Redskins fans: We need tradition

[Bdizzle6]

To all my fellow skins fans out there, I'm feeling a very lakcluster experience at the games.

As I watched my favorite college team, VT Hokies, smoke Miami in the rain on Saturday, I was left wondering how 60,000 Hokie fans can be louder than 90,000 skins fans. Granted...there are always a good number of the opposing fans at the stadium, but still.

Throughout college, I went to tons of VT games and they have such good traditions that every fan participates in. It starts with "the Bounce" as Enter the Sandman blasts and then the team flys onto the field. This alone gets me pumped just typing it. The "Lets go! Hokies" chant is loud enough that you can hear it on the other side of the VT campus. Then there is the jingling of your car keys on 3rd downs, the "stick it in" chants as the team is in the redzone, the punt block hand motion, and overall...just the LOUD fans that really solidify Lane Stadium as one of the toughest places to play which provides a true HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE.

As Skins fans, why can't/don't we have these types of traditions for our skins? Why do the "cheerleaders" just grind the air like strippers with no poles? I'd appreciate an NFL cheerleading squad that LEADS CHEERS like a college squad does!

What I'm trying to say is that regardless of your opinion of FedEx field, the food/beer prices, parking, whatever...we're still there to watch our Skins and we need to CHEER THEM ON! I'd like to see some stadium traditions take place such as the chants and cheers you see at a VT Hokie's game!

lets get loud for this team and show them we're still behind them, even after a tough start to the season. We all hate snyder, we hate Vinny, etc...but let's try to help the product we watch on the field by rooting them on. LETS USE THE 90,000 SEATS we have at FedEx to create a home field advantage. LETS GET LOUD! :dallasuck

[GaryGreenMonk]

16 years of suck will do that to fans.

[SkinsHokieFan]

The Redskins used to have tradition

The bouncing of the stands at RFK

The band

"Hail to the Redskins"

It really was the true college atmosphere in the NFL

A combination of a crappy team/big stadium/lots of ads being played during games has sapped all of that away

[BuryYourDuke]

It's the NFL. It's not college. The atmosphere will never be the same. The cheerleaders are dancers in the NFL. There aren't thousands of college kids with nothing to do but get pumped for the game. It's just different.

[The Enforcer]

I am with you on this 100% but until this team starts a tradition of winning it will never happen.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

You do realize that this is not a college football program, right?

[ttr77]

Personally, I'd rather see the cheerleaders 'grind the air like strippers with no poles' then hear them chanting 'BE AGGRESSIVE. B....E.....AGGRESSIVE'. Hell, I'm an advocate for actually installing poles for them.

Most games its more fun watching them than watching the team.

[Monkfan63]

You do understand there is no direct correlation to cheering on a team and winning, don't you?

[WSHRedskins3ATLBraves3]

You do understand there is no direct correlation to cheering on a team and winning, don't you?

That's debatable.

Also, this is the most insane entrance in college football (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NRzMCOP2XI).

This too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjJolf1IBPA) :)

[bikie]

we actually have a great tradition in the singing of "hail to the redskins"... we are still the only team in the league with a band... unforunately that tradition has one severe limitation: it is sung after we score... so judging by the age of the OP, it's probably a tradition you are not too familiar with...

[Rhodus333]

Sadly the only traditions we fans now have are ripping on Snyder and Cerrato's boneheaded decisions and trying to figure out why none of our superstars ever live up to their off field hype.

I know I've been faithfully doing both for years now.

[SKOALSKIN]

These are all reasons why tech is lame.

[blue collar]

I've never been to FedEx, but I've seen every game and on TV, I've seeen times where that stadium was very loud, only to be let down by poor play by the team.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Can I ask someone a question?

When did Virginia Tech suddenly get alumni?

I feel like I lived twenty five years in a Virginia Tech-free world and then at some point in the mid 90s, I couldn't avoid these people. I see VT flags and bumper stickers and license plate frames all over the country now.

Did the school suddenly grow from 1000 students to 30,000 in 1991 and not tell me?

[budski]

There's plenty of redskin tradition, but how long can you hold onto the past?
Sure it's a game, but think not only the money shelled out for tickets, but have you seen some of those tailgate parties and the Redskin stuff out there! There are alot of people who have spent probably thousands of dollars on Redskin gear, redskin jerseys, etc. I for one have not spent that kind of money, but I would be pissed to have sunk everything into this team like alot of other people have just to see a piss poor product like this years team. Traditionally this team let us down year in and year out.

[SKOALSKIN]

Can I ask someone a question?

When did Virginia Tech suddenly get alumni?

I feel like I lived twenty five years in a Virginia Tech-free world and then at some point in the mid 90s, I couldn't avoid these people. I see VT flags and bumper stickers and license plate frames all over the country now.

Did the school suddenly grow from 1000 students to 30,000 in 1991 and not tell me?

You would be talking about VA Tech in the years before 1998 B.V. (before vick). After vick they started getting national attention. After that everyone hopped aboard. And now they suddenly have a university steeped in tradition all the way back to 1999.

[HouseBowlrz]

You would be talking about VA Tech in the years before 1998 B.V. (before vick). After vick they started getting national attention. After that everyone hopped aboard. And now they suddenly have a university steeped in tradition all the way back to 1999.

I am a Virginia Tech alumnus dating back to when Bruce Smith roamed Lane Stadium so I was around during the university's leaner days of football. Not that we didn't have bad teams; just not the national attention: an independent in football and aligned with the (now defunct) Metro conference in basketball. We were constantly playing second fiddle to UVA, especially in basketball given the level of exposure the ACC had at that time.

The prominence of the football program started in the early to mid 1990's (a few years before Vick's arrival) when the school aligned with the Big East conference and got to play Miami, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh every year. Our first Top 25 ranking came in the 1993 season at #25, and finishing at #22 after beating #21 Indiana in the Independence Bowl. Since then, the program is consistently in the Top 25 and has had only two or three seasons where it did not finish ranked.

Indeed, we may have been witness to a sudden burst of instant fans over the recent years. But there are plenty of long time alumni like myself who can remember the lean years and still proudly say, "I am a Virginia Tech alum."

Back to the original thread ... the Redskins did have traditions. The few games I saw at RFK, marching bands did most everything: pregame show, playing of the national anthem, halftime show. I marched for eight years in HS and college so seeing that tradition continue at the professional level was a definite plus. When it wasn't the Redskins band, local high school and college bands were given the chance to perform. And when Virginia Tech's band was scheduled to play half time of the Cardinals game in 1989, I hung out on the sideline with them (I had already graduated).

Unfortunately, these traditions have gone by the wayside over the last several years and replaced by many different things, including obnoxious loudmouth radio personalities screaming into a microphone to a crowd less interested about the game itself and more concerned about being "there". Everything that happens now is almost always sponsored by something which pretty much squeezed out the traditions that we had at RFK. (Yes, I know RFK and FedEx are two different eras - but there is no reason why we had to abandon the traditions that made the Redskins, the Redskins.) I am trying to remember the last time the Redskins band played the National Anthem prior to a game ...

Perhaps we need to fire up the Way Back machine, review all of the RFK traditions and see about bringing some of them back to FedEx. Certainly having the Redskins perform either pregame (to include the national anthem) or halftime is a step in the right direction.


:2cents: