Not Appreciated

One of the things I miss the most about Maryland is the ability to follow my favorite sports teams, which I have certainly discussed on this blog before (feeling too lazy to link to relevant blog entries). When I heard that the Redskins were going to be holding training camp in Richmond, VA this year, I thought it would be fun to take the family and go. When I heard that Saturday, August 3rd was going to be Fan Appreciation Day, I decided that we were definitely going.

Mileage-wise Richmond is literally half way between my current home and my former home. If we were still living in Maryland, I do not think I would ever consider making the drive to Richmond for training camp. However, I am homesick for my Redskins, so I figured this was not far to go (and it is not like we would have to deal with driving through Northern Virginia to get there).

Since it was a Saturday, my wife and kids were not too keen about jumping out of bed to make the 2.5 hour trek to Richmond. I wanted to leave at 8:30am, but we did not actually get on the road until about 9:15am. We found parking pretty easily and had to walk about 3/4 mile to the facility. There was a steady stream of people walking back to their cars as we were making our way to the facility. Some people said things, like “Don’t bother” or “You should just turn around.” We nervously laughed and continued on.

The schedule in the Washington Post said that gates opened at 9 and there would be activities for kids and games where you could win prizes. I saw no such activities or games unless you count the enormous Virginia lottery kiosk. At noon, players would make themselves available for pictures and autographs. Practice would start at 1 and after practice, players would again be available for photos and autographs. The schedule was wrong.

The Redskins reported that 25,000 people attended Fan Appreciation Day. It was insane. Wall to wall people. It was very difficult to move around and when we did find ourselves moving, we had absolutely no idea where to go.

There was no way to get close to the field because people already laid claim to the good spots. If I stood on my tippy toes, I could see players practicing. Oh right. Practice was already happening when we walked in around noon.

It was so crowded and everyone (I mean everyone, including my family and me) was wearing burgundy and gold. I was so afraid I was going to get separated from my family and not be able to find them again. I felt like we were all burgundy and gold spotted cows and as were shuffling around, I was worried that Temple Grandin was going to appear and lead us humanely to the slaughter.

The experience was so bizarre that I could not even will myself to get angry. Within 5 minutes of getting there, my kids were ready to leave. We tried to get close to the action, but were not very successful. We would occasionally see a football in the air and then hear the people with good seats ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’. It is possible that RG3 was on the field, but I would not know. I did see Pierre Garcon from a great distance. We did get within 30 yards of Kai Forbath and Sav Rocca (two guys with weird first names) as they were kicking balls through the upright, but we didn’t drive 2.5 hours to watch the kicker and the punter warm up. We left about 30 minutes after we walked in the gate.

I’m not sure why they called it Fan Appreciation Day. I saw absolutely no evidence that the fans were being appreciated. My wife kept saying that they should have had practice in a stadium where there would be plenty of seats and everyone would have a good view. Of course, the next day I see that that Ravens held practice at the Naval Academy stadium in Annapolis. I really should be a Ravens fan.

I can kind of understand why this woman got so upset when she did not get an autograph. I should have listened to her when she said, “Do not come to the Redskins Training Camp. I repeat, do not come to the Redskins Training Camp. It’s a waste of time.”

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And now a haiku:

Wall-to-wall people
Burgundy and gold cattle
Ready for slaughter

And now another haiku:

What was I thinking?
RG3 would talk to me?
What was I thinking?

And now another haiku:

Excited for camp
Chick-fil-a for the ride home
Best part of the day

And now another haiku:

Ready for football
Thought training camp would be fun
Many lessons learned