Checking Out

It happened this weekend. Twice in fact. The football teams I have rooted for through thick and thin lost badly. And I shrugged. Found myself largely disinterested.

Let me take you back to the early 90s. My family had season tickets to RFK Stadium, and I got to go to at least one game a year to see our beloved Redskins. This was back when they were really good, before a prolonged decline. We had seats in the mezzanine. The short wall in front of us was made of whatever material allowed it to make maximum noise when we kicked and hit it. That was back when going to NFL games was fun.

I don't remember the last Redskins game I went to. Maybe 2013? Our season tickets went with us to FedEx Field, but we eventually gave them up. For many reasons. But I still structured my fall weekends around watching the Redskins and Hokies. That has changed too.

Part of that is just life getting in the way. I'm preparing to get married in a couple months and spending time with my fiancée is more important. But another reason is that my two favorite teams have just become completely unwatchable. The Redskins are 0-4, coming off a 24-3 loss to the bad New York Giants where the offense couldn't move the ball and the defense couldn't stop falling down or committing penalties. The Hokies are 2-2 and haven't looked good in any game. What's worse is there's no real hope that it's going to get better in either case, at least any time soon.

There are five stages of grief, but I'm not sure how many stages there are of fandom for a bad team. I know at some point it moves from anger to apathy, and that's where I am now. I haven't made it through one full Redskins game this year and have watched two of the four Hokie games. And I don't know how many more I'm going to invest time into watching. Someone please let me know when my beloved teams return.