...and the Tradition Continues

Ashburn here we come

Thanks to Delphine Schrank at the Washington Post for writing such a great paean to the annual training camp trek. For today is the day, the day the Folsom boys head out to Ashburn to see our beloved Redskins up close and personal.

I wish it were still held at Dickinson College in Carlisle Pennsylvania, where training camp was conducted by the Redskins from 1963 to 1993. In 1994, the team *groan* moved training camp to Frostburg State University in the far-western Maryland panhandle, where it stayed until 1999. In 2000 new owner Dan Snyder *groan* moved camp to Redskins Park in Ashburn where he fleeced the loyal for 20 bucks a head (op. cit.). Despite thousands of fans (my self excluded) paying for the privilege it was such a fiasco that Dan got the team out of town back to Carlisle for the 2001 and 2002 preseasons (op. cit.) and it has been in Ashburn since 2003, and there it will stay.

Redskins fans do not have to troll far on teh internets to find stories of a slower time in football, when training camp was about getting into shape, not staying off the field, and fans could mingle with players after hours at the ice cream shop or the burger joint in Carlisle. Football, at least training camp, was a tradition, not so much a media event and players and fans had a steady peace: in Carlisle football players were people too, not some trophy to put under glass. You didn't freak out when you realized that was Jim Lachey in the booth next to you and in exchange, he would talk to you.

Those days are long gone but I aim to create some Redskins memories for my kids, today. Pictures and Training Camp Journal to follow.



Redskins 2003 training camp at Ashburn from here.