Better Off Jed

The 2008 season was a tough one for me because my son insisted on being a Giants fan, rooted against the Redskins, and just basically decided to actively root against any team I wanted to win.

At the beginning of this, the 2009, season, my son totally abandoned the Giants and was a full on Redskins fan. If we saw someone out in public wearing Giants gear, he would boo them. The look on his face when I bought him a Chris Cooley jersey to match mine at the beginning of the season was priceless. I was so proud. Fathers and sons are meant to root for the same team — as long as it’s the father’s favorite team.

The 2009 season started out with high expectations for the Redskins. In fact, through the first six weeks, the Redskins faced winless teams. That has never happened. The first 6 games should have been a cakewalk (I expected 5 – 1), but they were a pathetic 2 – 4:

1. Loss vs. Giants ( 2009 record:  8 – 8 )
2. Win vs. Rams ( 1 – 15 )
3. Loss vs. Lions ( 2 – 14 )
4. Win vs. Buccaneers ( 3 – 13 )
5. Loss vs. Panthers ( 8 – 8 )
6. Loss vs. Chiefs ( 4 – 12 )

The Redskins fortunes did not improve. Toward the end of the season, I could tell my son was becoming frustrated with rooting for the Redskins. I wasn’t too surprised when the Ravens  started to figure into the mix. He started asking for Ravens t-shirts and he wanted a Ray Lewis jersey. I wasn’t too upset, since he made it clear that the Ravens were his 2nd favorite team behind the Redskins.

The morning after the Redskins played the Giants on Monday Night Football in week 15, I told my son that the Redskins lost. He sheepishly replied, “It figures.” Soon after that, much to my chagrin, he announced that the Ravens were now his favorite team and that the Redskins were now #2.

Uh…what? When did this happen? How did he decide this? Apparently, my nephew, who is a huge Ravens fan (and so is his dad…see…isn’t that nice?), convinced him that since the Ravens had a better record, he should like them better than the Redskins. Pledging allegiance to a team is not supposed to work that way. I tried explaining the difference between a loyal fan and a “fair weather” fan, but my efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

I realize he’s still young and he may flip flop, but it is still frustrating for me. I’m trying not to give him a hard time about it. In week 17, the Redskins and the Ravens played at the same time. I agreed to watch the Ravens game with him, but mostly because the Ravens game had playoff implications and the Redskins game was meaningless.

My wife and I had recently decided that my son needed a new comforter for his bed. He requested to have his room be an NFL room. Not a Redskins room. Not a Ravens room. An NFL room. My wife found a nice comforter that had all of the teams’ logos on it, but it was no longer in stock. So, he carefully considered getting a comforter dedicated to one team. Somehow he settled on the San Diego Chargers. I think he picked that one because the colors went well in his room. The Chargers are well positioned to make it to the Super Bowl this year. My son may have a new favorite team soon.

Now that I think of it, the Chargers were my favorite team at one point growing up. Why? Because I got a little plastic Chargers helmet out of a gum ball machine. Completely random. That really puts things in perspective, but I’ll keep hyping up the Redskins.