Salutations™!!
Eugene and I came home from Richmond, where we spent time with Brian – a little The Less Desirables reunion – and taking in a Skins game. Eugene harps on the fact that I make it no secret that I am not a fan of the Skins, I’m a Steelers fan, but it’s cool, I enjoyed being up there. Tailgating was fun. Seeing the stadium was fun. Being with my boys was fun. The game, however, was atrocious.
One of the teams I hate the most is the Dallas Cowboys, from here on out referred to as the Cowpiles, and their fans are one of the reasons why. I have plenty of friends who are Cowpiles fans and I’d say most of them aren’t too annoying but the overall consensus is that the fans of the team generally are. At FedEx Field, and at the beginning of the day there was about a 60/40 split on the Skins/Piles fan attendance. Pretty heavy actually considering this was a Skins home game and the rivalry is one of the most storied in the NFL (I personally prefer Steelers/Ravens (old Browns) rivalry), if not all of sports. That was one appeal to me about going to the game, that story. Anywhat! I thought the heft of the Piles attendance was odd, but I thought about it a bit more…
For one, most of the Redskins fans hate the owner of the team, Daniel Snyder. I’ll admit he’s one of my least faves, incidentally Jerry Jones of the Piles is the other. I just think they’re bad for business and the league. The way they handle their teams is comparable to playground whiners taking their ball and going home if they don’t get what they want. They have too much money than they know what to do with and they throw that stuff around like nobody’s business. So why not flip him the proverbial finger in the best way possible? His pocketbook. A low turnout at home doesn’t do well for publicity and therefore the pocketbook. Not that he has any trouble attracting bad publicity on his own. The team name is one thing but his defiance (while somewhat admirable) rubs people the wrong way.
Another reason for the turnout could be the location. Washington DC is a major hub of industry and government. People from all over the country, heck the world, come to DC for work; here more than other larger cities outside of, I’d say, New York, LA and Chicago. And the Piles are one of the biggest selling teams across the country, for whatever reason, it could just be location for them. They’re close to where their team is playing, why not?
As the game progressed and the score was more lopsided, more and more Skins fans left. Which struck me as somewhat odd, too, considering this was their last game of the season, albeit a horrible season, and they won’t see their team again for about 9 months. Also, they certainly paid good money for the tickets. Some people laugh at me when I’m at a movie theater and I stay through the credits. That’s partly because I’m interested in the specifics of the film and partly because, hey! if I paid for the whole movie, I’m going to watch the whole movie. They paid for the whole game, right; not just if they win or lose? I get going to the parking lot early to miss the post-game crowd but c’mon. Where’s the pride in that?
So, we stayed the whole time and watched the crowd become 60/40 Piles to Skins ration and then about 85/15. I felt bad for the Skins fans. There were times where you couldn’t hear any of the chants for the Skins because the Piles fans were so loud. They didn’t let up, I’ll give them that. The game ended up 44-17 and was more a blowout than even what the score indicates.
The fun, though, like I said, was the tailgating. We had parking passes and parked beside a group of friends: some Skins fans, some Piles, where we proceeded to crank some tunes on Eug’s “Tailgator” mp3 amp, drink some fine beer from the area (we bought some for the cooler the night prior), ate crappy sandwiches, good chips, got some shrimp from the dudes next to us and had a rollicking fun time. Lock chairs, beer, music, friends, food. Good stuff.
The Less Desirables – Post Game Shenanigans.
After the game we were pretty much the last ones to leave. We drank a little more beer (not enough to impede driving) and talked a bit. A weird thing happened at that point. I guess I need to preface about the location. We parked and sat in this location because there are a line of trees that enable guys to not have to hunt down a port-a-jon when the time comes. Ok, so after the game we were waiting for traffic to thin when a lovely Latina girl in a Redskins jersey ran up and said, “Okay boys, you’ve got to spot me, I’ve got to pee, so bad!” She then went behind the burnt orange dumpster we stood beside and dropped trow right there. I stood next to her and turned my back so to not look. Brian and Eugene took position to just generally keep an eye out for other people approaching; none did. She peed for what seemed like a full minute and kept giving commentary the whole time. I swear I didn’t look, however, peripheral vision lends a guess that she was bare-a-double-ssed against the dumpster and letting it fly. She then stood up and explained that her sister made her get out of the car and go pee as to not do it in there. She thanked us for being gentlemen and then set about looking for her sister’s car. We probably shouldn’t have let her walk on alone but also, I don’t think it would have been wise to try to detain her. She was a bit inebriated. And like that, she was gone.
We laughed for a minute and opened another beer. After nearly 45 minutes, we decided traffic had subsided enough to leave. That we did. Traffic all the way to Richmond was horrible and add the fact that it was raining, it was sloppy. We picked up some pizza and headed back to Brian’s to watch the Steelers game (which they won, by the way). Good times, indeed.
Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!
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“Having this interest here in the redskins is the chief hobby of my life.” – Jack Kent Cooke
