Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) The Redskins will play under the bright Monday night lights this evening against Carolina, fighting yet again for a playoff spot. But regardless of the standings or optimism, D.C. surely will collectively stop, watch, praise and complain.
Even with the emergence of the Nationals as one of the most successful baseball teams over the last few years, the Redskins remain alone in their level of support, and D.C. remains an outlier in its disproportionate support for the city’s football team over all other sports.
“The Redskins are part of the permanent institution of Washington,” former Washington Post Redskins reporter Richard Justice told WMAL. “People will care about them more than anything.”
Other cities don’t understand D.C., Justice said. With the exception of Green Bay and possibly Dallas, no other city elevates its football team to the levels D.C. does.
“(It takes) time and success. George Allen made it a passion here. Joe Gibbs followed up,” Justice said. “He’s one of the great coaches in the history of the game. It just became part of the DNA of the city.”
Justice, now a reporter for MLB.com, said the Nats are on the right track, but still have a ways to go if they ever hope to come anywhere close to the following of the Redskins.
“They’re one of the best-run franchises in baseball,” he said. “They’re third in the Major Leagues in wins over the last five years.”
The disparity was clear when a Nationals playoff game coincided with an early-season Redskins game last October 9. Preliminary Nielsen ratings indicated 740,000 households tuned in to watch the Redskins beat the Ravens on FOX, while just 135,000 tuned in to cable channel FS1 for Game 2 of the National League Division Series between the Nats and Dodgers.
Contrast that with Chicago, which saw a convergence of baseball and football two weeks later on October 20. The Chicago Tribune reports over 835,000 homes tuned in to see the Cubs beat the Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLCS on FS1, while just 443,000 had the Bears and Packers on the local CBS station.
“You have to win, and you have to be interesting,” Justice said. “Will the Nationals ever pass the Redskins? No. But they’re a great franchise.”
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