Super Bowl matchup brews a rivalry at two neighboring Capitol Hill bars

Sure, there are the Redskins.

But they haven't mattered on a Super Bowl Sunday in two decades. And I better leave it at that. In case Dan Snyder's reading.

Let's just say that blind, unreasonable devotion to the Redskins isn't one of those D.C. customs that expats usually embrace when they move here.

I mean, there are plenty of other things newcomers do to blend in. Floridians fade to that fluorescent-light pallor, Hawaiians wear close-toed shoes, Californians begin to speak in full sentences, and flinty Midwesterners learn to faint or drive like ninnies at the sight of a snowflake.

But become Redskins fans?

Nope. Most folks wind up staying true to their hometown team.

So unlike most other cities in the nation, we have a legion of sports bars dedicated to out-of-town teams. It's like Embassy Row for the wings-and-pitcher-beer set.

Want to root for the Eagles? Go to the Rhino Bar and Pumphouse on M Street. The Original Steakhouse & Sports Theatre in Woodbridge is the place where Oakland Raiders fans gather. Kelly's Irish Times is home base for New England Patriots fans, and the 18th Amendment on Capitol Hill has long been where Carolina Panthers fans go to cheer.

You can try to go all bipartisan and venture to a sports bar of mixed alliances, a la the 2011 State of the Union seating chart. The reality, however, is that sports fans don't want to spend big game days as uncomfortable as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

But for this year's bowl, the partisanship won't be hard to miss.

Two of the city's most rabidly devoted team bars are right next to each other, and appropriately three blocks from the Capitol. The Hawk 'n' Dove, the go-to political bar on the Hill, has been the Green Bay Packers' bar for almost a decade. And two doors over, past the health food and wig stores, is the Pour House, a.k.a. Steeler Nation HQ.

For weeks, fans have been leering at each other across the sidewalk. Throwing insults over the box hedges and past the wig displays.