Why the Redskins Took a Fan’s Sign
You may have seen my post from a couple days ago about a Redskins’ fan at FedEx Field having his ‘Bingo Football Night’ sign confiscated. Apparently, he would have had the sign taken even if it had said “I Love Vinny & Danny” or “Dan Snyder for President”. I say ‘apparently’ because the Redskins have a policy that precludes signs and banners. I don’t know if the league bans signs and banners, but the Redskins do. I also don’t know when that policy was implemented. riggosrag will contact the Redskins to obtain answers to these questions. We’ll update you.
One of our viewers mentioned that a fan had his paper bag confiscated, as well. You know, the grocery bag with the eye and mouth hole cut-outs which fans wear when they’re afraid to be seen rooting for their team. Okay, maybe that’s not actually why fans wear them, but you get the point. Anyhoo, the official reason for banning signs & banners doesn’t bear out when it comes to a bag on someone’s head. The Redskins say that the signs and banners block people’s view. Really now? For how long do fans hold up signs – all night? I submit that fans who stand up when the Skins are in the red zone block other fans’ views a lot more frequently than sign-holders do. Ban standing up if that’s the concern.
Back to the bag – I figure Dan Snyder can’t stand for the fans to be ‘disrespectful’. Maybe he thinks it’s bad for team morale. Maybe he just doesn’t like seeing the fruits of his and Vinny Cerrato’s handiwork. That’s right, now that they’ve taken the play-calling duties away from Jim Zorn, I’m blaming the state of the offense on them along with the quarterback. Of course statistically, Jason Campbell hasn’t been too shabby. It’s the factors stats don’t reveal that are disconcerting.
Here’s the bottom line – while I would never wear a bag on my head or display a disparaging sign, I would like to think the cost of admission includes the right to express my disappointment in a non-vulgar way. If it does not, and apparently it doesn’t, I figure that says a lot about the character of someone in the Redskins’ front office. Given the revelation this summer about general admission tickets being sold to third-party brokers, and the whole fan suing business, I’d say there definitely is a character issue inside the hallowed walls of Redskins’ Park. Either it’s a matter of golden rule arrogance – the person with the gold rules – or it’s an elitist anti-fan sentiment. Don’t know. I do know there’s an odor waffling out from Asburn, VA.
I regularly remind myself that I root for the team, not the front office. History tells me the sun will shine again on the Redskins. Go Skins!
It’s not an NFL rule, it’s a Redskins policy. To be fair I believe it’s been in place for a while. They also claim that, in addition to obstructing views, they are concerned about it poking and jabbing people in the eyes and things like that.
However, it’s worth noting that last Monday at the game they gave out free Redskins banners to fans that also advertised for “Geico” on one side. So I guess it’s okay for people’s eyes to get poked and for views to be obstructed when THEY give you the banner. Especially when they get paid a good chunk of money by Geico to do it.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:08 pmHere’s a link that has some more details.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:09 pmhttp://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/10/update_geico_redskins_signs_ok.html
Guy – thank you for the clarification. You’re right of course – if they make some moola, it’s darn the torpedos. Too funny my friend.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:00 pmSnyder can’t ban this sign:
October 29th, 2009 at 10:40 pmhttp://fire-snyder-sign.blogspot.com/
Dan Snyder is a worthless egomaniac who wouldn’t know how to build a football team if Vince Lombardi, himself, diagrammed it for him on the corporate bulletin board. There, seize that douchbag!
October 30th, 2009 at 3:21 pmDan sits in his ivory tower clueless and out of touch
was this the legacy he sought?
October 31st, 2009 at 7:00 pmcheck out the hysterical blog
http://snyderhasruinedtheredskins.blogspot.com
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:29 am