Above is an ad e-mailed out by the Redskins ticket office this week. As you read this, remember, for chuckles, that just a couple months ago Redskins executive Mitch Gershman was claiming in press releases that the team had a waiting list of “over 200,000.”
Sure, the Skins waiting list has long been bogus. But this year it’s also become apparent that the NFL’s blackout rule is enforced as stringently as its steroids policy.
(AFTER THE BREAK: Where’s Chris Cooley in that photo? Clinton Tortoise? Lord Farquaad? Lindsay Czarniak cheers on teams that don’t pay her? Is the NY Times reporter on Dan Snyder’s payroll, too? Another Have-Nots bowl this week?)
FedExField this Sunday would be a good place and time to test my theory that Dan Snyder has mucked up the Redskins every bit as much as he mucked up Six Flags.
Tickets to Skins games have been overpriced, based on demand, since FedExField opened. I’ve never been to a game there when tickets couldn’t be had for far less than face value. I used to half-joke, based on experience, that if you simply held a $20 bill in the air in the stadium parking lot on game day you’d get mauled by folks trying to unload spare tickets.
But, the bottom is about to fall out of the Skins ticket market, and that could happen this weekend with KC in town: Craigslist had 908 separate ads hawking Skins/Chiefs tickets posted when I checked late last night.
So: Six Flags stock, which sold for $11.92 shortly after Snyder took over the theme park chain in 2005, now goes for 17.2 cents.
I wonder if Skins tickets will be worth any more than that this weekend.
Anybody willing to sell Redskins tickets for 17.2 cents, please e-mail cheapseats@washcp.com.
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Interesting thing about that photo the Redskins marketing department is using to move excess tickets this week: Two tight ends are up front, Todd Yoder and Fred Davis. But no Chris Cooley. Sort of like the box score to last weekend’s game in Carolina.
Seriously, after spending the summer yelling “Look at me! Look at me!” and hoping to become the face of the franchise through any number of off-field stunts, Cooley’s disappeared. Cooley had no catches on Sunday, and only showed up in the highlights because he had mimicked Santana Moss‘s silly first-down routine after a play.
Cooley’s used up most of his attention-getting tricks by now, too. The guy’s going to have to burn two cows or show two penises to get noticed.
Or, you know, catch some passes.
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The Skins’ lousy season has produced some giggle-friendly new nicknames. Among them:
“Clinton Tortoise,” attributed to WTEM hosts Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban; “Albert Buttersworth,” all over sports radio; and, the clubhouse leader by several strokes, “Lord Farquaad,” for Dan Snyder, which I first saw two weeks ago on Snyder’s own message board, ExtremeSkins.com, and has since caught fire.
Damn, that’s funny.
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The New York Times has been writing a lot about the Redskins these days. The Times‘ coverage of the Dan Snyder administration is very different from the Washington Post coverage.
While the Post and Snyder go at it behind the scenes and in print, the Times’ Skins stories, all from reporter Judy Battista, have sometimes been fawning.
Sometimes, they’re just plain fictional. (Double-dare you to match the headline with anything in the story!) Battista referenced that latter story, which insinuated for no apparent reason and with no evidence to support the insinuation that ex-Skins GM Charley Casserly was impressed by Dan Snyder’s coolness this season, in one of her pieces this week, saying “Snyder was still feeling patient” a little more than two weeks ago.”
Says who?
What is it with Times reporters named Judy getting snowed when they cover D.C. matters?
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Lindsay Czarniak led off her sports report on WRC-TV’s 11 o’clock newscast last night with an incredibly enthusiastic segment on the Wizards three-point win over Detroit, pumping up Gilbert Arenas‘ stats and Flip Saunders revenge. I’d never seen such fervor for a preseason NBA game.
The excitement was catchy, and seemed totally genuine: Czarniak works for Dan Snyder, but not Abe Pollin, and so she wasn’t wearing any Wizards’ gear as she gushed.
If you follow sports in Washington, I guess preseason is the best time to get excited, before hopes and dreams get crushed.
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Update on the Road to 11 Losses: We now know there will be no 0-11 season in local high school football.
Anacostia’s chance at having the losingest year in D.C. high school football history got waylaid last Friday, as the Indians beat Eastern 36-0 in a matchup of really down programs.
Anacostia, which went into the game 0-6, has scheduled 11 games this year, one more than the standard 10-game season, and far as I can tell, no D.C. school has ever had an 0-11 record. But Anacostia just couldn’t find a way to lose to Eastern, which didn’t have a football team at all last year because of a lack of players, and so far is 0-4 in the 2009 season.
Eastern, which only has 8 games listed on its schedule, now has its biggest game of the year this Friday when it hosts Spingarn in the latest Have-Nots Bowl: Together, Eastern and Spingarn have been outscored 397-19 and have an 0-9 record.
Somebody’s gotta win!
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Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com