An Ending To The Romance In Sports

Remember when sports was more about gamesmanship and honor more than it was about money? Neither do I.

But one would hope that the fans of a team would be treated as friendlies and not some random gadabout who owes you some cash.

The Washington Post is reporting the plight of several Redskins season ticket holders who got smashed by the economic downturn and now can no longer afford the season tickets they signed up to get. It's understandable. This is the worst downturn since the depression, people are going to have trouble and going to football games probably isn't the wisest use of their money.

But Redskins owner Dan Snyder wants his money, so what does he do? He sues these hard luck ticket holders into bankruptcy.

These fans did sign a contract when they bought the ticket packages and by the letter of the law, they are required to pay their money to the Redskins. It's hard to argue against that even though some of the people didn't even read the contracts thoroughly.

But maybe, just maybe there is an unsaid give and take between a team and it's community of supporters. Fans help fund stadiums with their tax dollars because they want the team to stay around. God forbid the owners of these teams should exercise some shred of loyalty back to those supporters.

The Redskins have plenty of season ticket holders and even more fans are in line to buy packages. But when you see a team treating it's fans like this, it destroys any romance a person may have being a "celebrated" fan of the team and drops the harsh reality that some sports owners see you as a piggy bank more than a community supporter of their organization.

Soooo About That Whole Trade Thing.....

The Washington Redskins brass met with Jason Campbell yesterday to see if everything was cool with the quarterback after the Jay Cutler saga.

Redskins vice president of operations Vinnie Cerrato said "We met with Jason today and had a candid discussion. We told Jason that when Jay Cutler became available, we, like many other NFL teams, spoke with the Broncos. We are all on the same page, and we are moving forward."

I'm pretty sure Jason Campbell already knew the Redskins had spoken to the Broncos. There were rumors flying everywhere that the Redskins were close to a deal for the quarterback. In fact, the Bears apparently stepped in at the last minute to outbid the Redskins.

Now Redskins management is trying to make it sound they simply inquired about the trade. Sure. And the drunk dude at the bar is simply inquiring about sleeping with the hot girl standing next to him.

The Redskins would have done the trade in a heartbeat had the Broncos wanted it. Vinnie Cerrato knows it, Jason Campbell knows it, and despite the attempt at downplay, every NFL fan knows it. We aren't flummoxed by Cerrato's words like slack-jawed bystanders in 'Men in Black'.

Now the team is stuck with a quarterback who knows they don't want him and are being accused of tampering during the signing of their $100 millions free agent defensive tackle.

That ought to be a fun locker room next year. A group of mercenaries brought in by the ultimate mercenary in owner Daniel Snyder. He has proven that he will get rid of anyone at anytime if he finds something he likes better. Some fans may enjoy this since he will definitely spend the money to get the big named player.

Then again, the Redskins have only made the playoffs a couple of times in the decade since Danny War Bucks bought the team and have never had any sustained success. Meanwhile, Snyder goes through coaches and players like a puppy goes through dinner scraps.

Maybe if the Redskins tried to actually grow a locker room scene instead of constantly turning over the team, the Redskins would have more success.

But that's not the way Snyder does business. So Washington enters next season with a nearly discarded quarterback leading an offense designed by a coach who everyone assumes will be gone as soon as Bill Cowher decides to return to football.

Good times at Fed Ex field.