From Sofas of D.C. Luminaries, Roars for the Redskins

One local heavyweight who actually is headed to Tampa: Sen. George Allen (R-Va.). His father coached the Redskins. And, of course, much of his constituency cheers for the team. But his brother, Bruce Allen, is general manager of tomorrow's opponent, the Buccaneers. George will pull for the Bucs.

Robert D. Novak, whose column identified Valerie Plame as a CIA operative and set off the investigation over the leaking of her identity, desperately wants to go to Tampa and said he could have gotten tickets.

"I have some contacts," said Novak, who declined to identify them. "They're like sources."

But Novak already had promised his son Alex he'd go to a University of Maryland basketball game in Miami at noon tomorrow. "It's on the other side of the state," Novak said, pain in his voice.

Novak is a huge fan of both the Terps and the Redskins. He has held season tickets to Redskins games since 1963. He said he has missed only 17 or 18 home games during that time.

The last time the Redskins were in the playoffs, he recalled, he had to watch from a CNN center in Des Moines, where he was covering a debate for the 2000 campaign.

For tomorrow's game, he and his son plan to scoot out of the basketball game in Miami for the airport, where they will repair inside a private airline lounge. They'll watch the game, then fly out. "I don't want to be on a plane when that game is being played," Novak said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, an avid football fan, couldn't make it to Tampa if she wanted to. She will take off tomorrow for a five-day swing through Indonesia and Australia, said Nancy Beck, a State Department spokeswoman. Rice has said she'd like to eventually become commissioner of the National Football League, Beck said.

When asked if the secretary was a big Redskins fan, Beck wavered: "Everybody in Washington is a Redskins fan this week, and that would include the secretary."

In Novak's view, the Redskins don't necessarily enjoy as wide support from Washington's elite as they do from mid-level government workers. "I deal with a lot of fancy people who aren't that interested in the Redskins," he said. "A lot of the elites in this town stick to their hometown team."

Russert comes from somewhere else. And he is more strongly a Buffalo Bills fan. When the Bills lost to the Redskins in the 1992 Super Bowl, he remembers a line of staffers snaking out of his office, waiting to collect on bets, whether they'd actually placed them or not. "I just sat there like a small-town loan officer," he said.

Over the years, though, he has come to root heavily for the Redskins as well. He calls the team "the great equalizer" in town, a subject that he can discuss with all manner of politicians, workers and cabdrivers.

Russert plans to watch the game with his wife, Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth, son Luke and others who might drop by. They'll eat chicken wings and drink water and caffeine-free cola. Too much caffeine, he said, keeps him awake: "You're looking up at the ceiling, counting U.S. senators."

On tap the next morning: his show. Out go the Redskins. Back comes staid Washington , including discussions on Alito, Abramoff, eavesdropping and comments from a guest who wrote the book "Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports."