"Hail To The Redskins!": Native New Yorker Makes D.C. His Second Home

“Sometimes in life, you have to believe in fate,” I am often told.  “Everything happens for a reason.”  But I have always wondered about fate and how it comes about.  Is it predicated by one’s circumstances or simply by the environment that surrounds us? 

Take for example, my fascination for football.  Was it fate that made me worship a team that lost four consecutive Super Bowls?  Or will fate force me to disconnect myself from that team and become loyal to another organization?

Originally from upstate New York, I believe that fate brought me to Washington D.C.  And it did not just happen once, but twice. 

The first time was in the early 1990s, when my brother convinced me to give the nation’s capital a try.  He said the city would offer me a chance to “find work, meet women and follow the Redskins”.  I may not have adhered to his advice in that particular order, but he was right about the women and the work. 

Meanwhile, I never dreamed of becoming a Redskins fan.  How could I, after witnessing what they did to my Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl 26?  I remember that game like it was yesterday.  Just one year after Bills kicker Scott Norwood became famous for booting a ball “wide right”, I watched in horror, as Redskins quarterback Mark Rypien shredded Buffalo’s defense, en route to MVP honors and a 37-24 victory.   

At the time, my brother suggested that I “give up on the Bills and give in to the inevitable”.  Originally a New York Giants fan, his attraction to Redskins Nation began when he moved to the District in 1976.  Just six years later, Washington won the first of its three Super Bowls under head coach Joe Gibbs, with a cast of characters that included John “the Diesel” Riggins, the Hogs, the Smurfs and the Fun Bunch.  When the team added another championship in 1987, the city was mesmerized and so was my brother.

Nevertheless, I could not imagine changing allegiances.  I was born and bred a Bills fan and believed that fate played a role, despite the agony of it all.  As a kid, I listened to the team’s radio broadcasts, because their games were blacked out on TV.  When I purchased my first game ticket, I attended a playoff contest, but froze in sub-zero temperatures.  I grew up admiring O.J. Simpson, until he stood trial for a double murder.  And I attended the college that used to host the Bills training camp, but never got an autograph.  There were, of course, plenty of good times, like the greatest comeback in NFL history.  But there were far too many embarrassments, like the time I attended my first Super Bowl, only to see the Cowboys crush the Bills 52-17.

So what will it take for me to worship another team?  That is hard to say.  But in Washington, I sometimes feel compelled by a higher power.

Take my wife, for example.  In 1995, I met her after she broke off a six-year relationship with the son of a Redskin.  But it was not just any Redskin. It happened to be legendary quarterback Sonny Jurgensen.  Yes, the same Sonny Jurgensen who is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  "Was this just a coincidence,” I thought at the time.  “Or did I need to become a Redskins fan to save my relationship?”

A year later, I became a television sports reporter in Western Maryland and had the opportunity to cover the Redskins.  During that time, I met Charles Mann, who worked for a Washington news operation after his retirement from pro football.  It is easy to remember Mann.  He owns 5 Super Bowl rings from his career in Washington and San Francisco, including the one he earned when the Redskins beat Buffalo. 

Coincidentally, I covered the Bills for three seasons after returning to upstate New York in 2000.  Fate may have played a role in that too, because the team hired a rookie head coach named Gregg Williams, who later became Washington’s defensive coordinator.  Williams was hired by the Redskins in 2005, the same year I moved back to D.C. for a second time.        

Currently, my connection to Redskins football continues to grow.  Since 2007, I have covered the team as a freelance columnist for a football website and just last year, I became a bartender at a new sports restaurant that is owned by a former Redskins assistant coach.  He has a Super Bowl ring too. 

Admittedly, I have developed a vested interest in the team.  A few months ago, the restaurant honored newly inducted Hall of Fame receiver Art Monk.  After posing for pictures with our guests, he graciously talked to me about his career with the Redskins and his college days at Syracuse.  I told him that I have always been a fan of the Orange, but refrained from talking about the Bills.

Maybe my brother was right.  Maybe becoming a Redskins fan is inevitable.  But as a journalist, I must deal with my fate in a professional manner. 

Besides, changing allegiances takes time.  And if I earn the chance to cover the current team in 2009, I will need to be objective.

That way, I can stay true to the Bills and keep the Redskins’ fight song to myself.