On Friday, August 2, RVA Magazine correspondents Andrew Necci and Chris Suarez headed over to Redskins training camp to see what all the fuss is about. This is what they saw:
Part I: Andrew's Thoughts
Redskins training camp has come to RVA, and my natural curiosity--and a lifetime of Redskins fandom--made me want to check it out for myself. So on Friday August 2, together with my fellow RVA Mag staffer and longtime Redskins fan, Chris Suarez, I headed over there to find out.
We had a parking permit generously provided by Redskins media outreach, but based on the lot's location, we realized that we actually could have a shorter walk by parking on the street in the Fan. The fact that the training camp facility is located right in the heart of Richmond is one of my favorite things about it--the Redskins could easily have gone to Short Pump or some other far-flung suburb, but instead they chose to support the actual city of RVA, which not only gives us a much-needed tax boost but allows people who live here in the city to walk or take the bus to training camp. Plenty of well-to-do suburbanites had made it out to observe Friday's activity, but there was a broad cross-section of different social classes represented at the camp, which was nice to see.
As you walk into the compound from the entrance on DMV Drive, there are plenty of concessions at which to buy overpriced food and Redskins merch; in that way, it's not too different from going to a game at FedEx Field. But admission is free, and no one minds if you bring bottles of water or sandwiches from home, so you don't have to spend a dime if you don't want to. You should bring chairs if you want a place to sit, though; it had rained really hard the night before we were there, and the ground was still really wet--downright swampy in some spots.
We arrived at 2 PM, which is the exact halfway point between morning and afternoon practice sessions. This seemed like a bad idea at first, until we realized that the crowd had somewhat thinned out and it was very easy to get a prime spot from which to see the practice field. Before we'd retrieved our media passes, we walked right up and leaned on the fence behind one of the end zones; if we'd stayed there all afternoon, we'd have had a pretty good view of the passing drills and 7-on-7 scrimmaging that was going on in that spot later.
Around 3 PM, the players started coming out onto the field, and the fans got excited. People were cheering at the mere sight of the Redskins' young superstar quarterback, Robert Griffin III. RG3 had a kneebrace on, and he wasn't doing quite as much of the throwing as backup QBs Kirk Cousins, Rex Grossman, and Pat White were, but otherwise, you'd never know that he was still recovering from a serious injury. Clearly, the field of sports medicine has been advancing dramatically over the past half-decade or so, because RG3 looks to be healing even faster from his injury than Adrian Peterson did from a similar one sustained at the end of the 2011 season. This bodes well for the Redskins' fortunes in the 2013 season--or at least, we hope it does.
For the first part of the practice, our media passes got us a prime sideline view of the team's activities, and Chris got some great action shots of Redskins star players and young athletes just trying to make the team (see accompanying article). Meanwhile, I nerded out watching wide receivers catch passes and offensive linemen practice blocks. I enjoyed watching the offensive line practice a blocking technique in which two linemen hit a defensive lineman at once right after the snap, before one of the offensive linemen then split off to catch a linebacker coming in from the second level. I'm sure that for a casual football fan, I am speaking a foreign language right now, but I love to analyze the intricacies of the game, so I was in heaven getting to see the team working on this stuff. That's one good reason to come to training camp--if you're a nerd like me, and you want to see players do detailed work on the skills required for their individual positions, you'll get a close-up view, and be able to make your own (probably wildly inaccurate) predictions about who will make the team.
The other reason to come is if you're a big fan of the team and the players. You don't have to care about the details of zone blocking to think it's cool to watch Pierre Garcon catch passes from RG3 ten feet in front of you. This is the kind of access you won't even get if you buy expensive box seats to a regular season football game. In contrast, Redskins training camp is free, and the fences fans have to stand behind are about 15 yards away from the edges of the practice field. Behind the end zones, there's even a roped-off area in front of the fence where little kids get to sit and watch the action without trying to see over the heads of grownups--so if you have a son or daughter who loves the Redskins as much as you do, by all means bring them. They will have a blast.
It was pretty neat to walk around and see everyone representing their fandom with various versions of Redskins gear. Yes, we saw plenty of RG3 t-shirts and jerseys, but people also had jerseys for past Redskins greats (and not-so-greats) as well. I spotted throwback Joe Theismann and Sonny Jurgenson jerseys, as well as weatherbeaten jerseys from the days when Stephen Davis and Brad Johnson were playing for the Skins. One fan sitting near me when I pointed out the Brad Johnson jersey to Chris said he'd seen one person wearing a Terry Allen jersey, and I had to be reminded who that was (Redskins running back from 1995-1998--took over after Earnest Byner and Ricky Ervins left the team. I had to wikipedia that).
That was another cool thing about hanging out at training camp--(almost) everyone in attendance is united by strong Redskins fandom, so we all have something in common. Therefore it's easy to strike up friendly conversations with strangers standing near you. I talked to a whole bunch of people over the course of the afternoon about different Redskins-related factoids and ephemera, and even though I'm normally very shy around new people, they were all really good conversations with really nice people. It seemed like everyone was glad to be there and enjoying the day. Of course, the sunny, warm-but-not-hot weather helped. The team practices regardless of rain or shine, but I can't imagine it would have been that much fun to be there on a rainy day.
One final note about the weather--even though it was a pretty mild day on the whole, standing on a football field under the hot sun with no shade anywhere around still gets to you after a while. Chris and I had bottles of water with us, but I emptied mine so quickly that I should have brought two more. And it wasn't until I'd been there for at least half an hour and happened to walk by a family applying sunblock that any kind of sun protection occurred to me. Sure enough, I now have sunburn on my face, neck, and arms. Don't let this happen to you! If you're going to training camp, bring sunblock and water. And as I said before, you should probably bring a chair--we stood up for nearly four straight hours, and by the time practice was over, we were too tired to take advantage of our media passes and watch the press conference.
Training camp was a lot of fun, on the whole, and would have been just as much fun for us even if we hadn't had media access. Chris said he'd been there twice already as a fan, and I will almost certainly go back before it's all over (the last day of Redskins training camp is August 16--see the full schedule here).
Part II: Chris's Thoughts
I’ve grown up watching the Redskins nearly every Sunday since I was a little kid. I was born just a few days after Joe Gibbs led the Redskins to a win in Super Bowl XXVI, the last time the team has gotten that far into the playoffs. Much to the chagrin of all Redskins fans, including myself, this was the last time the team had any real relevance where the championship was concerned.
What has that meant to me? It’s meant spending the better half of my two decades being disappointed by the Redskins. The closest I’ve seen the team come to reaching the same caliber they'd attained before I was born was the 2005 season, when we reached the Divisional round and lost to the Seattle Seahawks. Coincidentally, I went to my first two football games that year. If I could pinpoint a moment that solidified my attachment to the team, it was that season.
In all honesty though, as much as I loved the Redskins, there was nothing particularly special about them. Running back Clinton Portis was entertaining, wide receiver Santana Moss was cool to watch, and our defense was pretty solid, but Portis’ production started to wane after that year, and Mark Brunell wasn’t really much of a quarterback. We ultimately lost in the playoffs that year because of Brunell’s mediocrity and lack of leadership.
But then, last year, we drafted Robert Griffin III, and all of a sudden we’re a hot team. Granted, the first half of the season before the bye week was a bit shaky, but seeing the team then win seven straight and beat the Cowboys in week 17 on prime-time television was amazing. Just like that, I could finally relate to almost any Redskins fan above the age of 25. We finally had a team that was captained by a tremendous athlete and commanding personality. We swept the Cowboys, and we were dominating--something I had never really seen the Redskins do.
When they announced last year that training camp was being moved to Richmond from Ashburn, I was very excited. I actually did a project for a class at VCU covering a city meeting earlier this year on the topic of the park where they practice. Forgive me for ranting about my love of the team--I'm not really able to contain my excitement about them being here.
For a diehard fan, going to training camp is a highlight of being in Richmond this summer. Anytime you watch the news or listen to news radio, there’s something about training camp. It’s taken on a life of it’s own, with local restaurants having specials on their menus that reference the team, viral videos of fans being silly, and local celebrity spottings at the camp itself.
Going to training camp is definitely an activity catered to hardcore football fans. You’re wading through a sea of burgundy and gold all day, as the turnout has been overwhelming. There’s also a ridiculous amount of children–-it’s definitely a family event. Expect to be standing or sitting for hours at a time watching some players go through drills and light 11-on-11 run-throughs of the team playbook. Full-contact scrimmages might not start until the last two weeks of training camp.
My recommendation: if you’re a football fan, you should go. It’s a sight to see. The team has an incredible amount of hype around them, so now's the time to check it out. Admission is free, and its location in the city makes it easy to go. It’s worth seeing, if only even for an hour or two.
Redskins Training Camp will be in Richmond until Friday, August 16.