I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning, eager to witness the first game of my quest. My buddy Sean put me up for the night and after making some preparations for tailgating, we were on our way to FedEx Field.
The scene in the parking lot was generally upbeat, with a lot of trash talking going back and forth between the Cowboys and Redskins fans. It’s early enough in the season for fans of all teams to be reasonably optimistic (Jets and Dolphins fans aside). I was quite impressed by the owner of this corvette, although I think he needs to replace the Dez doll since we’ve moved on from him.
Cowboys fans were very well represented, possibly even more than usual at FedEx. I think there’s a lot of excitement building for this year’s team, but when playing the Redskins, records don’t always matter. Even the years when one of our teams won the Super Bowl, they would still find a way to lose to their rival during the season.
Back in those days (Cowboys last won in 1995, Redskins last won in 1991), the much more PC version of myself was very opposed to Washington’s nickname. Then I left for college and met Kris, who singlehandedly changed my mind about that. Kris grew up on the Navajo Nation Reservation in Arizona, the largest reservation in the country (it spans three states). If it became a state, it would be 41st in area, as it’s just a bit bigger than West Virginia. And Kris is one of the biggest Redskins fans you’ll ever meet and passionately in favor of keeping the name as it is.
When we were living in Maryland, Kris was invited to my kids’ school on two occasions to discuss the debate over the team’s name. He graciously accepted the invitation both times and spoke to a roomful of 4th and 5th graders about his personal experience growing up Navajo and how he looks at the name with a sense of pride. I think he surprised many of us when he said he would no longer be a fan if they ever did change the name. But as he put it, “Native American and American Indian are names you gave to us. Redskin is a name we gave ourselves.” (Little-known fact: “Oklahoma” is actually a Choctaw word meaning “red people.”)
Shortly after Kris met up with us, Sean grilled up the steaks he had brought and a few beers later, we were ready for the game! As bad as FedEx is in terms of getting in or out of the stadium itself, it actually has pretty good sight lines no matter where your seats are. We were pretty high up (hey, you take what you can get if you’re going to eight games!), but I thought the view was great.
Just like last week, the Cowboys started off slowly, falling behind 7-0, but once the offense got rolling, they looked unstoppable. And just like week 1, they reeled off five consecutive scoring drives to put the game out of reach fairly early in the second half.
Two weeks in, and Dallas is already alone in first place at 2-0. Next week they host the Dolphins, who are doing everything in their power to put the least competitive pro team on the field that I’ve ever seen. After that, it’s a big Sunday night game in New Orleans, after a long day of eating and drinking our way through the French Quarter.