Had a lot of down time for the better part of two weeks while recovering from an old boating injury — old if you consider 14 days a long time — and during this time, I had ample opportunity to consider my plight compared to the plight of others and to develop a perspective on how we too often take the suffering of others for granted, and fail to realize how lucky we truly are.
During this time of reflection, the person I drew the most strength from in counting my blessings was none other than Daniel Snyder, the diminutive self-made billionaire owner of the Washington Redskins, whose very special way in human relations caused me to thank my lucky stars I never bought Redskins season tickets.
The Redskins, in case you missed it, have sued 125 people and firms in the past five years because they defaulted on mulityear contracts to purchase premium seats for Redskins home games, including a 72-year-old Fairfax, Va. grandma, real-estate agent Pat Hill, who signed a $5,300-a-year, 10-year contract through 2017 for two seats at FedEx Field, but was unable to make payments in 2008 after the housing market crashed.
According to a two-part story in last week’s Washington Post, Hill, who had been a Redskins season-ticket holder since 1962, was forced to sell her Redskins souvenirs, collected over her lifetime, not only to help pay off the Redskins’ $66,364 court judgment against her, but to put food in her mouth as well.
(Which brings to mind the Steve Martin line from the 1970s: “Boy am I mad at my mother. She called the other day and wanted to borrow $10 for foooood. I said, ‘Hey, I work for a living!’ So now I have her working it off. Yesterday she rebuilt the transmission in my car, and tomorrow I’m going to have her move my weights upstairs.”)
Days after the Post’s reports further crystalized what sweethearts the Redskins have become under Snyder’s mad reign, Redskins General Counsel David Donovan notified Grandma Hill via e-mail, “I have directed our outside counsel to notify the courts that your obligation to the Redskins has been satisfied and to vacate the judgment against you. That means you no longer owe the Redskins anything, and you are released from all of your contractual obligations.”
Yes, Grandma in Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. You are now free to answer your telephone without having to worry about it being Albert Haynesworth on the other end telling you he’s coming over, not to sign autographs, but to uh, ahem, move your piano shall we say?
It’s not the Redskins trying to collect on a debt that is so horrible. What’s horrible is the Redskins are suing folks who have met near financial ruin and who tried to ask out of their obligation with the team. They are suing these folks as they attempt to pay for tickets that are years away from even being used, and these folks are being sued by the Redskins as the Redskins themselves resell their tickets.
At least nine NFL teams have a practice of allowing defaulted ticket holders out of their obligation and letting bygones be bygones because, yes, the tickets will likely be resold. The Redskins, however, are not one of those organizations, even though they continue to claim they have a waiting list of over 160,000 wannabe ticket buyers. Of course, being on that alleged list hasn’t been much help lately since the Redskins have recently been going to ticket brokers to sell tickets that have been called in.
In the meantime, Snyder, who makes Mr. Potter of “It’s A Wonderful Life” seem like a compelling and sympathetic figure, continues to sue his loyal fans and continues to make the Redskins a cash cow off the field, but a laughingstock on it. And despite this, Redskins fans, including Pat Hill, remain loyal to the Redskins, a team they have lived and died with long before Master Snyder ever touched down in his size 7s to become a man well ahead of his time.
Which is just another way of saying mean old man.
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News.Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
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