Inspiration from Sunshine

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!

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Next chemo is Thursday, November 19.

Keep the prayers coming, please!