Since 1993, the Redskins have started 18 different quarterbacks, only two of whom—Gus Frerotte and Brad Johnson—made the Pro Bowl while wearing a Redskins uniform. This is a significant problem because any casual fan can tell you that the NFL is a quarterback-centric league, and teams that lack a reliable quarterback tend to dwell in the bottom half of the standings.

The Redskins are not the only franchise that has lacked a reliable leader under center for the past two decades, but the factor that has made the Redskins struggles unique is the fact that there always seems to be a quarterback controversy brewing in the nation’s capitol, leaving fans and coaches unsure of whom to support and whom to belittle. Read the rest of part one here.

In a casual conversation I was having with a friend a few weeks back, I asked him if he remembered Turner’s strategy going into the ’94 season. He said he did not and then added, “But with this franchise, that doesn’t surprise me.” The disgust with which he said the words this franchise illustrate how the majority of Redskins fans my age feel: to them the franchise has always been a joke.

Most football fans struggle to remember remember the days when John Riggins bowled over defenders or Mark Rypien hooked up with one of the famed members of the posse. Instead they remember Gus Frerotte slamming his head into a wall for no apparent reason—more on that later—an aging Deion Sanders getting burned by less-than stellar receivers and an overweight Albert Haynesworth floundering on the ground at the end of a broken play.

The idea that the Redskins were once viewed as a perennial contender can come across as pure hyperbole, yet there was a time when such was the norm.

Esteemed sports columnist Richard Justice, who was a Washington Post staff writer in 1994, wrote in a column describing the Redskins opening game against the Seahawks, “For the first time in more than a decade, no one thinks the Redskins have a chance to go to the Super Bowl.”

Between 1994 and 1996, “Shuler or Frerotte” was a more heated debate then any that took place in the halls of Congress, and during those years Coach Norv Turner never seemed like he knew who we wanted to start—sound familiar?

In the run-up to the 1996 season, the one in which Frerotte would finally win the starting job for good, a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot noted that Turner was splitting the amount of preseason playing time between the two in such a meticulous manner that neither player was getting the  number of reps a young starting quarterback needs.

Those were frustrating years marked by indecision and defined by Turner and his superiors’ obvious inability to handle a delicate situation involving the game’s most important position. But what fans at the time did not realize is that it was just the beginning of a new period in Redskins football.

Frerotte made the Pro Bowl in 1996 and Shuler quietly left town that offseason, but the Redskins tendency for self-immolation via poor quarterback play had only just begun.

Late in 1997, in a game against the New York Giants, Frerrotte scrambled for a touchdown before inexplicably running through the back of end zone and head butting the wall that separates the field from the stands. His idiotic touchdown celebration gave him a sprained neck and, not surprisingly, his productivity declined significantly after that play.

Thus began the revolving carousel of Redskins quarterbacks. In 1998, Frerrotte was replaced by Trent Green, who over the course of 15 games lit up opposing defenses for 3,441 yards and 23 touchdowns. However, Green’s obvious potential was not apparent to Redskins management who failed to re-sign him—Green would go on to make two Pro Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs.

After Green, Brad Johnson provided one season of stability by starting all 16 games of the 1999 season and making the Pro Bowl. But his success was short lived, as he would only start 11 games in 2000, throw more interceptions than touchdowns and get replaced by Jeff George.

George was replaced by Tony Banks, during Marty Schottenheimer’s one season as head coach. Banks was given the boot by Steve Spurrier who could never get Shane Matthews, Danny Wuerffel, Tim Hasselbeck or Patrick Ramsey to replicate the offensive success Spurrier experienced in college.

Ramsey seemed like a credible starting quarterback, but when Joe Gibbs returned to Washington he replaced Ramsey with Mark Brunell and drafted Jason Campbell to be the quarterback of the future. Brunell had his ups and downs as a starter, but many fans clamored for Ramsey throughout Gibbs' second tenure with the team.

Campbell took over for good in 2006 and helped lead the team to the playoffs in 2007, but when he went down with a knee injury late in that season and backup Todd Collins provided an offensive spark in his absence, another quarterback controversy erupted.

Campbell would hold the starting job for the next two seasons, but at no point did anyone in Washington truly believe he was a legitimate solution to the franchise’s quarterback woes.

When Mike Shanahan took over as head coach in 2010, he jettisoned Campbell before stupidly signing the aging Donovan McNabb. McNabb was eventually replaced by Grossman, who yielded the starting job to the underwhelming John Beck before getting it back.

Year after year the names change, but the script remains the same. There’s a starter who is underperforming and a backup waiting in the wings, ready to provide a brief spark before succumbing to inevitable ineptitude. It started with Heath and Gus but continues today via Rex vs. Beck, proving there is no end in sight.

The real losers in this narrative are the fans. What makes the Redskins’ plight particularly painful for those who cheer for the burgundy and gold is that the team’s failures always come on the heels of promise.

Shuler was supposed to be a savior but ended up a dud. The same can be said of any of the big name free agents the Redskins signed in 1990s or 2000s or the big name coaches from Schottenheimer to Shanahan.

To add a further level of irony to this story, Shuler has since returned to the nation’s capitol, albeit in a very different role, and is now experiencing what is arguably his highest level of professional success as member of Congress. He works in a building only a few miles from the stadium in which he made his NFL debut.

By all accounts, Shuler doesn’t seem to harbor any ill-will to the franchise or to the fans who once booed him incessantly, but it doesn’t make Redskins fans feel any better that he has moved on while their team has not.

So how can the Redskins break the Curse of Heath Shuler? How can the team find a quarterback who can restore glory to the position, who can live up to expectations created  by Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, Sonny Jergensen, Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien?

There is no reliable method for breaking sports jinxes so the Redskins may have to get creative. To break the curse of the Bambino, the Red Sox had to complete the greatest postseason comeback in baseball history against the New York Yankees, the team to which they traded Babe Ruth. Perhaps Redskins owner Dan Snyder should finance a super-PAC dedicated to ending Shuler’s political career.

Or perhaps the team should try to reconcile with their prodigy turned failure. A halftime ceremony honoring Shuler and Gus Frerotte would provide an opportunity for the franchise to laugh at its own expense, and perhaps that is what the team needs in their hour of desperation.

Whatever the solution may be, Redskins fans should know that the Curse of Heath Shuler is alive and kickin’—current head coach Mike Shanahan’s oscillation between two quarterbacks shows the proof is in the pudding—and it is time they embrace it.

Lots of great sports towns from Chicago to Boston to Philadelphia have identified curses and used them to foster unity amongst fans. As Washington sports fans come to grips with what kind of sports town they live in, perhaps embracing the Curse of Heath Shuler will only serve to remind outsiders that legislation isn’t the only thing on the minds of people inside the beltway.