This town has seen a lot of losing. We’re all familiar with that and long ago have learned to cope with it. The Washington Redskins arrived in town in 1937, won two NFL championships and played in four NFL championship games in eight years, then had just five winning seasons until they played for the NFL title again in 1972.
The Washington Senators won the World Series in 1924. Then they won the title of American League doormat. Heck, Washington even lost the franchise — twice.
The Wizards, formerly the Bullets, moved from Baltimore in 1973 and played in three NBA finals in five years, with one NBA championship. Since then, the Wizards have become perennial also-rans and now are the joke of the NBA.
The Capitals? One Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 36 seasons.
Teams in this town have lost with misfits and malcontents, both talented and talentless.
But we are seeing a new sports phenomenon in Washington — a new way of losing, and it’s not as easy to live with.
It is the 21st century Washington pro athlete, who individually or through his team or both, has done nothing to warrant their inflated self opinion.
It is the athlete who had little on their resume in terms of championship accomplishments to validate their petulance.
In other words, the privileged loser.
Ground Zero for this new tasteless sports star in this town started, of course, with the assembled decade of privileged losers known as the Redskins — in particular, the symbol of that preening futility, Clinton Portis.
Portis had an outstanding personal career during his seven years in Washington, rushing for 6,824 yards and finishing second on the all-time franchise list behind John Riggins.
But he consulted on draft picks, practiced when he pleased and cut the already-shaky legs out from under coach Jim Zorn in a sideline confrontation. And the teams he played on had a combined record of 48-64.
Portis had company on those privileged teams, including Albert Haynesworth, perhaps the most privileged loser this town has ever seen.
The current best of the worst examples of this are the Wizards trio — Andray Blatche, JaVale McGee and Nick Young.
Wizard veteran Maurice Evans declared, “The sense of entitlement that’s here sometime, I’ve never seen before.”
The privileged losers.
Then there is the darling of Washington sports — Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin. He’s won every NHL award possible and helped pack the Verizon Center every night, leading his team to a successful string of regular-season performances.
Yet this NHL superstar, who has a Stanley Cup playoff record of 17-20 and no appearances in a conference title game, let alone a Stanley Cup final, decides to embarrass the franchise by refusing to take part in the NHL All-Star Game after his three-game suspension.
That is privilege.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
