D.C. Fans Endure Slings and Arrows Of Seattle Crowd
Loss Cuts Deep for Those Who Traveled Far
By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 6, 2008; A06
SEATTLE, Jan. 5 -- When the Seattle Seahawks scored their last touchdown last night, it was so loud at Qwest Field that the bitter words of Nick Gamache were buried under an avalanche of noise.
The Seahawks had run up the score to 35-14 with another interception return for a touchdown, and Gamache, a Raleigh, N.C., resident who grew up in Silver Spring, was crushed. "The dagger already happened a while ago," he said. "That was the nail."
The game was just like Washington's up-and-down season as the Redskins started slow, then rallied but ultimately fizzled.
"I really thought we were going to win. I felt it in my bones. And that's why it hurts so much," said Gamache's friend, Michael Fitzmaurice, a District resident who flew out for the game.
For the fans who braved the elements and the beery hordes at Qwest Field, the loss was an emotional injury to the insults they'd been suffering all day from Seahawks fans.
And just like the noise, the hostile conditions were partly a product of the stadium's design. Unlike FedEx Field, where the sprawling suburban parking lot provides ample room for tailgating, Qwest Field is set in far more cramped downtown quarters. Throngs of Seahawk fans jam into a narrow strip of asphalt between a freeway overpass and the stadium, creating a warrenlike cluster of blue tents and jerseys.
These were the hostile environs where one brave group of Washington fans set up before the game, and they were quickly besieged.
Although Seattle fans have a reputation for civility, the hissing vandals that Washington fans faced yesterday were as bad-mannered a bunch as any in the league. Anyone who arrived in a Redskins jersey had to walk through a rioting gantlet of screaming blue meanies who pushed them, bumped them and even stole their beer.
"They were throwing stuff at us: chicken wings, cans. It was terrible," said Dino Russo, 42, a Stafford resident whose Redskins rain poncho made him a ripe target.
"I expected the crowd to be docile, and this was the opposite," said his friend Bruce May, 51, also of Stafford. "Philly is supposed to be the worst, but this doesn't compare."
One well-traveled, battle-scarred Redskins fan, Ted Abela of the District, said he'd never seen so much unnecessary roughness from hometown fans. He likened walking into the stadium to entering the Colosseum in the movie "Gladiator," surrounded by packs of foaming Romans. "I went to Philly and New York this year, and this is worse," said Abela, 28.
No one was immune. Even Ashleigh Miller, a junior at Loudoun Valley High School, wasn't spared from the onslaught, enduring a nasty encounter with one particularly boorish Seahawks fan. "He was right up in my face," she said, her blond braid tucked under a burgundy No. 21 hat honoring the late Sean Taylor, "and I'm only 16!"
Miller and her father stood with their Redskins brethren in the rain before the game, dripping wet. "These fans are just trying to root for their team," said Kevin Miller, 48. "At least it's not like Philly, where they actually want to fight."
But some Seattle fans did appear to actually want to fight. "It was scary; there were people in my face, blocking my path," said Steve Jones, 43, a District native now living in eastern Washington who drove over the mountains through 20 inches of snow to reach the stadium, only to face more treacherous conditions en route to a Redskins tailgate party.
District resident Mike Cooper plunged right into the razzing and loved it, goading the Seattle fans by calling their players "Smurfs."
"This is the best part," said the 41-year-old, who works as a loan officer when he's not wearing a crown of fake Redskins braids. "I love it."
But some especially crass Seattle fans even went after the sacred, sullying the memory of Taylor, the defensive star who was killed in November, with low-blow insults.
"I expected hostility, but I didn't expect people to say something like that," said Kenny Alvo, 24, an elementary school teacher in Springfield. "It's just a football game."
"I've never seen people so classless," said Raza Ali, 33, a lawyer living in Los Angeles who grew up in Annapolis. "When I'm wearing No. 21 and somebody makes fun of a dead guy, that is classless by any definition."
Seahawks fans said it was simply a matter of territorialism. "You gotta hold your own and let them know what time it is," said Kyl Uecker, 24, a beer-swilling Seattle resident plastered in blue and black face paint.
The taunting continued into the stands for the sparse pockets of Redskins fans scattered throughout the stadium. Several fans planned an escape even before the game ended.
Genna Henry of Idaho, whose father was from the District, said, "I just want to get out of here alive."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 8010502761
This makes me glad I didn't go. This is horrible for the faithful who attendend and especially for those who made long/cross-country trips.
Judging by some of the fans comments, they seem to be relegated to a burp below Eagles fans now.
What a shame and disappointment.
