Showtime for the Faraway Faithful

For those unable to commune with Redskins comrades in the office or at the local pub, the blog world fills in. Under the pseudonym "PDiddy," Prashant Sridharan, who grew up in Silver Spring and came here 12 years ago to work for Microsoft, posts 10 to 20 comments a day on the Redskins Insider blog.

"As a Redskins fan living 3,000 miles from home, you don't get that day-to-day [exposure] you get in D.C.," he said, "so the blog is a great way for me to share the passion I have."

Sridharan, like other Redskins fans here, is not overly impressed with the football culture of the Pacific Northwest, where pursuits such as hiking and kayaking take precedent over more rigorous activities -- say, discoursing on Redskins history.

"True-blue Seahawks fans are very knowledgeable about the sport," he said. "The game atmosphere is pretty intense, and the acoustics of the stadium are designed to keep it loud. When Seattle fans come out, they come out to represent."

The difference, Sridharan said, is that when the Seahawks are off the field, the intensity slackens, whereas in the District, it's in the ether, on the radio, leading the news, water-cooler topic number one.

"Generally, people in the Northwest are pretty apathetic about sports," he said. "They've got a strong passion for the outdoors, but football is just something they do for three hours on the weekends."

Not Sridharan. He still has season tickets for the Redskins, flying back to the D.C. area three or four times a year to visit his mother and attend games. This has been a bit of a social obstacle at times, he acknowledges.

"Some women don't understand that I really care about football, and some days are dedicated to television and not climbing mountains," he said. "Sundays are my holy day."

At least Seattle fans are civil. Showing up in the burgundy and gold at Qwest Field isn't likely to draw the type of filthy insults -- or worse -- one would suffer in Philadelphia or New York.

"Seattle folks are far more polite and less rowdy," said Tom Woods, an assistant U.S. attorney who moved to Seattle from the District last year.

And Woods knows about rowdy. He grew up a Redskins fan among Giants in Manhattan. When he would go to games at the Meadowlands, he would muffle his cheering and leave his Redskins jersey in the closet out of concern for his safety. "I'm not a very big guy," he explained.

But today at Qwest, "I'll have no problem wearing my Redskins jersey," Woods said.