I was born with a burgundy and gold football in my hands.
Ok, maybe not literally, but I was born with burgundy and gold flowing
through my veins. At 42 years old, through the good times and the bad times, I
have continued to be a diehard Redskins fan and I will be until the day that I
die. I have my parents to thank for that and I am forever grateful. Redskins football was a major part
of my childhood and it has continued into adulthood. While I am a faithful
Christian, I often joke that Redskins football is my church. It’s the one way I can express to people
how important of a tradition it is to me and my family. Everyone who knows me
knows that I’ll be at the game or in front of the tv on Sundays (and the
occasional Monday or Thursday night). If you want to see me or talk to me, you
better be by my side. Otherwise, catch me another day.
There isn’t much that
will take me away from watching a game. Even when I am out of town, I find a tv
in that town that is showing the game. More than 15 years ago, I won a trip to
San Francisco and remember having to find a place to watch the Skins that
Sunday. Nothing like eating breakfast at a bar watching football on the West
Coast all decked out in Skins gear.
In recent years (decades even) my boys haven’t been as
prominent of a force in the NFL and that’s when I embrace how lucky I am that I
not only remember the good days but I remember the celebrations and the
emotions of winning division championships and Super Bowls. I remember going
out to Redskins Park at all hours of the night to welcome my team home. I
remember the parades in DC . I remember RFK bleachers bouncing up and down. I
remember chanting “We want Dallas”. I remember the Hogs, the best QB ever, Joe
Theismann, and the best coach ever, Joe Gibbs.
I remember going to training camp in Carlisle, PA, when I was in middle school and being able to watch scrimmages, meet all of the players, get pictures and autographs. It wasn't like training camp now where there are specific days you are allowed to attend. I remember Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders running laps behind the bleachers and waving at me and Mom, and Ricky referring to my mom as “dear”. I remember going on the John Riggins Show. I remember meeting Joe Jacoby at the Old Dominion Boat Club and how excited my grandmother was to not even come up to that beast’s armpits. I remember Darrell Green speaking at my church. While I’d like to forget the occasion, I also remember walking down the aisle to a slowed down, acoustic guitar version of “Hail to the Redskins” and the happy surprise on my dad’s face. I remember when we draped a sign that said “Welcome to Redskins Territory” across the street from my parents top floor townhouse window to their best friends’ townhouse window so that anyone who came down the street would see it. There are so many glorious memories that I could go on for days.
I remember crossing everything we had and wearing the same
clothes, sitting in the same seats and eating the same foods during games. Why? Because we obviously played an integral
part in winning those games! When we didn’t do those things and the Skins
started losing, we would quickly fix it and guess what? They’d win! Yep, my
family is powerful.
Most of all, I remember the class and the respect that my
Skins not only displayed but demanded. The NFL has changed since the 80s and
the 90s. The caliber of players, the intent of players, the heart of players ,
the way the game is played, the rules, and even the character of players in the
NFL has changed.
However, two years ago, I happened to meet a very genuine and
kind-hearted man the Skins drafted as pick seven in the fourth round of the
2012 NFL draft. I didn’t know anything
about him except that a friend of mine who grew up in Michigan (and really
knows college football) had told me that this former Michigan State Spartan QB
was going to be one of the best things that ever happened to my team. While
everyone, including myself, was excited about our first round draft pick, RGIII,
and didn’t know why we would draft another QB in the same draft, I keep
remembering to this day, being told it was one of the smartest things the Skins
did. It wasn’t long after that we realized my friend was right. While RGIII had a
phenomenal rookie year and then succumbed to injuries and his ultimate demise (at the hand of a bad
coaching staff) it was then that I remembered
that blond-haired blue-eyed Midwesterner we had sitting on the bench.
This season Captain Kirk...Sunshine.... Kirk Cousins, was named
my team’s starting quarterback. He has a lot to learn but with each game he
plays he improves and it’s evident. He’s only going to get better. From the
moment that I met this man two years ago and was able to sense his generosity
and pure kindness, I knew he was special. There isn’t a pretentious bone in his
body. Perhaps growing up as a preacher’s son is the reason. He strives to be the best he can be - for
himself and his team.
Two Sundays ago, I was fortunate enough to attend the comeback game
against Tampa Bay with my mom. The first half was dreadful and when the supposed
fans started chanting “RGIII” I was disgusted. Evidently, I wasn’t the only one
disgusted because the next drive “Sunshine” shut them up and went on a rout
that would give us the biggest comeback in the team’s history. It pissed him
off just as it did me. Yet, most importantly, it motivated him.
Yesterday, my favorite guy and I were at the game and Kirk
had the best game of his life. As a Redskins fan as well as a Kirk Cousins fan,
I couldn’t have been much happier. I never get tired of singing the fight song,
and with four touchdowns I sang it a lot yesterday. (After all they do say "Fight for Val-er-ie" in the song, ya know.) Nothing irritates me as much as opposing team
fans in MY stadium and when they are actually louder than Skins fans. So when my Skins started to massacre the
Saints, this tiny little diehard was louder than anyone thought was possible and with good
reason!
After yesterday’s 47-14 win, with an almost non-existent voice,
and a permanent grin on my face, my only wish that was my dad would have been there
to witness this extraordinary win. What made it even sweeter is that after the
game I found out what my dear Sunshine had done and it not only renewed my
faith in today's players but it connected me even more to Kirk Cousins in a way that I was not aware of until yesterday.
In September, when Kirk started his first full season as the Redskins
starting QB, his dad was diagnosed with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma. Don Cousins
is a pastor at a church in Orlando and had been unable to travel due to his cancer treatment
until yesterday’s game. How ironic that the first time he was able to watch his
son in person happened to be the greatest game of his professional career. Kirk threw for 324 yards and four touchdowns
with no interceptions and was 20 of 25 in completions.
Being the class act that he is, after the game, Kirk greeted the opposing
team’s quarterback with a game ball under his arm and then Kirk immediately
delivered the game ball to his dad who was in the stands! Kirk was excited to have him at
the game but even more so to have him witness such a fantastic win! When he gave his dad the
game ball, his dad thanked him for a great day. Kirk was thrilled to see his dad
with a smile on his face and it became a very special day for his family.
There's no other person in this world that is a bigger Skins fan than my dad. He's never turned his back on them - no matter what version of our team shows up on game day. He always has faith in his team and he's talked me off the ledge about giving up on them many times. There's only one thing that would stop him from going to the game and sitting in his seat with my mom at Fed Ex Field and unfortunately, that's this son of a bitch called prostate cancer.
I have a huge responsibility when I am at these games – not just to my team as a fan but as a daughter. My dad hasn’t been able to attend a game in over a year. For a man who has been going to games for over 30 years, and the one who instilled the love of Redskins in his daughter, I am aware of the enormity of the shoes I have to fill when I am sitting in my dad's seat.
This photo made me emotional. This story made me emotional.
Kirk
Cousins IS that standup, lo key, genuine, good-hearted, silent hero kind of
man that I thought he was when I met him (and when no one else in the room even
knew who he was but me). It was with this quote, that it really hit home
because I realized for the first time, that Kirk and I had more than just our
love of football in common. We also had
a commonality of love for our dads and strong faith in our God.
“It’s been kind of tough,” Cousins said of playing football
through his dad’s battle, “but it’s part of life and you just kind of work
through it and trust God’s plan.”
God Bless our fathers and their battles with cancer.
Thank you, Sunshine, for not only being a genuine human being, but an incredible role model, and thank you for instilling such incredible inspiration in me!
****
Next chemo is Thursday, November 19.
Keep the prayers coming, please!
