Question of the Day
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A post by "Blake the Megalomaniac" To see more posts click here |
Listening to the Mike Wise show today I was put on to a fact that at least helps to explain why there are so many Dallas Cowboys fans here in the D.C. metro area. You probably know this already if you’re a Redskins historian but if you don’t here it is from Wiki:
While the rest of the league began signing individual blacks in 1946 and actually drafting blacks in 1949, George P. Marshall (Owner of the Redskins) held out until 1962 before signing a black player. Moreover, the signing only came when Interior Secretary Stewart Udall issued an ultimatum €“ unless Marshall signed a black player, the government would revoke the Redskins’ 30-year lease on the year-old D.C. Stadium (now Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium), which had been paid for by government money and was owned by the Washington city government (which, then and now, is formally an arm of the federal government). Marshall’s chief response was to make Ernie Davis, Syracuse’s all-American running back, his number-one draft choice for 1962. Davis, however, demanded a trade, saying, “I won’t play for that S.O.B.” He got his wish, as the team sent him to Cleveland for All-Pro Bobby Mitchell. Mitchell was the first African American football player to play a game for the Redskins, and he played with the team for several years, initially at running back, but he made his biggest impact at wide receiver.
Ultimately, the thinking is that generations of black Washingtonians were raised to hate their hometown team who wouldn’t have a player that looked like them until 1962 b/c their family elders remembered those years of discrimination begrudgingly. Ultimately, one would believe that those fans, at least some, who’ve never set foot in Texas would have come back to Redskins Nation when in the 1988 season Doug Williams became the first black QB to win a Superbowl. My thinking is probably off though.
Time to pick sides and back your position up: Are you a Cowboys’ fan or Redskins fan and explain why?
Udothedishes . . .
I am sure that Marshall being a racist is a contributing factor to why people may not like the Redskins but the Cowboys were only added during the 1960s season so it’s not like they had been around for years and years before Bobby Mitchell. In any town where there is a huge sports following you are going to have a significant number of folks who like the teams main rival. I have never been to Dallas but a lady I work with lived there up until she was in her late 20s and she said there are a large number of Redskins fans that live in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area. This area is unique because of the location of federal government. You can find people who are fans of pretty much every team in the NFL. Its not like that in other cities.
I am a Redskins fan because I learned how to play football watching Joe Gibbs. He coached the Redskins to play football the right way. He was always highly respectful of every opponent they played. Being the hometown team, it was much easier to go to training camp, meet the players and coaches, and get autographs. Not to mention they were pretty damn good in the late 80’s and early 90’s.