My football team is the Washington Redskins. In the previous ESPN magazine, they ranked them one of the worst franchises in all of sports. They are known in history as trying to grab stars over the hump and overpay for them. Recent players such as Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander, Larry Johnson, and Albert Haynesworth have been a major disappointment. Before last season, Big Al was given a $100 million salary to solidify the Redskins defense. As the 2010 season came to a close, Hayneworth finished with a career low 2.5 sacks, played in only half the games, became a huge distraction to the team, and he was suppose to be our franchise player. The Redskins haven’t had a winning record since 2007 and since my birth in 1995 they have won 2 playoff games. I have been to one game since moving to San Diego and it was quite embarrassing. The game meant nothing since it was the last game of the season and the Redskins lost the Chargers 2nd string on a game winning touchdown. As I looked around the stadium, many of the Redskin fans had paper bags over their head as they didn’t want to show their faces for rooting for a team so bad. The future does not look good down the road for this franchise as their offense is very old and their head owner, Dan Snyder is incompetent. I see a lot of sad Sundays down the road.
For basketball, I am a Washington Wizards fan. I grew up going to games at the Verizon Center in Chinatown. I saw Michael Jordan play as a Wizard and even watched them make the playoffs a few times (only to get swept by the Cavs twice). I started to believe in this team but after a dismal season in 2009, 2010 brought even worse luck to the Wizards. The star point guard, Gilbert Arenas was accused of pointing guns to players in the locker room. They weren’t loaded and Arenas called it a prank, but the NBA didn’t think it was funny as he was suspended the remainder of the season. Since then, the team has finished back to back seasons as one of the worst teams in the NBA and Arenas was traded to the Orlando Magic earlier this season. We have hope with a young roster, but the kids do not play like a team making it hard to believe the Wizards will make it back into the playoffs any time soon.
Every baseball season, I stare at the AL East standings and see my team the Baltimore Orioles stuck at the bottom. When I lived in Washington DC, the Nationals (now the DC baseball team), were stationed in Montreal. The Orioles are 45 min drive down the beltway so they were the team to root for and still are for a lot of DC residents. They were very good back in the day with Cal Ripkin Jr, but the past decade they have been stuck on the bottom of the always loaded division, the AL East. The AL East is considered as the best division in baseball with the Yankees and Red Sox leading the way every year. It doesn’t help that one player on the Yankees alone (Alex Rodriguez) has a bigger salary than the whole Orioles team combined. This year is no different as they are 15 games out of 1st place and are looking to deal their veterans to contenders. Unless they miraculously find money, the Baltimore Orioles will be on the bottom for a long, long time.
Besides the three major sports, the DC teams are still unable to produce in their respective leagues. The DC United of the MLS have finished last place back to back years. The Mystic of the WNBA have finished last three years in a row. Even the Washington Capitals of the NHL who finished with the best record in the NHL back to back years, quickly became the laughing stock of hockey as both years, they weren’t able to capture the Stanley Cup, even though they were the favorites both years.
The curse of DC sports I have accepted into my life. I find it humorous that someone so involved with sports, could be punished with his teams being so bad. I still continue to believe and hope one day, I will be proud to be a DC sports fan.
 |
| Washington Wizards (basketball). |
No comments:
Post a Comment