Red-Skins Nation?
 

I hate to start a thread talking about another sports team. But when it comes to fan bases, I think it's possible that Red Sox Nation is arguably the most fervent group of fans in existence. After all they waited, what, 86 years before they had some hardware to show for anything.
If that's not longsuffering then I don't know what is!

But what about Red-[I]Skins [/I]Nation? No, we don't refer to ourselves as such but when it comes to 'followers' I certainly think we're still in the top ten of all professional sports teams! My top seven would probably start off with the Red Sox, then the Yankies, Lakers, Redskins, St. Louis Cards, The Belichick Boys, Cowboys, and out of courtesy to the NHL I'll leave a few slots open for them.

Since the completion of FEDX, as a fan base, we may have taken a step backwards. Some of that may have to do with location and quite frankly some of it may have to do with plain old lukewarmness (is that a word?). Now I'm not one of those fans that tries to separate the chaff from the wheat, and see who's really a Redskin fan and who isn't - but there [I]was [/I]something very magical about RFK. Opponents seriously feared coming here during the Gibbs era. The stadium was old, the fans were rabid, and during the colder months the field conditions usually played to our advantage - to our brand of football.

Just as our team is poised to restore some of the glory of yester-year,
I think it's time for us Reskins fans to reclaim our rightful spot among the most avid followers of one of the greatest franchises in sports!

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

cant call it redskin nation because there is not a majorly definitive redskin crowd in DC as in other places, such as steeler nation in the pittsburgh area where 95% of the evening news, in and out of season, revolves around the steelers, the fact is that there are so many people born and raised from different parts of the country that go to work around dc whether it be govt. jobs or just the good job market in the surrounding area that half the time youll walk into a bar on sundays and maybe more than half the people there will be sporting athletic wear from other teams, it sucks that we dont have the huge hometown type feeling like most other teams, for instance having to defend my skins to half my peers that are non-skins fans due to where they were born or because they jumped on a bandwagon of a good team in the mid 90's, but we definitley have a very large fanbase disperesed throughout the country

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

Redskins nation? More like Redskins universe!

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[QUOTE=12thMan]I hate to start a thread talking about another sports team. But when it comes to fan bases, I think it's possible that Red Sox Nation is arguably the most fervent group of fans in existence. After all they waited, what, 86 years before they had some hardware to show for anything.
If that's not longsuffering then I don't know what is![/QUOTE]

You know what ticks me off about Red Sox fans? When you hear some 16-year old talk about how he's suffered for 86 years. Oh really, did you now? How'd you pull that off not being alive for 70 of them?

Sorry, had to vent....we now return to our regularly scheduled discussion

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

More than any team's fans I have a problem with the Patriot's fans. Talk about jumping onto the bandwagon. The Patriots had a following similar to the Arizona Cardinals prior to the Super Bowl. Sure, you could say that about any team who has a Super Bowl victory, but I sure don't see a lot of Tampa Bay hats around here.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

Yeah, I remember the Pats fans during the lean years they were no where to be heard. But lately I have to give them some props...

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

I give the Pats props, but not their fans. I remember in 2004 there was some guy in my office that by the nature of being from the North, he adopted the Pats as his team because they were "good" and started giving me crap about the Skins and shit. I asked him who the QB was before Tom Brady and he had no idea.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

I also showed him a picture of the old Patriots logo and asked him what that was and he was like "Who is that?"

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=TheMalcolmConnection]I give the Pats props, but not their fans. I remember in 2004 there was some guy in my office that by the nature of being from the North, he adopted the Pats as his team because they were "good" and started giving me crap about the Skins and shit. I asked him who the QB was before Tom Brady and he had no idea.[/quote]

Yeah that's some fair weather shit right there!

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

That's pretty typical of a lot of teams like that. If anything I can give credit to most of the Cowboy's fans for at least knowing about their team during THEIR glory years and I'm not talking about the nineties. Biggest fair weather fans are: Patriots, Buccaneers and Eagles.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=TheMalcolmConnection]More than any team's fans I have a problem with the Patriot's fans. Talk about jumping onto the bandwagon. The Patriots had a following similar to the Arizona Cardinals prior to the Super Bowl. Sure, you could say that about any team who has a Super Bowl victory, but I sure don't see a lot of Tampa Bay hats around here.[/quote]

Agreed, before the Brady years I don't think I ever came across a single person that claimed to be a Patriots fan. Nobody actually cheered for the Patriots.....they were a joke.

I think my list would be similar in other respects though. I'd say some of my top ones would be Red Sox, Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Raiders, Redskins, Cowboys, Steelers and probably the Mets.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[QUOTE=12thMan]I hate to start a thread talking about another sports team. But when it comes to fan bases, I think it's possible that Red Sox Nation is arguably the most fervent group of fans in existence. After all they waited, what, 86 years before they had some hardware to show for anything.
If that's not longsuffering then I don't know what is!QUOTE]

The Sox have great fans no doubt, but I hate all that 86 year nonsense like they were the only suffering fans in the world! Unless you are a 90+ year old Redsox fan then you are no different then the rest of the suffering fans. And how many Redsox fans have been alive to suffer through even half those 86 years...not that many...certanily not a "nation" worth of them. Some teams have never won. I am a 35 year old skins fan so I have no complaints there, but my second favorite sports team is the Philly Flyers who have not won since 1975 when I was 4 years old. So I have never seen them win the Stanley Cup in my life...so why would a 35 year old Red Sox fan be any more miserable then a 35 year old Flyers fan or any other fan who has never seen their team win? That just agravates me how Redsox And Cubs fans think they have the market cornered on misery. It's nonsense...

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[QUOTE=PSUSkinsFan21]Agreed, before the Brady years I don't think I ever came across a single person that claimed to be a Patriots fan. Nobody actually cheered for the Patriots.....they were a joke.

I think my list would be similar in other respects though. I'd say some of my top ones would be Red Sox, Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Raiders, Redskins, Cowboys, Steelers and probably the Mets.[/QUOTE]

Texas stadium is half full when the Cowboys are not having a great season. They have a big nationwide fanbase but their local support is pretty weak I think.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[QUOTE=celts32]The Sox have great fans no doubt, but I hate all that 86 year nonsense like they were the only suffering fans in the world! Unless you are a 90+ year old Redsox fan then you are no different then the rest of the suffering fans. And how many Redsox fans have been alive to suffer through even half those 86 years...not that many...certanily not a "nation" worth of them. Some teams have never won. I am a 35 year old skins fan so I have no complaints there, but my second favorite sports team is the Philly Flyers who have not won since 1975 when I was 4 years old. So I have never seen them win the Stanley Cup in my life...so why would a 35 year old Red Sox fan be any more miserable then a 35 year old Flyers fan or any other fan who has never seen their team win? That just agravates me how Redsox And Cubs fans think they have the market cornered on misery. It's nonsense...[/QUOTE]

Exactly what I'm saying. I just don't get all the "oh we've suffered for 86 years" crap. Plus I hate how they feel they're owed something. I had two roommates in college who were die hard Sox and it's like they never "lost" they were always "robbed"

Sorry to all Sox fans who might be here, it's nothing personal. I just hate your team

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote]The Sox have great fans no doubt, but I hate all that 86 year nonsense like they were the only suffering fans in the world! Unless you are a 90+ year old Redsox fan then you are no different then the rest of the suffering fans. And how many Redsox fans have been alive to suffer through even half those 86 years...not that many...certanily not a "nation" worth of them. Some teams have never won. I am a 35 year old skins fan so I have no complaints there, but my second favorite sports team is the Philly Flyers who have not won since 1975 when I was 4 years old. So I have never seen them win the Stanley Cup in my life...so why would a 35 year old Red Sox fan be any more miserable then a 35 year old Flyers fan or any other fan who has never seen their team win? That just agravates me how Redsox And Cubs fans think they have the market cornered on misery. It's nonsense...[/quote]

Excellent point. And as a Flyers fan, it's not like you haven't lived through an unbelievable number of teams that all looked poised to do it. They may be the most consistently good/great franchise to have not won a Championship (in any major sport) in over 30 years.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=celts32]Texas stadium is half full when the Cowboys are not having a great season. They have a big nationwide fanbase but their local support is pretty weak I think.[/quote]

Good point. I guess it's just the inordinantly large number of fans that I always had to deal with growing up in Eastern PA. I mean, why the heck are you a cowboys fan if you're from eastern PA? It never made sense to me, but it always gave me the impression 50% of the country was a Cowboys fan (I'm exaggerating, but you get the point). I always hated that "America's Team" BS too. People would talk about "America's Team" and I'd always fire back by telling them they must be talking about the Redskins......after all, our Nation's capital only has one football team (or at least it did before FedEx).

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=PSUSkinsFan21]Agreed, before the Brady years I don't think I ever came across a single person that claimed to be a Patriots fan. Nobody actually cheered for the Patriots.....they were a joke.

I think my list would be similar in other respects though. I'd say some of my top ones would be Red Sox, Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Raiders, Redskins, Cowboys, Steelers and probably the Mets.[/quote]

I dunno. I think maybe in sheer numbers that Red Sox and Yankees fans might outnumber football teams fans, however many of those fans are disinterested. If you live in that area of the world, it's like it is a prerequisite to make a commitment to either the Red Sox or the Yankees. When it comes to sheer loyalty and straight up fanaticism, I'd have to say that the Redskins and Cowboys fans are some of the best and most loyal.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=TheMalcolmConnection]I dunno. I think maybe in sheer numbers that Red Sox and Yankees fans might outnumber football teams fans, however many of those fans are disinterested. If you live in that area of the world, it's like it is a prerequisite to make a commitment to either the Red Sox or the Yankees. When it comes to sheer loyalty and straight up fanaticism, I'd have to say that the Redskins and Cowboys fans are some of the best and most loyal.[/quote]

Well, I think you find sheer fanaticism in football fans in general moreso than baseball. Football and baseball games are just a completely different environment. I've never lost my voice at a baseball game (even though I am a die hard Mets fan), but I've never had a voice left after a football game. So I'd agree with you, but it just might not be fair to compare baseball fans to football fans. Maybe the discussion should be the top baseball fans, the top football fans, the top college football fans, top hockey fans, etc. It kinda is impossible to mix them and not have all the football teams' fans come out on top. IMO

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

Well, I'm talking about people like us who spend day in and day out discussing the team. Sure baseball has those, but if I was naming TOP FANS of any sport, I'd say Skins and Cowboys fans.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

I wonder what Red Sox and Yankees fans who don't care about football would say?

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

There's the select group of crazy fans, but the majority just blindly pledge their allegiance. Or at least it seems like that where I live. I try to talk baseball with both sets of fans and they really don't know what's going on. They're like, "Well, I was born here so I'm a huge fan!"

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

you know whats the best thing about bein a skins fan right now though, after years of defending my team through 6-10 seasons and gibbs naysers after the first season i can finally tell those cowboys fans i know to stick it

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=TheMalcolmConnection]There's the select group of crazy fans, but the majority just blindly pledge their allegiance. Or at least it seems like that where I live. I try to talk baseball with both sets of fans and they really don't know what's going on. They're like, "Well, I was born here so I'm a huge fan!"[/quote]

Yah, I think most baseball fans are like that, but then again, most football fans are too. Outside of forums like these, most football "fans" don't know as much about their team as I do. At the lunch table the other day I had to educate about 4 Eagles fans as to who their top 5 receivers are. This past weekend, cousins of ours were visiting who grew up in and live in the D.C. area and are "big" skins fans. In talking with them, however, it became very obvious that they were fans, but didn't know half as much about the Skins as I would have assumed every Skins fan knows. And they go to almost every game.

On the flip side, my buddy is a huge Red Sox fan. He not only knows more about the Red Sox than anyone else I know, but he also knows more about baseball and baseball history than anyone else I've ever met.

Overall though, I do believe football fans in general are more passionate. Just look at those freaks at the Raiders games. When's the last time anybody ever got geeked up like that for a baseball game?

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

This actually brings up something interesting that Condi Rice said not too long ago, she felt that football not baseball is America's greatest pastime.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=PSUSkinsFan21]
Overall though, I do believe football fans in general are more passionate. Just look at those freaks at the Raiders games. When's the last time anybody ever got geeked up like that for a baseball game?[/quote]

That could have to do with the fact that there are 160 baseball games a year adn only 16 football games. It's much easier to get all dressed up and whatnot a few weeks out of the year than it is to do it 80 times a summer.

You ever see one of those guys at a baseball game furiously keeping score/stats in their own notebook? That's pretty hardcore if you think about it.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

Right, but it's hard to get pumped up 81 times a year versus only 8 times.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=ArtMonkDrillz]That could have to do with the fact that there are 160 baseball games a year adn only 16 football games. It's much easier to get all dressed up and whatnot a few weeks out of the year than it is to do it 80 times a summer.

You ever see one of those guys at a baseball game furiously keeping score/stats in their own notebook? That's pretty hardcore if you think about it.[/quote]

Gal dangit, AMD! you're fast!

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=ArtMonkDrillz]That could have to do with the fact that there are 160 baseball games a year adn only 16 football games. It's much easier to get all dressed up and whatnot a few weeks out of the year than it is to do it 80 times a summer.

You ever see one of those guys at a baseball game furiously keeping score/stats in their own notebook? That's pretty hardcore if you think about it.[/quote]

That's a really good point. Although even during playoff baseball, you just don't see that absolutely rabidness in the fans eyes that you see on any given week in the NFL. I guess it's just hard to compare. You can't really behave at a baseball game the way you behave at a football game. If I went to a Mets game and started yelling as loud and jumping up and down as much as I do at PSU games, people would 1. Think I was retarded, or 2. Call security to have me escorted out of the stadium (or maybe both).

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

Then you would have an awesome lawsuit!

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=PSUSkinsFan21]That's a really good point. Although even during playoff baseball, you just don't see that absolutely rabidness in the fans eyes that you see on any given week in the NFL. I guess it's just hard to compare. You can't really behave at a baseball game the way you behave at a football game. If I went to a Mets game and started yelling as loud and jumping up and down as much as I do at PSU games, people would 1. Think I was retarded, or 2. Call security to have me escorted out of the stadium (or maybe both).[/quote]

I think, in part, some of the intensity is because the game itself is a contact sport - played in the trenches. For the most part I think the fans, unconciously, are matching the intensity level and pace of the game.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=PSUSkinsFan21]That's a really good point. Although even during playoff baseball, you just don't see that absolutely rabidness in the fans eyes that you see on any given week in the NFL. I guess it's just hard to compare. You can't really behave at a baseball game the way you behave at a football game. If I went to a Mets game and started yelling as loud and jumping up and down as much as I do at PSU games, people would 1. Think I was retarded, or 2. Call security to have me escorted out of the stadium (or maybe both).[/quote]

The only exception to lack of rabid, obnoxious fans at a baseball game would be the Cubs bleacher section.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

True that. But is that beer induced, or fanaticism induced? Maybe both.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=PSUSkinsFan21]True that. But is that beer induced, or fanaticism induced? Maybe both.[/quote]

96.314159% - beer induced.
2% - office workers just pissed off about their job
1.58% - diehard Cubs fan

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

Wow, now that's precision. Nice work 724

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

the part about 81 homes games a season compared to 8 hits it right on the head. no one could carry on the way rabid nfl fans do for that many home games without going insane or simply realizing by july 4th that their team is out of the pennant race already

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=724Skinsfan]The only exception to lack of rabid, obnoxious fans at a baseball game would be the Cubs bleacher section.[/quote]

Sat in the Wrigley bleacher section last summer for a July 3rd game against the Nationals. It's a day game on a Sunday the day before the 4th of July holiday and it's about 110 degrees in the direct sun in the bleachers so I figure the crowd is going to be flat nasty once the beers start flowing. To top it off, my wife and I are in full Nats gear.

The Nats ended up winning after a 12 inning marathon, and all I heard the entire game was a couple of under the breath comments about "those damn nats fans." No one even sent a harsh word directly our way...I was completely amazed. Cubbies fans were tame. I've seen worse at minor league hockey games.

The most rabid intimidation I have ever seen is at college basketball games...paricularly interconference ACC or SEC games. Kentucky fans are certifiably insane. I went to an Arkansas at Kentucky game with my friend who went to UA once. I thought the bus we were on was going to get tipped over and burned...that is how nutz they are out there over UK B-ball. Same at the last Duke v Maryland game I was at...there is some fanatacizm on display there.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=724Skinsfan]96.314159% - beer induced.
2% - office workers just pissed off about their job
1.58% - diehard Cubs fan[/quote]You have no idea how accurate that is. As a northsider, who isnt a Cub fan, the jokes of this nature are rampant around here.

100 to go til 1000!

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=GTripp0012]You have no idea how accurate that is. As a northsider, who isnt a Cub fan, the jokes of this nature are rampant around here.

100 to go til 1000![/quote]

Yeah, I went to a Cubs versus Tigers game this year on Father's Day. Mark Prior was making his first start off the DL. I expected the fans to be really into it but there appeared to be more Tigers fans at the game judging by the amount of cheers I heard whenever a Tiger's player hit a homerun that day. There was a lot of cheering since the Tigers hit 8 homeruns.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

I hope we don't become like the Red Sox Nation.

They're even worse than Yankees fans (my wife from NY is one, ha).

I've never met fans as jerky as BoSox fans.

Redskins fans have class.

Re: Red-Skins Nation?
 

[quote=Buster]I hope we don't become like the Red Sox Nation.

They're even worse than Yankees fans (my wife from NY is one, ha).

I've never met fans as jerky as BoSox fans.

Redskins fans have class.[/quote]

cant call it redskin nation because there is not a majorly definitive redskin crowd in DC as in other places, such as steeler nation in the pittsburgh area where 95% of the evening news, in and out of season, revolves around the steelers, the fact is that there are so many people born and raised from different parts of the country that go to work around dc whether it be govt. jobs or just the good job market in the surrounding area that half the time youll walk into a bar on sundays and maybe more than half the people there will be sporting athletic wear from other teams, it sucks that we dont have the huge hometown type feeling like most other teams, for instance having to defend my skins to half my peers that are non-skins fans due to where they were born or because they jumped on a bandwagon of a good team in the mid 90's, but we definitley have a very large fanbase disperesed throughout the country
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I think Hail2theskins hit it on the head.