The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Times aren't good right now. As a matter of fact, they haven't been good for as long as I can remember; but this is nothing new for the Redskins. Lest we forget the 'Skins went a little under 30 years between championship appearances. During those days, we bore witness to some of the worst Redskins teams of all time, including two that nearly went win less. We saw teams that "had the talent" but still found themselves in the second or last division. We had Sonny Jurgenson for Gods sake and we still found a way to stink. So, to the older fans that lived during this day...how did you get through it? How did you endure 30 years of terrible Redskins football?

thedcnative wrote:Times aren't good right now. As a matter of fact, they haven't been good for as long as I can remember; but this is nothing new for the Redskins. Lest we forget the 'Skins went a little under 30 years between championship appearances. During those days, we bore witness to some of the worst Redskins teams of all time, including two that nearly went win less. We saw teams that "had the talent" but still found themselves in the second or last division. We had Sonny Jurgenson for Gods sake and we still found a way to stink. So, to the older fans that lived during this day...how did you get through it? How did you endure 30 years of terrible Redskins football?

Honestly? Pretty much the same as now... except at the water cooler instead of on the internet.

The W in Washington is for Whine

Yet, despite all that... despite the futiity... they still managed to pretty much beat up on the Detroit Lions year after year.

Now, we don't even have that.

How pathetic are we?

thedcnative wrote:Times aren't good right now. As a matter of fact, they haven't been good for as long as I can remember; but this is nothing new for the Redskins. Lest we forget the 'Skins went a little under 30 years between championship appearances. During those days, we bore witness to some of the worst Redskins teams of all time, including two that nearly went win less. We saw teams that "had the talent" but still found themselves in the second or last division. We had Sonny Jurgenson for Gods sake and we still found a way to stink. So, to the older fans that lived during this day...how did you get through it? How did you endure 30 years of terrible Redskins football?

As I recall, we didn't take the games too seriously back then. It was George Allen who taught us to live and die by how the Skins did on Sunday. But also, I seem to remember going to the games just to watch Jurgenson light up the scoreboard and hope he could lead us to a win by a basketball-like score.

old-timer wrote:

thedcnative wrote:Times aren't good right now. As a matter of fact, they haven't been good for as long as I can remember; but this is nothing new for the Redskins. Lest we forget the 'Skins went a little under 30 years between championship appearances. During those days, we bore witness to some of the worst Redskins teams of all time, including two that nearly went win less. We saw teams that "had the talent" but still found themselves in the second or last division. We had Sonny Jurgenson for Gods sake and we still found a way to stink. So, to the older fans that lived during this day...how did you get through it? How did you endure 30 years of terrible Redskins football?

As I recall, we didn't take the games too seriously back then.

Boy, you sure didn't live at my house!

Countertrey wrote:

old-timer wrote:

thedcnative wrote:Times aren't good right now. As a matter of fact, they haven't been good for as long as I can remember; but this is nothing new for the Redskins. Lest we forget the 'Skins went a little under 30 years between championship appearances. During those days, we bore witness to some of the worst Redskins teams of all time, including two that nearly went win less. We saw teams that "had the talent" but still found themselves in the second or last division. We had Sonny Jurgenson for Gods sake and we still found a way to stink. So, to the older fans that lived during this day...how did you get through it? How did you endure 30 years of terrible Redskins football?

As I recall, we didn't take the games too seriously back then.

Boy, you sure didn't live at my house!

It's kind of funny when you grew up in MD and was born in D.C. and everyone in your family has been Redskins fans since the team moved from Boston, and you set aside huge blocks of time and money to watch your favorite team lose. I wish there was a silver lining to this cloud, but it seems to me that we have warped back into the fifties and early sixties. Maybe that's what it means to be a fan to be there when they are good, mediocre, or worse (the current state of the franchise). I would like to say the glass is half full, but there are fifty three people that need a drink. The worst days are ahead and I hope there is someone that will be able to change the culture of the franchise. I don't think anyone on the staff or roster is capable of changing the losing ways. Until then, I will watch every week and hope eventually things turn around, but until then I wait impatiently.

64 years ago, when I was just a kid of 9, my father took me with him to meet a guy he was going to do some business with. That guy was Turk Edwards, the then head coach of the Redskins. I was mesmerized by him and began an instant love affair with the Redskins, something that has never waivered regardless of the quality of the team nor changed regardless of where I live. Like all love affairs, there are good, bad and indifferent times. Sometimes you want a divorce, sometimes an annulment and sometimes you wonder how you were ever happy without them.

During the bad and indifferent times, you wish for better and then treasure them when they come. As a fan, you never give up your right to criticize, but in your heart, no matter what you say or complain about, the next weekend, you are there again, hoping, preying for a win, cheering for the good, bitching about the bad and thinking that "Heck, I could do better than that." even when you know you couldn't.

Believe it or not, my favorite time of the Redskins was during the Billy Barnes, Eddie LaBaron, Dickie James era. The 2 yards and a cloud of dust offense. Run, run, pass (usually incomplete) and punt. You have to remember that the tallest member was about 5'9" and the heaviest was about 170 pounds. They were bad, bad but they gave it their all every weekend. They played with pride and heart. I was shattered when Eddie La Baron was claimed by the then Dallas Texans expansion team, to be Dallas Cowboys. He betrayed me, abandoned me for the enemy. Yes, even then the Cowboys were the enemy.

My love affair with the Redskin is not about wins and loses, (oh, they help or hurt) but about the memories. Win or loose last week, I will be there next week just as sure of a win as I was last week.

Yeah, it seemed like those teams back then really gave it their all...it's just that they weren't that good. We have the complete opposite problem here. We have VERY talented problems...it's just seems like there isn't much heart. I know it must've felt great when this team started to win again in the late 60's and 70's, even though George Allen couldn't get out of his own way most of the time and we couldn't get past the first round of the playoffs.

We hoped, and we listened to stories of Sammy Baugh, and we treasured every win.

We did the same with the Senators.

We didn't expect to win a championship every year, but we wanted a respectable team. John Riggins' run was a lift that I doubt younger fans appreciated as much, since they had grown up with the George Allen teams.

We had learned loyalty. Thick or thin...no matter what. I remember talking up Roy Sievers with the other second graders at Bunker Hill. I assume CT was there, in fact. Sievers would hit home-runs, Vernon would lead the league (pronounced "lig") in hitting, Yost would take his walks, Runels would hit .300 and have the biggest chaw of tobacco, and the team would improve.

Most of all, we learned never to "boo" the Nats or the Redskins.

I had watched the Team as a young kid a couple of years during the 60's But I became a real fan in 1969. I thought of V. Lombardi as a God. And only HIM would have known what would have transpired if Vince had not passed away so soon after that.

To me, Football is a paradigma for life. It is an opportunity to show people what is good and valuable in life. Generosity, courage, teamwork, leadership, preparation, discipline, commitment, ...

I truly did not care much for the wins but I ALWAYS appreciated a huge effort, particularly in hopeless situations. I have always performed better myself in seemingly lost situations in my life for some reason.

I aspire to see in Football a good example for society and youth in particular. The colors of my team mean something to me. Loyalty means something to me. I never contemplated cheering for any other team even if I liked the Baltimore Colts during the Ted Marchibroda years (he was later a coach with us under George Allen).

Sometimes you cannot get this message from the whole team. But you get it from individual players and their struggles. There are players, like Londoin Fletcher, who are developing into wonderful stories in the middle of an overall mess.

Keep you eye on the good stories. They are there if you look hard enough.

I was talking to a local guy here in Boston yesterday and commented to him how it must be really tough for the younger Redskins fans, who have never seen a championship team, to stay true to their team. I started watching in '68 (at 8 years old) and only had to endure a couple of really bad years (although there was general discontent from many years of crappy teams...similiar to now), before Lombardi came along and started the turnaround. There have been ups and downs since then, I moved to Boston 25 years ago, I live 5 miles from patriots stadium and could have easily bailed years ago, but I stayed with them because I, unlike younger Skins fans, have been rewarded after sticking with them through thick and thin. That's what keeps me going.

And I was at the Rams game and didn't boo. Never have. Never will. I just don't believe in it. All the guys who are playing their butts off for us just don't deserve it.

Sorry I'm not old but I look at my son..he's 14 and the look on his face as we lost to the Lions..he's only know the Redskins and has been a hugh fans...When we win he will remember this lost and tell his son...I remember in 2099...

Im 35...AND GREW UP ON GIBBS....lived in NY FOR THE FIRST 32 YEARS lived in AZ for 3 now back in NY
I have a 15 month old son and he has Redskin paraphelia everywhere. Since hes 1 day old ive sung him HAIL TO THE REDSKINS at least once every day....He Loves it!...Its become his go to "soothing" song.


Sunday Night when he was going to bed ...I put him in his Crib look at old the Redskin stuff in his room and my eyes welled up...He will not KNOW GIBBS RIGGINS MANN BUTZ GCLARK RICKEY SANDERS DOUG WILLIAMS MARK RYPIEN WILBUR MARSHALL or RFK!

He will know Dan Snyder's Redskins and FEDEX and all that comes with it .
It hurts .....because I live in NY and he gets old enough to understand footbal im afraid I will lose him to either one of the NY teams .

why force feed him this garbage anyway ....This is my burden ...THIS IS MY CROSS that i must bear

Sounds crazy...just telling everyone how i feel--as of today

I've been lucky as a Redskin fan. As a child in the mid 60's just going to a game once in a while was a thrill, and surprisingly, the Redskins won every one that I attended (only about 7 or 8 from 1965 -1970). Sonny, Chris Hamberger (the Hangman) Charlie Taylor .. Just about the time I was old enough (12) to embrace that competitive spirit, along came Vince Lombardie who transformed the Redskins and engineered the first winning season since before I was born. It was an exciting time for the Redskins.

Then, it was George Allen who made the Redskins consistent competitors, and created the Redskin-Cowboy rivalry. At the age of 16, I attended my first playoff game at RFK stadium ... the Redskin-Cowboy championship game, and again we won. Over that course of 7 years 65-72, I probably attended maybe 10-12 games, and the Redskins won every one of them. From 1972 - 1981, I only got the chance to go to a hand full of games, but the Redskins won every one of them!

During the 1980's glory years, I purchased the season tickets (3) from a fellow at work every year 1982-1992, and it was during that time that I finally attended a game that the Redskins lost .. playoff with the Bears. (I remember how shocked I was).

After Gibbs retired, the guy I always got my tickets from stopped selling them, so I only went to a game or two a year, sometimes going down to RFK and buying a couple from scalpers.

I moved to Texas in 2000, so I didn't even get a chance to see many games on TV, except the two Cowboy games each year, and the occasional nationally televised game or two.

But as I recall, we won most every game I attended, and from 1965-1997 the Redskins only lost maybe 3 or 4 games that I attended, out of ??? 50 - 60 ??? I'm not sure how many total.

I took my lucky charm to Texas Stadium for the first and only visit there in 2005 on Monday night. I went there with a friend who is a DIE HARD Cowboy fan to the extreme. And at the time, the Redskins had been losing to the Cowboys regularly each year (I took much abuse here in Cowboy land ... much more than most fans have to endure, I assure you). On the way up to Dallas from Austin (3-3.5 hour drive) me dressed in my Portis jersey, and my friend in his R. Williams jersey, I kept telling him .. watch out for Santana Moss ... I think he's going to have a big game tonight.

Now this is the funny part ... my friend lives a charmed life .. for 55 minutes of that game, the Cowboys lead 13-0. And I'm hearing the business from him and the other cowboy fans surrounding me all game. (Never saw so many white and blue jerseys in my life ... it was like a horror movie )

So, just as he believes the game is essentially over .. he runs off to the head to prepare for the long journey home ... while he's gone .. the Redskins score twice to win ... and he's not even in the seat so I could gloat and watch his face!!!! Of course, it was a pleasant trip back to Austin, and now ... my miraculous lucky charm record includes 1-0 at away games.

I've often thought that the Danny should be flying me up to DC, as I've never actually attended a regular season game at the new stadium (only a couple of preseason games). I have 4 decades of good luck when in attendance at Redskin games ... maybe I could bring a little luck to Landover

It's going to be hard raising him, my friend, especially if this continues. As I said before, my three most vivid memories of the Redskins as a young child are:
1.) Thanksgiving 1996. Thankfully, I fell asleep by about halftime after stuffing my face full of turkey
2.) Aikman to Ishmail 1999...I had to call my Grandma (who is a Cowboys fan) and congratulate her. I was in tears and I could hardly get through the conversation
3.) The botched field goal against the Bucs. I thought that we were going to get into that NFC Championship and I would tell all the kids at school that my team WASN'T a buch of losers. It was not to be.

I've never known a consistent winner with the Redskins. I've seen the Eagles go to four straight NFC Title games. I've seen the Giants go to two Super Bowl, winning one. I've seen the Cowboys finish 13-3 (though, thankfully, they fell straight on their faces in the playoffs). My Redskins, though, have always been mediocre to poor, and it hurts.

You see the film of Kilmer's Bomb and Riggo's run. You hear about Baugh's four touchdown-four interception game or "The Quarter". It just seems like the only thing I have to hold on to are things that happened long before I was even thought of.

thedcnative wrote:2.) Aikman to Ishmail 1999...I had to call my Grandma (who is a Cowboys fan) and congratulate her. I was in tears and I could hardly get through the conversation

I think that's borderline child abuse

The first poster asked how do we get through it. It isn't always the win or loss of today as much as the memories of yesterday, the hopes of tomorrow and the love of a team that is ours. Dan Snyder may be the owner on paper, but we the fans know that in reality, we own the team. It is ours.

aswas71788 wrote:Dan Snyder may be the owner on paper, but we the fans know that in reality, we own the team. It is ours.

Then how do "we" flush Cousin Vinny and the other turds?

There is no one formula for success, Vince Lombardie did it with teaching an existing roster how to play tough, fundamental football in one year.

George Allen did it with trading draft picks and bringing in experienced players "the over the hill gang" and great motivational coaching.

Beathard/Gibbs did it with drafting talent, finding stars in all rounds of the draft.

We've seen all of these different approaches work. But it's safe to say that drafting good talent is the best for long term success, but it's also the most difficult way to do it, and not many people have the skill that Beathard had at selecting the right players.

I think that Snyder and company have improved considerably, even though success has been elusive.

The 2005 draft was a failure ... and that is on Gibbs, not Cerrato or Snyder. Neither Jason Campbell or Carlos Rogers has performed up to their draft positions, and have been a setback overall ... especially Campbell.

And neither Snyder nor Cerrato play football. They don't take the field, so I think it's an over simplification to just blame ownership at this point. The FO is much better than they were 5 years ago, and this team does have the talent to win. Now they just need better coaching decisions, and they need a solid, playmaker at the QB position, just like every other successful team needs to have.

DEHog wrote:Sorry I'm not old but I look at my son..he's 14 and the look on his face as we lost to the Lions..he's only know the Redskins and has been a hugh fans...When we win he will remember this lost and tell his son...I remember in 2099...

My daughter (6) said (after the Lions game).. Daddy, why you look so happy? I'm not baby, I'm just like this because it's over.

langleyparkjoe wrote:

DEHog wrote:Sorry I'm not old but I look at my son..he's 14 and the look on his face as we lost to the Lions..he's only know the Redskins and has been a hugh fans...When we win he will remember this lost and tell his son...I remember in 2099...

My daughter (6) said (after the Lions game).. Daddy, why you look so happy? I'm not baby, I'm just like this because it's over.

That is hilarious!

I didn't think I was old before I read this, but now I feel like a kid! You guys are geezing by the way, just letting you know.