Don't Boycott Danny

Root for losses instead

Sportswriter John Feinstein has an answer to the bag query. With paper bags being a New Orleans thing and against FedEx Field rules, everyone's looking for the right way to 'honor' Dan Snyder's football team and their decade of mediocrity.

Feinstein said Skins fans should boycott.

He appeared on Washington Post Live the other day, and the Sports Bog transcribed his appearance:

"Let's get to the point here. The Washington Redskins have become the Saturday Night Live routine of the NFL, all right? The owner thinks he knows football and doesn't know football. He's got a henchman sideguy to his right, who's a radio talkshow host half of the week and is calling Bingo callers to fix the offense the rest of the week. It is a joke.

"And let me say this for the record, I know what Redskins fans are saying right now. They're angry, they're upset. Ok, DO something about it. DON'T go to the game Sunday. I'm serious about this. If you really want to send a message to the owner, stop calling radio talk shows, stop sending e-mails to this show, and DON'T GO on Sunday. Don't give the guy your money for parking, for concessions.

"Tell him how upset you are by staying home and watching the game on television. They ought to just stay home....DON'T GO. STAY HOME AND WATCH THE GOOD GAMES. DON'T GO!"

That's easy to say for someone who sits in the pressbox and doesn't breathe burgundy and gold. It's a heck of a lot harder to do for the die-hard fans who've been pulling for this team for ages.

The other problem with his boycott is that, well, it's not really going to hurt Snyder.  The guy's making so many bazillions of dollars that losing a few thousand really isn't going to matter.  He'd probably just come up with the latest money-sucking scheme to draw a few more bucks out of the true football addicts.

The only thing that would ever get Snyder to shape up is complete, absolute rock bottom -- Detroit Lions-level rock bottom.  The biggest problem the Skins have had is that year after year they've been perfectly mediocre, stuck in that 7-to-9 win range, so Danny thinks that next year could be the year if he just adds that one piece. 

If this team totally tanks and goes 3-13, there aren't any number of single pieces that could (should?) convince Danny that they're close. And the worse they do, the more likely that Vinny Cerrato is out driving a cab somewhere. 

So don't follow Feinstein's advice. A boycott won't do it. True fans, sad to say, should be rooting for more soul-crushing losses.  Lots of short-term pain for lots of long-term gains. It's tough, but that's the only path forward.

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