D.C. Sports Bog: Redskins threaten fans wearing critical shirts

"I think the relentless negative coverage in The Washington Post is a real difference from previous years," Redskins general counsel David Donovan said, in a quote I'm likely to recycle 7,000 times in the next week or so. "But in terms of the way our actual fans are behaving, we don't see any difference."

Look, there were 80,000 people at FedEx Field last night. No way I personally saw any sizable portion of that mass of humanity. But I didn't have to look particularly hard to find people wearing shirts that were crying out in rage. White people and black people, men and women, old people and young people, professional people and working-class people.

I'm going to be beating this drum all day, but the number of people either kicked out Monday night, or threatened with ejection for showing signs of dissent really makes me want to give up on sports entirely. You're going to end dissent through the closest thing a stadium has to real force? That's going to make people happier? By kicking them out for chanting "Danny Stinks?" By ripping up their signs asking for Ovechkin to call plays?

Or by forcing them to turn their shirts inside-out under threat of removal?

And the shirts that said, "Fire The Danny"? Explosive, right? I mean, these guys scream out "threat to the system." Well, they also had a sign on their tailgate that said it was the Official Dan Snyder [Stinks] Tailgate. Three security guys said if the VP of Operations saw the banner, they would lose their season tickets and parking pass for the rest of the year.

"We called them on their bluff," said Steven Ellis, 23, of Centreville. "He's got better things to do. We figured we were speaking for the voice of a lot of Redskins fans. No big deal."

Do you care why these people were wearing these shirts? I mean, I could write down the quotes without even asking the questions, I've heard the answers so many times, from so many people, in so many places.

"Snyder needs to leave," said Katie Hogan of Gambrills, who had her shirt custom-made. "Then I think we'd have a chance at winning."

"We just want on flash, five seconds [of protest] on Monday Night Football," said Steve Sinnott of Baltimore, who printed up 150 shirts bearing a variety of critical messages and had no problem giving them away.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: you don't have to interview people to hear the invective. Literally, just walking around with my ears open, I heard fans discussing the policy of suing delinquent season ticket holders. I heard fans making jokes about how they couldn't give their Skins memorabilia away. I heard the name of the owner coming out of one mouth after another.

What does it all mean? Well, it doesn't mean the world is changing. It's still just a silly football team, and our silly love for sports. But I'm telling you, Redskins officials, in terms of the way your actual fans are behaving, things are a little bit different right now. Maybe you're still collecting on tickets and parking, and maybe you're still getting boffo TV ratings, and maybe if you win six out of eight everything goes back to normal. But right now? This very day? The behavior has changed.

Admitting that might be a step in the right direction.