I went to college about 3 hours south of DC just outside of a town called Farmville. I was smack dab in the middle of Virginia and many of my classmates were from the surrounding area. So it stood to reason that most of them were Redskins fans. On my college football team I’d say 60% of us rooted for Washington. While we had other folks who cheered for the Patriots (this was at the turn of the millennium so guys were rooting for them because they were from New England and not because they won all the time) and the Steelers, the majority of the non-Skins fans rooted for Dallas. That seems to be the norm across the DMV so it wasn’t a shock, rather a minor nuisance as Washington was in the middle of that long losing streak to the Cowboys.
I remember two Dallas fans on that team most vividly; one was your typical bandwagon jumper and the other was a true Cowboys fan (despite the fact that he grew up in South Carolina). Anyway the second fan didn’t bug me as much, even though he rubbed the losses in plenty, because he could tell me about Roger Staubach, or Tony Dorsett, or Tom Landry – aka legends in Cowboys history. The other “fan” really pissed me off one day with his trash talk so I started peppering him; “What do you know about Landry, Dorsett, Randy White…hell Danny White?” The response, “ I didn’t watch the Cowboys then.” Since he was about my age I took one thing away from the conversation; he started watching Dallas games when they were winning Super Bowls, and probably was a 49ers or Skins fan before that.
It’s a simple proposition people; learn about the history of your team. I know I’m a sports nerd and my standards are ridiculous, but it’s not hard to find out about a few great players from your franchise so that you don’t sound ignorant if someone questions your fandom. Now your old buddy Huber usually has a solution to things and that’s the case today. NFL Films has a truckload of old stuff now up on Hulu. In addition to the America’s Game series (the awesome documentaries about the Super Bowl Champions) and the Super Bowl highlight films, they now have put up season highlights that date back to 1957! So if you’re a Chargers fan and you want to learn more about the Air Coryell offense, you can. If you’re an older Steelers fan and you want to re-live the days of the 70’s dynasty, you can do that too. I’ve already gone through 5 seasons of 80’s Skins highlights today. Whether you’re trying to educate yourself or just wax nostalgic, it’s worth a look.
