THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220684
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Despite what you may have heard, playing quarterback in the NFL is not rocket science.
Heath Shuler just makes it look that way.
My excuse for writing about the Washington Redskins this week has to do with Shuler taking over for Gus Frerotte.
This is like rotating the tires after the bus already has gone over the cliff.
With the Redskins 3-8 and getting worse each week, there is nothing left for anybody to talk about except Shuler. There is nothing remotely intriguing about the Redskins' season except Shuler's progress or lack of progress.
How many interceptions will he throw against the Eagles? Will he be as mercilessly booed at RFK Stadium this Sunday as he was last Sunday? Will Norv Turner replace him with Frerotte in the second half?
For now, interest in the 1995 Skins, however scant, revolves around Shuler's trials and tribulations.
Though Heath is earning a reputation as a public whiner, he doesn't deserve the vicious treatment he's received from the RFK lynch mobs. He lost his starting job in the first game when a pass rusher smashed his shoulder into the ground. Is that Shuler's fault?
Now he'll be starting back not much more ready for the NFL than he was in August.
Shuler's crime, apparently, is reporting late for training camp. But that was almost two seasons ago.
Fans aren't really that petty, are they?
Not that I would know what fans are like. Down here in the southeastern part of the Skins reservation, I feel far removed from the hysteria of RFK Stadium. In Hampton Roads, I rarely run into people who show themselves to be zealous followers of the team in D.C.
Admittedly, I live a sheltered life. I don't frequent sports bars. I don't hang out at stores that sell NFL licensed products.
But on those occasions when I tune to local squawk radio, I hear much less public discussion of the Redskins than I expect. Instead, what I'm hearing and feeling is widespread interest in the NFL at large. And in national college sports.
Of course, the Redskins have been losers the last three seasons. That could have something to do with the cooling of local ardor. Fans are fickle to a fault.
Maybe there's more to it than that. In Hampton Roads, interest in sports is a mile wide and an inch deep. The Redskins once were thought to be the exception to this rule. But I wonder if the notion of the Skins as a unifying, passionate force in Hampton Roads isn't just a little passe.
Locally, the sports scene has become fragmented into neat little pockets of fan participation.
The Hampton Roads Admirals, Norfolk Tides, Norfolk State and Old Dominion University all command a loyal following on some level. To a lesser degree, so does the Mariners soccer team, and the Sharks semi-pro football franchise.
The arrival of the CFL Pirates is expected to create another constituency.
These are no substitutes for a genuine big-league team that galvanizes an entire community. But are the Redskins really the answer to this need at a time when the boundaries of national sports viewing have been expanded by cable?
Even in writing about Shuler, I may presume a keener, more widespread interest in the Redskins than exists in Hampton Roads in 1995. Who's to say that a younger generation of local fans already hasn't thrown over the losing Redskins for the shiny, new Carolina Panthers?
After all these years of long-distance loyalty to the team from D.C., perhaps something has been lost. Maybe for a little while. Maybe forever. by CNB