BGO.C.D.: The Last Gasp

I find myself in a curious place. An unapologetically rabid Redskins fan since my childhood days, this offseason has seen a small, unfamiliar, almost...

More...

Well Boone, I understand what you are going through. It is easily understandable. However, I do not feel the same. I am quite optimistic about the future. Maybe not this year, but next. I believe the moment the football is snapped in the first preseason game you will be on the edge of your seat rooting for some unknown player to make the squad just like me. It will come back, it always does.

Maybe it will be sooner, like when FA happens (as you said). Maybe it will be when you are rooting for us to slaughter the Giants in week one. Whether we do or not is a seperate issue, but you will be there every step of the way, as will I.

The moment I do not see you a part of this message board, that is the moment I might realise that you are gone. You cannot spend your days talking about something that you no longer have interest in. If you do, well, you still have a stake in it. I don't think your fandom is on life support, not yet anyways. I give you another couple of seasons. You'll pull through!

...and then, right at the end, after describing all the symptoms to the doctor, the patient diagnosed his own problem...

Boone said:

Perhaps the six months of quietude and entropy of an NFL lockout has simply given me too much time to think. Perhaps I need some wild free agency spending, like a good dose of smelling salts, to perk me up, a Hall of Fame or pre-season game or two to get my blood stirring, or to see the Redskins rush from that giant helmet onto FedEx Field turf to feel that familiar surge of adrenaline again.

Click to expand...

May the feasts of a thousand Burgundy & Gold clad cheerleaders, mud wrestle your doubtful thoughts into submissive fandom, and free your soul from the wavered path of indifference.




Hail To The Redskins!!!

Boone, I'd like to watch you the instant of the first snap of the opening pre-season game against the Steelers.

I'd like to watch you sit perfectly still, no racing heartbeat, no sign of nervous "How are these new guys gonna look" anticipation, no sigh of relief combined with rapt attention as your mind races into "alright, Skins, show me something I can pin my hopes on."

I'd like see you look bored, jaded, a "ho-hum" expression on your face as if you were simply enduring something tedious and trivial.

I'd like to watch you do that-but I don't believe I'd be able to.

Because you wouldn't be ableto do it.

It's too deep in you, man.

Trust me, you won't be able to keep it from happening.

None of us will.


HTTR..

the Omniscient said:

The moment I do not see you a part of this message board, that is the moment I might realise that you are gone. You cannot spend your days talking about something that you no longer have interest in. If you do, well, you still have a stake in it. I don't think your fandom is on life support, not yet anyways. I give you another couple of seasons. You'll pull through!

Click to expand...

Ahhh...if you only knew how close I've come to exactly that - but as you said, I must still 'have a stake in it' since I have not made that drastic move.

Ax said:

...and then, right at the end, after describing all the symptoms to the doctor, the patient diagnosed his own problem...


May the feasts of a thousand Burgundy & Gold clad cheerleaders, mud wrestle your doubtful thoughts into submissive fandom, and free your soul from the wavered path of indifference.


[media]http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/multimedia/photo_gallery/0710/nfl.cheerleaders.redskins/images/hop49-4202-mid.jpg[/media]

Hail To The Redskins!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks Ax - that was more effective than the Valium I might otherwise have been prescribed

servumtuum said:

Boone, I'd like to watch you the instant of the first snap of the opening pre-season game against the Steelers.

I'd like to watch you sit perfectly still, no racing heartbeat, no sign of nervous "How are these new guys gonna look" anticipation, no sigh of relief combined with rapt attention as your mind races into "alright, Skins, show me something I can pin my hopes on."

I'd like see you look bored, jaded, a "ho-hum" expression on your face as if you were simply enduring something tedious and trivial.

I'd like to watch you do that-but I don't believe I'd be able to.

Because you wouldn't be ableto do it.

It's too deep in you, man.

Trust me, you won't be able to keep it from happening.

None of us will.


HTTR..

Click to expand...

And serv....errrr......no comment

If posts are a competition, Ax is winning!

Am there, doing that.

I'm curious to see if my interest returns with the players. At this point I'm considering canceling my NFL Sunday Ticket subscription for the first time in, well, forever.

Time will tell.

There was a nice piece in my local paper today about Jimmy Johnson and his life in the Keys. He said that he retired from the Dolphins and coaching because he was driven by QTL- quality time left.

That is something I can fully understand and appreciate. For the Redskins to qualify for me under that definition they are going to have to bring something, hell anything, to the table. It's been completely one-sided, in my mind, for far too long.

If it helps... and it probably doesn't... this feels like a new beginning for the 'skins. I realize we've endurred a lot of new beginnings, but this one is a little different.

We're actually saying good-bye to the old guard and not just jury rigging new pieces in as the old ones fall off. We've got a young corp or hard working fighters who've earned their place on a football team.

In many respects, the possibility of shedding Moss, Portis, Rogers, McIntosh, Haynesworth, and McNabb is really exciting to me even though some of those players I rooted for and really liked. They all carried the disease of the recent Redskins teams of thinking they were world beaters when they couldn't even start the engine.

If Moss goes, I'll miss him, but I won't miss the routes he jogged or the hot/cold nature of his attention and play. I certainly won't miss the diva attitude towards practice that Portis displayed. Haynesworth goes without explanation. Rogers never displayed the will to improve and always talked about himself as if he were an super pro bowler. McNabb... well, we hardly knew ye. I wouldn't mind you getting a second chance, but clearly that ship has sailed. Neither you nor the coaching staff mesh and frankly, you were out played by a "never was"

So, the idea of truly starting over and building something instead of trying to reanimate the dead once again is interesting to me. We have players who aren't superstars, but a core of scrappers that are really easy to like. Banks, Armstrong, Alexander, Orakpo, and Fletcher. Even Cooley is much more of a scrapper than a superstar. He's too slow and not big enough.

So, we're underdogs. That's a lot better than being paper lions.

burgold said:

So, we're underdogs. That's a lot better than being paper lions.

Click to expand...

But, when will we actually beat the Detroit Lions?

It's funny. We had like a thirty game winning streak against that team. Barry Sanders couldn't beat us. Then, splat. I think that was the game I knew Zorn was dead.

Even Green Bay Packer fan sites are displaying wary nervousness about the Lions this upcoming season.

They should be worried about the Lions. That D-line is going to be really good. The offense is already good and should be better with the addition of LeShoure and Stafford. They really need secondary help and that could come in FA. The NFC North is going to be tough.

I feel ya John, really I do.

With all the travel over the past several years its becoming a little easier to ACT like I don't care. It hasn't really worked though... Case in point, after another glorious day of fishing here in SW Florida, I pulled out of a new friend's driveway and saw a street... Zorn Lane or Drive whatever.... It made me so mad I squealed my tires as I pulled from the 4 way stop and got scolded by my new friend for "burning rubber" in his neighborhood. I tried not explain but I had to, and of course he's not a football fan so he looked at me like I was crazy.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that its always gonna be in there, whether you try to hide it or not is up to you.

I felt that way for the entire offseason (and most of the season, now that I think about it), but once I started hearing rumblings about a potential end to the lockout, I started to get that itch again. I think my body is hardwired to know when it's about time for training camp to begin. It's not at a fever pitch just yet, but it's a start.

By the way, this paragraph is real purty:

"And yet, I’m here. I cling to my fandom like photographs of old girlfriends tucked away in a box, faded, no longer relevant, incapable of returning my curious inexplicable affection."