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

By Dan Morse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 6, 2006

Redskins fans everywhere are carving out time for tomorrow's big game, and Washington movers and shakers are no exception. For Tim Russert, that means timing his day practically down to the minute.

Having booked his guests for Sunday's "Meet the Press" earlier than usual, he expects to complete his prep by midday.

Then he'll hit the 4 p.m. Catholic Mass at Georgetown University. "Keep it tight, Father," Russert muttered to himself hopefully yesterday. From the university, he'll make a six-minute drive to his house.

The playoff duel with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is slated to start at 4:30 in Florida. But Russert is counting on pregame commentary to push the kickoff closer to 4:48. "I'll be fine," he said in an interview yesterday. "I can sit down on Saturday guilt-free."

At home in front of a large TV seems to be the preferred venue for many bigwig Redskins fans. People also will come together who might otherwise be discussing tax reform.

"I will be going over to my friend Ed Crane's house," Bruce Bartlett, a columnist and former treasury official, said by e-mail. Crane presides over the Cato Institute. "I anticipate that his wife, Kristina, will make chicken wings and we will have many opportunities to sing 'Hail to the Redskins,' which we do after every score."

Wouldn't they love to have Alan Greenspan over. The Federal Reserve chairman goes to most Redskins home games, sitting in team owner Daniel Snyder's skybox. He follows football statistics closely. But for tomorrow's game, Greenspan plans to stay in with his wife, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell. "He's not planning on having a party or anything," said spokeswoman Michelle Smith.

Other fans say they're best left alone. John Thompson, the former Georgetown University basketball coach, grew up in Washington, regularly sports a Redskins cap and also has sat in Snyder's skybox at home games. He hosts a radio show on SportsTalk 980, where he calls himself Joe the Fan when discussing the Redskins.

He plans to watch the game at home, by himself. "My toes will be sitting up, and I will have a sausage sandwich in my hand," Thompson said. And, when appropriate, he can yell at the TV, uninhibited, and "just act like a natural fool," said the Hall of Fame coach.

A hair-down atmosphere is also expected at the home of Judy Woodruff, former anchor of CNN's "Inside Politics," and husband Albert Hunt, who was a regular on CNN's Capital Gang and is an executive editor with Bloomberg News. The couple expect friends to come by, including former solicitor general Seth P. Waxman, who lives nearby. "We will act like adolescents," Hunt said.

At home games, Snyder's skybox plays host to heavy hitters. In addition to Greenspan and Thompson, according to the team, others in the box have included Colin L. Powell, his son, former Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael K. Powell, former U.S. senator Fred D. Thompson and former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. But for tomorrow's game in Tampa, Snyder doesn't expect to have many skybox seats to dole out. His guest box might have as few as 12 seats, according to the Redskins, which would limit space to Snyder, family members, other owners and perhaps team officials.

As for Jack Kemp, he will be skiing with his family in Vail, Colo. He plans to record the game. He won't even duck into a slope-side lunch place, for fear someone might tell him the score. He'll watch it a few hours later. "TiVo is the greatest invention since sliced bread," said Kemp, a former vice presidential candidate.

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."