just a few years ago. Dan Snyder’s biggest success with the NFL team he owned was creating an apathy, the likes of which few other NFL teams have seen. Even the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, during the depths of the morose created by Hugh Culverhouse’s stingy spending, had better local support than the Commanders have now.

I regularly went to games from 1964 until 1988, attending around 120 games in total. I have seen bad teams, mediocre teams, and great teams. I have seen some of the top plays in Washington football history in person. But one thing I remember is the traditions we had on game day.

On home game days, we would go to early church where we would meet up with other folks who also had season tickets. After church we would all head to a little dinner at the corner of Russell Road and Mount Vernon Avenue for breakfast. One of my childhood friends would always order the same thing, scrambled eggs with shoestring fries and he would slather the whole plate with ketchup. Afterwards we would go to Shirlington Plaza to catch the buses to RFK Stadium. This was pre-subway days; the Metro made the commute so much easier later on.

During road game days, we would go to a later church service with a lot of my extended family and then hit the brunch at the Marriott, which was one of my mom’s favorite things to do. The ladies would linger at brunch, while the guys headed to one of the homes for the game.

It seemed everyone in the area had some sort of pre-game ritual they followed. If you want to share yours, please put them in the comments below.

New Owners, New Traditions

I hope the new owners keep/bring back some of the old traditions and maybe add some new ones.

The marching band was always good to entertain and fire up the crowd. I hope cheerleaders reappear at some point; I think they can be used as brand ambassadors to help revitalize interest in the team and not as the owner’s personal harem. I’m sure the new marketing team will be trying to come up with some new traditions to help tap into the fan base and get people back to the stadium.

If someone from the new ownership happens to read this, I would like to suggest one new tradition to start. On the first home game each season, during the pre-game, let’s introduce the new team captains, the new rookies on the team and the newly signed veteran players. Spotlight them for the recognition, let the fans welcome and celebrate the players coming to our franchise. Save the offense/defense introductions for the remaining home games, make the first game different, especially because there is a new king and long live the king.