This is a topic that has plagued me as a DC sports fan for many years. I'm finally letting go, coming to grips and owning up to it: Washington DC is NOT a sports town in any way, shape or form.
I'm an intensely competitive person and nowhere else in life does this manifest itself more in one area than in my following of local sports teams. I think at the root of it, I would never admit that anyone is better than me at something I felt I had some level of control over. This is probably why I lose sleep over fantasy football losses.
So what's the point? I hate when our local team lose on many levels, but it's especially tough to deal with losing to hated rivals. It kills me more than anything to think that the same meathead, jerkoff Eagles fan can drive down to DC, get a cheap ticket to a Skins game, mouth off in the stadium, pick fights, then ultimately say "I told you so" when the Skins lose in disasterous fashion yet again. This situation will be broken down in many blogs. But this one focuses on the inferiority of DC sports in one glaring way.
I've been to the "classic" sports towns such as Boston or Chicago. I've always hated our sports scene and the fact that out of town writers and radio hosts can come here and say things like "DC isn't a sports town." Over time, I've moved from denial towards acceptance, but never more than after game 6 of the Caps/Penguins series. I was stuck in a work function in Chinatown until the end of the 2nd period. With it not being all that late and the Caps on the brink of either bowing out to a hated rival or bringing the series back to DC for a knock down drag out game 7, I figured I'd have a hard time even getting into a bar.
What I found on 7th St was a ghost town. Heading from the Convention Center towards the Verizon Center, I first went into RFD, which was alomst completely empty besides a handful of Caps fans and a couple Penguins fans. Same thing at Fado. Same at Matchbox. Same at Clydes. I finally gave up and watched the end of the game next to a guy that let me sit at the empty barstool next to him with all the friendliness as if I asked if I could kick him in the crotch. And that was the scene. Now, my first thought was to take a step back and say "this is hockey after all". But I quickly shunned that. The Caps are ALL that we have right now. They are playing their biggest playoff rival. It's the clash of two superstars. It's win or go home. And I was in the best part of town, 20 FEET FROM THE ARENA that Game 7 would be played in.
Then it hit me: DC is not a sports town. If this was Chicago in the same circumstance, every bar would be jam packed, there would be people on the streets, and the guy I sat next to would not only have given me that barstool, he'd have bought me a drink, given me a high five, and now that I think about it - he wouldn't even be sitting!
So maybe acceptance is the right place to be. I'm not sure what difference it makes. It angers me because of the competitiveness. It angers me because people in the media say stupid shit like "DC is a transient town", completely dismiss a massive local fan base, and are somehow right. It angers me that I'm part of the problem. For example, I shake my head at the Nats attendance numbers and TV ratings, yet I'm not doing anything to change it.
The only way I can really wrap up this pathetic rant is to introduce what I'm calling the "Suicide Scale" and assign this fact a number. Loose values are something like:
1 = Breaking up with your high school girlfriend
2 = Losing your job
3 = Fashioning a noose while working as a bag boy after getting out of Shawshank after a multiple decade-long prison sentence
4 = Putting a shotgun in your mouth and closing your eyes
5 = #4, but after the Skins lose in OT of a playoff game after a botched gimme FG hold is run back for a TD, your car breaks down in the FedEx Field parking lot, and you come home to find Coach K banging your wife
I put this Coming to Grips at a 1.5. It pains me, but in the scheme of things to want to kill myself over in the DC sports scene, it's not so bad.
I actually cried when I read this. We'd be better off as a po-dunk shit town, small city set of fans like Green Bay where people just respected our dedication but due to facts that will be elaborated on in other blogs we have some inherent traits that keep us from ever being a fully dedicated town outside of when we win championships. I hate everyone but you.
ReplyDeleteI love the downward-spiraling hate bomb that was perpetuated by that post. Cheer up mates - you can always have dreams of Doug Williams and your father's weird "remember when" comments about Earl the Pearl. Those times were great times when I'm almost positively certain that DC ha good fans, rabid excitement, and free rounds to the victors at your local watering hole.
ReplyDeleteIt goes in waves - the last generation couldnt get it done. Then you have people like yourselves who cant even muster the strength to take season tickets that are in your lap. You need to seize these opportunities, drink a lot, become obese and turn the tides on the past generation of hippy wannabees that tried to ruin your city's fandom.
You can still hate-hate-hate, but appreciate and dominate....and any other ...ates you got.
D