About Monday Night...

First of all, let us say that our brother-in-law is from Pittsburgh; is the tenth of eleven children, currently lives in Laurel, MD, has at least one brother and sister living in Burke, VA with their families, and is a member the Bhawlmuher Branch of the Pittsburgh Steelers Fan Club. (Think last night was bad? Check out what Pittsburgh-Bhawlmuher games look like in Bhawlmuher.)

Our little sister is unfortunately living with an idiot from Pittsburgh and has been converted into a Steelers fan (luckily our older sister has held out and is more than willing to dress our niece in Skins, Caps, Nats, and Terps gear.)

We'd venture it is pretty safe to say that a majority of Pittsburgh fans at the Redskins-Steelers game on Monday night were already living in this area. We can assure you that was the case of the Pittsburgh fan sitting right next to us in the seats that we own. No, we didn't bring our brother-in-law or our other sister's idiot boyfriend with us; we donated our extra ticket back to the Redskins for a tax write-off: http://www.redskins.com/gen/articles/Redskins_Replay_526.jsp.

So yep, through a program that the Redskins set up to help "children in need, people battling life-threatening illnesses, active military members and families coping with a traumatic situation" a fan for the other team got in for free. He certainly wasn't a child in need though being a refugee from Pittsburgh could probably qualify "as coping with a traumatic situation." The same thing happened with our extra ticket for the Saints game too back in September (though was it clearly a child sitting next to us.)

And if you want a real laugh, we got two e-mails in the week leading up to the game from the Redskins telling us that "Due to visiting team and media returns, a limited number of tickets for the game are available." (When we went to the Redskins website to check it out, it was nothing but club and dream seats, the cheapest of which was $275 per ticket and you were also forced to buy a $35 parking pass.)

But as we mentioned earlier, Steeler-Ratbird games in Bhawlmuher are even worse than what you saw Monday night. It is common knowledge that even Baltimorons are smart enough to fleece the Pittsburgh fans for enough $$$$$ to pay for their entire season ticket package in exchange for giving up their tickets to one game. Us Redskins fans can do the same thing with our Dallas tickets (or the Jints/Iggles combination) and this season we had the rare choice of fleecing Dallas fans, Pittsburgh fans, or both. (We'll find out on November 16th how many chose "both" this season.) Though with the Redskins giving Art Monk and Darrell Green their Hall of Fame Rings before the game against the Cowgirls, those Redskins fans that did that will likely be sorry. We upset a close friend (who is a Redskins fan BTW) by refusing to sell him those tickets because we wanted to see Monk and Green get their HOF Rings.

Finally however let us say this, the Redskins were ten times better at dealing with the drunken hooliganism that often mars games like Monday night than the Caps have ever been. Security was in the stands early and often and did not waste any time ejecting people starting trouble before it got out of hand no matter what team's colors they were wearing. For that alone, I applaud the Redskins and cast a wary eye at Ted Leonsis who not only let's these bozos in, but does nothing about them once they are there. Sure, not enough of them were ejected on Monday (out of general principle) but at least those that were filled the Redskins coffers, subsidized Redskins fans, and didn't get to see the game. We find something very satisfying in that.