The Washington somethings and the nature of fandom

June 19, 2023

by Steve Thomas

We’re now officially in the heart of the dead period of the NFL’s annual calendar, with the free agency, the draft, OTAs, and minicamp all behind us, and training camp not going to arrive for another six weeks.  At this point, all we in Washingtonland are waiting on is for Danny Snyder to sail away on his yacht of disgrace and a new ownership team to come in and save the day.

As most of you know, my ability to root for this team has been severely degraded over the last several years.  I was a dishard – you don’t start a website and podcast at a fairly significant cost of time and money as a side hobby if you aren’t one.  I’m not a life-long DMV resident; I lived all over the country, including in the Washington area on three separate occasions, and my father was a season ticket holder for some those years in the area.  At one point, I was on the season ticket waiting list in my own right for 7 or 8 years, at least.  I lived the glory years – I was in the stadium for probably the most famous game ever at RFK stadium, which was the 1982 NFC Championship game against Dallas on January 22, 1983.  My dad and I routinely traveled all over the country to see the team play for several years.  All of those things are still great memories.

So what happened?  And is it important?  What does it mean?  The first question is easy: Dan Snyder happened.  He turned the team into a national laughingstock on the field, changed the name of the team, and openly disrespected the fans and the female employees inside the building.  Honestly, I don’t know how some of you have been able to simply “just root for the team on the field”.  To my eyes, that’s just ignoring all of the bad.  I’m not built that way.  I still obviously do The Hog Sty, because I enjoy writing and talking about football, but I am simply incapable of talking myself into rooting for the Washington team in its current form.

And now, the Los Angeles Dodgers, which has been my diehard MLB team since I was a little kid, did something that offended me almost as much as the actions of Washington’s leadership.  This past week, in a pregame ceremony on the field as a highlight of their annual “Pride Night”, the Dodgers honored a group called “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”, which is an anti-Christian hate group that mocks the Catholic religion while masquerading as an LGTBQ advocacy group.  I’m not okay with this.  It isn’t acceptable to honor people who mock a religious faith.  The question for me is, how much does this bother me?  Much like the questions I had with Washington, is my love of baseball and the Dodgers worth compromising my principals and supporting an organization which takes actions I don’t like?  This is the exact same situation I faced with Washington.

What’s more important here?  Entertainment in the form of sports and the comradery that comes with being a part of a group, or personal principals and morals?  At the end of the day, except for the few that make a living in the sports industry, sports is simply entertainment and a distraction.  It isn’t more important than my own beliefs.  I’ve discovered that principals take precedence.  For me, I am incapable of separating the on-field product from the organization as a whole when that organization makes gigantic missteps.  For Washington, and now also for the Dodgers, the team’s actions have caused a rift in my ability to support them.  Everyone needs to decide how important the competing interests of principals and beliefs measure up to the need for entertainment and a sense of belonging.  For me, it’s the former, and I have to try to pick a new baseball team.

This can change, though.  As to Washington, a new ownership group is coming into place who will presumably fix and get rid of all of the awfulness and replace it with a professional organization that at a minimum, will no longer offend me and mistreat its female employees.  However, with the name “Redskins” gone in place of the worst nickname in NFL history, this is essentially an expansion team for which I have no connection, and with me not being a Washington native, I also don’t feel a hometown connection that some of you feel.  I’ll try to come around, particularly since I’m still here at The Hog Sty, but there’s no guarantee that that will actually happen.  And you know what?  That’s okay.  I have lots of other things to do and to cheer for including – ironically – this website, and I’ll be fine.

To conclude this short tirade, I go back to one of the original questions I posed: is it important?  Yes, sports are important, for but for me, principals and standing for beliefs are more so.  Just food for thought.  What do you think?  Let me know in the comment section below.