That God-Awful Stadium in Washington

Arizona Cardinals v Washington Redskins, October 21, 2007

FedEx Field, Sec 223 Row 16

As I turned off the Philadelphia Eagles radio broadcast last Sunday, Eagles play by play legend Merrell Reese signed off by saying; "We'll see you next week from that God-awful stadium in Washington".

I appreciate being taken to a ballgame on someone else's dime. So I can't complain too much about the tailgating, the game and the after game festivities in the stadium cigar bar.

But I am not a huge fan of the FedEx/Redskins experience. I remember DC as a football fanatic city with one of the greatest stadium atmospheres anywhere. And I watch it decline to relative obscurity. The team sucks but the new 85,000 + seat oval lacks any character or passion of the old dump called RFK Stadium.

Clinton Portis rushed the ball from the 2 yard line in the 1st Quarter to put the homeskins ahead. One time Super Bowl hero Kurt Warner threw an interception that was picked off by London Fletcher for a 27 yard TD in the 2nd. The Cardinals were down quickly 14-0. Later in the 2nd Anquan Boldin caught a 10 yard TD throw from Warner for the Cards but the PAT failed.

Portis put another 6 on the board in the 3rd. That proved to be the last scoring for the Redskins in the game. But Arizona added another 7 with another Boldin 10 yard pass from Warner.
Leonard Pope scored again from the Cardinals but a 2 point PAT failed, making the score 21-19 in favor of the Redskins.

Arizona gained control of the ball on one final drive only to have the a Neil Rackers 55 yard FG in the closing seconds of the game fall short. The home team homers celebrated.

The Card controled the stat book with almost twice as many first downs, 283 to 95 yards passing and 200 more total yards. The Cardinals also turned the ball over 2 more times then the Redskins.

Of significance was a Sean Taylor 48 yard interception. In November of 2007 Sean Taylor was murdered in his home in the Miami area after