Who We Are
The-Hogs.net is a fan-driven website dedicated to the Washington Commanders – formerly the Redskins of course. Online since 2002, the site offers a mix of news, blog posts, graphics, and historical content. Whether you’re looking for the latest roster moves or the backstory on how Joe Jacoby got his start in D.C., you’ll find it here.
Why We Exist
This site was built by fans, for fans. It was originally created solely as a place where a couple of Redskins fans who were going to 2002 Redskins training camp, could post some camp photos.
We were all part of a Redskins mailing list on yahoo – the Webskins mailing list. It was a great mailing list. There were some very knowledgeable people and it was an active community. The mailing list itself was fairly rudimentary technology-wise, so you could not post photos to the list. I was just learning web design at the time, and offered to create an online gallery of the photos if they wanted to email me them as they took them. This was as close to “on the fly” as 2002 offered as crazy as it sounds.
When training camp closed, instead of just packing up the site, I took the opportunity to call on a few fans and ask them if they were interested in creating an informed, and nostalgic take on Washington football. I was fortunate to get some great participation.
There was a lot of cookie-cutter reporting at the time, and we set out to create something slightly different: a place where bias was okay, but accuracy was still strived for. The name blog wasn’t kicked around yet, but that’s what we were doing… blogging.
There were no content management systems in 2002. There weren’t even any good scripts to pillage. I had to build a rudimentary mySQL database. And then learn PHP so that I could use the information in the database on a website. My “hack skills” were born. Deconstructing working scripts that did similar things, and then re-arranging them and learning as I went, to try and accomplish the task. Ultimately, I was able to create a front end and back end to start holding our content in 2003. For the first year-plus – we basically wrote on the fly and over top of what was there the day before.
We also started a fantastic message board community. I could wax poetic all day about how great the community was – a wonderful place to talk football amongst friends. I miss those days sometimes, but the internet moved on to social networks a long time ago.
Photos, blogs, message board community… that’s the simple story that kicked off this journey.
What You’ll Find Here
The-Hogs.net ultimately grew into a rich archive of content — both current and historical. Some of what you’ll find includes:
- Blog Coverage: Roster moves, breaking news, and gameday analysis going back 20+ years
- Historical Pages: Coaching history, playoff appearances, Hall of Famers, everything you can think of
- Team Records: Individual and franchise stats across decades
- Visual Archives: Uniform and logo history, helmet history and more
- Evergreen Features: Franchise facts, 90 Greatest, fight song history
Whether you’re a newer fan or a lifer, hopefully there’s something here for you.
Legacy & Credibility
We’ve been online for more than 20 years, making The-Hogs.net one of the longest-running independent fan sites for the Washington Commanders. Our content has been featured in magazines, cited in sports discussions, and read by hundreds of thousands of fans.
Sports Illustrated rated us above the official site in their, “Places to Get Redskins Information” at one point and we knew that we had built something special. We were quoted in ESPN Magazine, and Mens Health and Fitness magazine. We did tailgate books. We ran a tailgate club with the Hogettes. I built the Hogettes website for them. We got them doing weekly blogs here and on their site. We did blogs with Redskins players. We did podcasts with Redskins players. We partnered up with the Washington Capitals for a bunch of cross promotions. We did features with Alumni – with Redskins Legends.
We experienced a lot of things. It’s been an incredible ride.
We’ve lived through the highs, lows, and name changes — and we’re still here.
Who’s Behind It
The-Hogs.net was created and is maintained by myself, Mark Solway, a lifelong fan of Washington football. I have a deep love for its history and traditions. From the early 80s to today’s new era, this site has chronicled everything we can with passion and perspective.
Over the years, there have been many people who have created content for the site – too many to name them all – writers, graphic artists, moderators, tailgate committee, editors. I do have to mention Scott Hurrey though, who was my right hand man for years. It took a lot of team work to make the dream work. Back in the early days, we were banging 12-20 pieces of content per week. All volunteers.
I wish them all well, wherever they may be today. I always love hearing from any of you on Twitter or the like.
And Now?
As a busy father with a son that’s forging his own football legacy, I have less and less time to do all of the things that I used to do here. There’s no message board to moderate anymore, there’s no cartoons to create – there isn’t even any self-imposed pressure to create more content. I’ve been around long enough to not worry too much about what anyone thinks.
This site remains standing for two reasons: so I can still provide content on my favorite sports franchise when I want to create it, and to honor all that was put into it over the last twenty-plus years. By me, and many others.
Thanks to everybody who has been a part of it.
And Hail.