Hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan

When’s the last time I was glad I was a Redskins fan? 2007? No – sneaking into the playoffs propelled by the ghost of Sean Taylor was emotional and cathartic, but ruined immediately by the Gibbs resignation. 2004, when Gibbs actually came back? That and the Dallas win that year on Monday night when I called my boy and woke his wife up at midnight because we scored two TDs in the last 2 minutes to win 14-13? That might be it. Before that…when? 1999 when Norv blundered into an NFC East title only to be confounded by the Turk brothers against Tampa Bay? The hot start in 1997 when I was first in DC? Draft day when they took Shuler and we were happy about it? 1991?

The Washington Redskins have won 7 in a row, from a dismal 3-6 start that had the coach talking about evaluating for next year and fans flipping out calling for his head. And now they haven’t lost in two months, they host a wild-card game next week (no traveling to a Seattle team with a worse record for us!), and a sixth-round draft pick rookie has just set the Redskins single-season rushing record, ahead of Portis, ahead of Riggo, ahead of Byner, ahead of everybody. A franchise QB and a franchise RB, neither of which we have had for ages, and in a league that’s gone all pass all the time, the Skins remind the world that you can still run the damn ball to double-digit wins.

The Junks have been all fired up on this streak, and Bickel in particular has insisted on repeated playings of the fight song, and “Celebration,” and “Party Rock Anthem,” and one specific Miley Cyrus song. And before the game I swore in public (well, on Twitter) that I would download it if they won. I was supposed to be riding around all day listening to this game, until NBC flexed it. Instead, I heard the whole thing in the passenger seat, parked in front of the house the entire second half, doing endless shtick on Twitter with my old DC pals and sparring with the rest of the Twittersphere as Sonny and Sam called the game, like the old days.

And they made it happen, with amazing power running and three picks on defense, and before I was back in the house I’d tweeted a screenshot of the download. And I’d never really heard the song, about somebody far away from her friends and last and homesick until her song hits “and I know I’m gonna be OK.” I may not be there, but we’re still all celebrating together, because at long last – finally – this fandom’s paying out.

Got my hands up, they’re playing my song, I know it’s gonna be OK
Yayyyyyyayyyyyayyyyyyyy, it’s a party in the USA…

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