This is not a rivalry game.
It’s not some hyped Battle of the Beltways — not even a grudge match or a strong disagreement.
When the Baltimore Ravens visit FedEx Field on Saturday, chances are fan support will be only 60-40 for the hometown Washington Redskins. Ocean City has drained the nation’s capital of residents in the waning days of summer, so Ravens fans will fill much of the stands.
The stadium might seem neutral, but this isn’t the pro version of DeMatha-Good Counsel. It’s a preseason game between two neighboring cities that do a pretty good job of ignoring each other.
If the Redskins no longer care about the rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys, they sure don’t worry about the Ravens. Rivalries are for fans, not players.
Free agency has largely ruined one of the best parts of sports. These are NFL players more than Redskins or Ravens; few players spend their entire careers with one team anymore. For the Redskins, that really ended with Darrell Green. Players no longer hate rivals because they move around too much.
What few rivalries remain are born from postseason meetings or division matchups that determine playoff plans. It’s not about meeting every few years or in the preseason.
Both teams must be good for rivalries to form. The Redskins haven’t been consistently good since 1993. The postseason has to factor in, but these teams are in separate conferences. They need to meet regularly and don’t.
Dallas Week is totally media driven nowadays. In fact, former Redskins coach Jim Zorn hated the Oakland Raiders more than the Cowboys because he previously played and coached in the AFC West. Coach Mike Shanahan also is an AFC West veteran, so the Cowboys are just another team to him.
Players asked about the Cowboys rivalry try to fake extra interest. They know it’s important to fans, so they pretend it’s a big deal. Dallas is the season opener and a nationally televised night game, which gives it extra juice, but the rivalry is lost in the locker room.
The same holds true for the Ravens game. Baltimore fans tend to enjoy beating Washington more than vice versa, but most Ravens fans probably would prefer to defeat AFC North foe Pittsburgh or postseason nemesis San Diego.
Whether the “oh” part of the national anthem — signaling the Baltimore Orioles — is shouted or booed may be the top moment Saturday. Otherwise, it’s a preseason football game, no matter how hard the media tries to make it more.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com and Twitter @Snide_Remarks or e-mail [email protected].
