Time to admit: The area’s NFL team belongs to Virginia

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Time to admit: The area’s NFL team belongs to Virginia

By Mike Wise Columnist August 4 

Last Thursday in Richmond, going on 1 p.m., I pulled out of the parking lot and left the smiling, satisfied fans. Navigating through a maze of reddish-brown pigmented heads without torsos (logos adorning ballcaps, bumpers, car flags, onesies in strollers), I took a hard right, up I-95 past Fredericksburg. Driving right through the epicenter of a state forever politically torn — now at war over gay marriage and a monstrous Confederate flag flying in Stafford County — it occurred to me there is one entity yet to splinter Virginia, and maybe one alone.

“If I’m not incorrect, all the players live in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Friday morning at training camp. “Most season-ticket holders come out of Virginia. So we sort of view the team as our team here in Virginia.” ... “I come at this as the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said a man who accepted a $25,000 campaign donation from Snyder. “I have a team here that is growing our economy. Just look in those stands. Look at the economic activity. I’ll be hosting the team over at the mansion on Tuesday night.”
....

Bottom line: No bribed tribe wants to reap financial benefit from Snyder’s team more than the Commonwealth. No state loves these players and cherishes the rich, storied, sullied and ultimately complicated history of this team more than Virginia. ... D.C. and Maryland have been mistresses for far too long. It’s past time to stop fantasizing that the athletic heroes of the area’s youth will ever come home and genuinely commit again to living, practicing and playing anywhere near the city. And even if they did, would you even recognize them anymore?

They’re the Commonwealth’s now, economic drivers and gougers of an original colony, one the team has helped with a newly inspired advertising campaign to lure tourists. ... Virginia isn’t for lovers. No, it’s for leavers.

[unblock]

1. don't get new jersey thinking like that, lol!

although the "new jersey giants" and the "new jersey jets" are both more alliterative....

[FSogol]

2. LOL, the same paper that once had Shirley Povich now has Mike Wise scribbling poorly thought out

musings with the lack of any editor, oversight, or even the common sense that most C minus freshman journalism students innately have. Did he forget that the Washington football team has always played in DC or Maryland?