It’s amazing when we consider things in our lives that used to mean so much to us and now mean so little.
Once was a time in my life that it mattered desperately to me that the Washington Redskins would win. In fact, if I consider things that had no real effect on my life, January 30th, 1983, was one of my happiest days ever.
That was the day of Super Bowl XVII, the day the Redskins beat Miami, 27-17, and won their first Super Bowl.
I was working in Gastonia, N.C., and sharing a townhouse with two of my colleagues. I watched the game with one of them, a guy who truly hated the Redskins, and when John Riggins broke free for the 43-yard touchdown run that gave the Redskins the lead, I remember him screaming, “Noooooo!!” in anguish.
It mattered so much to me. In fact, in later years it was actually painful to watch games because I would squirm and move from side to side as if I had to help runners evade tacklers myself.
I didn’t go to Super Bowl parties. The only time I came close was 1978, when I went to Munich with a group of guys from the American Embassy in Vienna to watch Super Bowl XXII on American Forces Television. I seem to remember the game started at 2 a.m.
I wasn’t really much of a fan of the game. I covered six different NFL teams during my 16 years as a sportswriter — the Redskins, Atlanta, the Denver Broncos, the 49ers, the Rams and the Raiders. When I worked in Reno, it was my first time in the Pacific Time Zone, and I enjoyed watching a game at 10 a.m., dozing during the 1 p.m. game and then going out to dinner.
As I wrote earlier this month, I actually got to cover a Super Bowl in 1993 and the Rose Bowl. Horrible game — 52-17, Dallas over Buffalo.
The last two that I watched were XXXII and XXXIII, as my favorite NFL player I ever covered finished his career leading Denver to two victories. Nobody was better at retiring at the perfect moment — two championships and farewell.
I pretty much stopped following the Redskins when Daniel Snyder bought the team. He turned one of the best franchises into one of the worst. It has been 29 seasons since Washington played in a Super Bowl, and most of the news about the team has been about the failure to change the name.
Snyder insisted for years he would never change the name, despite redskins’ history as a pejorative name for American Indians. Then when the league finally forced it on him this year, he couldn’t come up with anything to replace it. That means the former Redskins now have the generic name Football Team.
So of course their legendary fight song has to be changed:
“Hail to football team, hail victory, players on the win path, fight for old D.C. …”
Where is Irving Berlin when we really need him?
It’s funny, though. As much as I no longer care whether the team wins or loses, I still intensely dislike the Dallas Cowboys. So on a day like today, when Football Team beats those Cowpokes, 25-3, I’ll give them their due.
Yay.
No exclamation point.
Just yay.