Unlovable

The first time the thought entered my mind was October 30, 2005. That is the day that the Giants shut out the Redskins at the Meadowlands 36 - 0, fueled by emotion at the passing of their beloved owner Wellington Mara. The players' love for Mara was palpable and moving, as Jeremy Shockey fought back tears during the singing of the national anthem and the team played with intense passion. It was Big Blue's biggest rout since 1988. The lopsided game stats are here.

The thought that I had that day was I wish that Washington had an owner who was lovable, instead of Dan Snyder. It was a feeling similar to being sad at a wedding because you do not have the joy in your life that the married couple does and that you are missing out on something important.

When I lived in Boston I remember being on the US Airways shuttle to New York when Patriots owner Bob Kraft boarded. The passengers erupted into cheers and applause for Kraft, and this was when Tom Brady was in college and no one could imagine the super bowl glory that lay ahead. Kraft wasn't perfect, and his meddling in personnel decisions lost the team Bill Parcells, but he was lovable.

The recent passing of Lamar Hunt, founder and long-time owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, brought back that feeling that we are missing out on something in Washington. So does every time jut-jawed Bill Cowher gets warm and fuzzy over the Rooney family's stewardship of the Steelers, set in image in the picture on the right, which was snapped just after Cowher handed Art Rooney II the Vince Lombardi trophy.

As an NFL owner it is hard to be unlovable, as you are the face of the franchise that all the fans love. And of all the franchises in the nation Washington ranks at or near the top in terms of fan base and tradition, which is reflected in the team's vast and deep media coverage. If you want to make friends in a strange neighborhood in DC wear Skins gear on game day, and someone soon will approach you to talk about the team. The staff of the Safeway on Georgia Avenue in Petworth set up grills and have a customer tailgate on Sundays during the season. Most cities do not possess anything close to the fan intensity that Washington does. The team unites Washingtonians, Virginians and Marylanders from all walks of life around a common affection and pursuit, something nothing else has accomplished. So why, with everything lined up in his favor, is Dan Snyder so unlovable?

It started early. Almost as soon as Snyder bought the Skins in 1999, for a record-breaking $800 million, problems arose and Snyder's flamboyance and meddling caught attention. In a December, 2000 article Slate defended Snyder and against some memorable comments from the football establishment. The article was prescient, but not in the way that its author intended. Here is an excerpt:

The Redskins' implosion has rather predictably precipitated an outbreak of Schadenfreude. Eminencies throughout the league have stepped forward to spank Snyder. Fox Sports analyst Cris Collinsworth pronounced him "Mini-Me playing fantasy football." Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell denounced him for running roughshod over the wholesome values of the game. And when Snyder fired Turner, John Madden and a host of other pundits wagged their fingers at Snyder, chiding him for impatience.

Those comments were on target, way back in 2000, as Snyder's stewardship of the Redskins has been a total failure. Since he bought the team it has made the playoffs only once, despite spending more on players and coaching than any other team. Only a few teams ranks below the Redskins in terms of wins and losses since 1999, and they are Arizona, Oakland, Detroit and Cleveland. That is not good company for a storied and very rich franchise. I won't go into Snyder's bad personnel decisions and the damage that not having a General Manager has done to this franchise, as the Wa Post has done a great job covering those topics and Wilbon can tell you about the need for a GM.

But I can tell you why Snyder has a private jet, called Redskins One, because if he boarded a flight at Reagan National he would not be cheered like Bob Kraft was on that flight of mine. Rather, he would be jeered and lucky to escape with his life and limbs. That is how deep the hatred in Washington runs toward Dan Snyder. Fans feel beleaguered and upset over the team's performance. They also feel exploited and angry. The Redskins charge the highest ticket prices in the league, and Snyder raised them by 40% after the team's one playoff appearance since he bought the team. He might look like a savvy businessman, as a Forbes article portrayed him, but he is really a monopolist and monopolies only work when they are in the hands of benevolent monarchs like the Maras and Rooneys, and Dan is no Mara or Rooney.

I was a club seat season ticket holder but did not renew last year. My two tickets cost me roughly $1,000 per game plus $350 for a season parking pass. I wanted to enjoy spending that kind of money, as anyone would, but instead I kept getting irritated as I found that I was nickled-and-dimed every step of the way and the marketed benefits of club seats were not there. The wait at the understaffed bar was typically 15 minutes, I took to carrying around napkins as the women's room was frequently out of toilet paper and when I took an elderly neighbor to the game, her life's dream, she was frisked out of her Hershey bar and had to buy a bad $10 cannoli instead. The food in general was horrible. They would fry burgers ahead of time and then sit them under a heat lamp. My friend Glen and I would joke that you need a lot of pickles to make that burger moist, exactly one pickle for every bite. And each burger cost $10. Is that any way to treat your best fans who pay through the nose for seats?

So the club seat fans despise Snyder, and every time Lloyd drops a pass scream, "My $8 beer is paying for you," but what about the rest of Washington? Snyder has been unlovable in so many ways it is hard to believe. He ticked off environmentalists, friends of the C&O trail and his neighbors by bribing the Park Service into allowing him to cut down the trees that obstructed his view of the Potomac.

Snyder also moved all Redskins radio programs from good signal channels that were independent onto his own stations that get incredibly poor reception. I used to love to hear the pre and post game talk, but now I just get mostly static, even though I live in DC. I miss hearing the games on independent channels and that is what made me launch this blog in the first place. Oh, Snyder also bought every other independent web site, such as www.extremeskins.com, which is why that formerly good site now hosts the Brandon Lloyd show, instead of telling the truth about how Lloyd might have been our worst pick ever.

In order to kill any affection left in any Washingtonian Snyder just bought the last remaining classical music station in the city and is planning to change it to a Redskins house organ. Classical music fans are outraged and are joining the ranks of club seaters in feeling that Dan Snyder is a pox upon our city and we wish that he could somehow go away. Columnist Marc Fisher of the Washington Post said it all,

Having won a place in the ranks of local luminaries as the guy who wrecked the Redskins and ravaged the riverside near his Potomac mansion, Dan Snyder now appears ready to put his special touch on another abiding passion of Washingtonians: the music of Bach and Beethoven.

Snyder is young and could be here for a very, very long time so we fans could be in for a very, very long unhappiness. But we can all dream, so in my fantasy Snyder will sell the team to a Mara, Rooney, Kraft, Hunt type of person and let us fans enjoy the wedding and not feel like we are missing out on something.