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For a Night, Landover Becomes a Steel Town
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Even though the Redskins annually lead the NFL in attendance and have announced sellouts for every game in FedEx Field history, players were left debating the proportion of Steelers fans in the stadium Monday night. Some guessed 40 percent. Others said 50, although two veteran ticket brokers estimated the number at closer to 15 or 20 percent.
"It sounded like 50-50 from the noise they were making," cornerback Fred Smoot said. "I'm disappointed. FedEx has never had that many other teams' fans. I don't know, it kind of shocked me when I seen all those Terrible Towels. I know Pittsburgh ain't but a couple miles away from here, but we've got to keep them out of our place. I'm not disappointed on the fans, but somebody let 'em in there. It wasn't me, and I know it wasn't [owner] Dan [Snyder], so somebody let 'em in there."
For as many players who remarked upon the incongruity of FedEx Field filled with twirling gold towels, none suggested it had a major impact on the game. Zorn said the team regularly uses silent snap counts in shotgun formations both at home and away, and that the Pittsburgh fans' noise didn't factor into the result.
Still, "I think that'd be highly unusual, and it would kind of tick me off," he said of the visiting influx. "I don't buy it if we're gonna use that as a reason for having a disruption, but if it's a statement of fact, yeah I think it's pretty unusual that a home team would have to have enough opponent crowd in the stands to have to use a silent count."
Players used words like "shocked" and "surprised" to describe their reaction, and Smoot suggested the faltering economy might be to blame.
"I mean, that's not the reputation or the expectation I had of the fans here, but who am I to begrudge somebody from making a profit by selling their tickets?" guard Pete Kendall said. "I'm playing for money, and they're watching, and it's their right to do what they want with their tickets."
Which didn't make the idea of resorting to a silent snap count at home any less strange.
"I'm sitting there saying, 'We're not away, why are we doing some of the things we're doing?' " Moss said. "But you know, that's why we play this game. You've got to be ready for whatever. And they showed us [Monday] night that they brung their whole Pittsburgh over here just to help them win that game."
