Redskins Fan

This season, in what had been fertile territory for the Washington Redskins, the manager of Odie's Pub in Odenton has started calling some of his burly, beer-drinking customers "cross-dressers." The customers, who come to the sports bar to watch football and eat chicken wings and crab balls, are showing up in Redskins T-shirts and Baltimore Ravens hats. And, said manager Francois Koryak, those are the fans still loyal to the Redskins. "About three years ago, everybody was a Redskins fan," Koryak said.

To understand how very conflicted Washington is about rooting for Baltimore, consider what happened to one of its biggest football fans when she dared suggest that Redskins supporters offer the Ravens a congratulatory word. The superfan in question dresses as a caped crusader and goes by the superhero name RG3 Woman, in honor of Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. After Baltimore trounced the Patriots in the AFC championship game Sunday, she tweeted: "DC supports Baltimore! Let's go Ravens #semihometeam.

WASHINGTON - Oh, their lying, cheating hearts. They're really Redskins fans, these Washingtonians say, living for the day their team makes it back to the Super Bowl. But would it be so bad if they were to fall for another city on just one evening of one year at one game? We'll still love Washington in the morning, they insist, but can't we date Baltimore just this one Sunday night? "They're very lucky up there," Robert Moorman muses dreamily, gesturing toward Baltimore from the heart of Redskins territory, the Northern Virginia restaurant owned by former Washington quarterback Joe Theismann.

I guess it will happen at some point. A kid in Baltimore will come across a faded black-and-white picture, or notice all those blue #19 jerseys, and he won't quite believe it: "We had a football team before the Ravens?" Maybe it's already happened, given how thoroughly the Ravens have worked their way into our lives in the 16 years since they came to town. In sports franchise years, that's almost yesterday. And yet sometimes I have to stop and think a bit to remember when they weren't here, when fall turned into winter rather than season into postseason, when I didn't have to resist a charmingly insistent lady's request to print her recipe for a purple playoff cake.

Last week's question Which new, non-reality TV show do you plan to watch? 0 percent Commando Nanny 14.3 percent Desperate Housewives 0 percent dr. vegas 7.1 percent Father of the Pride 21.4 percent Jack & Bobby 21.4 percent Joey 7.1 percent Other 14.3 percent All/some of the above 0 percent I only watch reality shows. 14.3 percent I don't watch TV 14 votes This week's question How do you think the Ravens will fare this season? Worse than last year The same as last year Will win the wild card Back to the Super Bowl Don't care, I'm a Redskins fan Vote at www.baltimoresun.

Gene Lamar Michaels, 64, teacher and cabdriver Gene Lamar Michaels, a former schoolteacher and cabdriver, died Tuesday at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va., of complications from a stroke. He was 64 and lived in Southeast Baltimore. A teacher in the Carroll and Baltimore county school systems in the 1960s, he drove a Sun cab for many years. Born in Union Bridge, he attended Elmer A. Wolfe High School in Union Bridge and was a 1957 graduate of Western Maryland College in Westminster.

Ryan Donaldson, an ardent football fan, spent most Sundays in the basement of his Eldersburg home. There, in an unfinished, dimly lit space used for storage, he would watch NFL games on seven mismatched older-model televisions, all tuned to different channels. "I'd invite friends over, and we'd sit on an old couch," says Donaldson, 34, a Redskins fan whose wife, Jessica, favors the Ravens. "I wanted to see as many games as possible. " Donaldson still tunes in to a variety of games, but now he watches them on flat-screen TVs. Five of them.

Matt Birk has made his home in Baltimore for nearly four years. Only quarterback Joe Flacco has a longer consecutive games streak among Ravens. The center has played against all but two teams in his 60 games with the Ravens - and the team closest to Baltimore isn't one of them. That's right, the closest Birk has come to crashing into something with a Washington Redskins logo is when he passes cars with Redskins bumper stickers and license plates around Baltimore. "I see a lot of Redskins stuff.

Across the Baltimore-Washington region, the public offered up a mix of joy, angst, cynicism and apathy yesterday at the idea of a Laurel Redskins football stadium."

Let's say you're a Washington Redskins fan. (No, not you; that guy over there with the Hog snout on.) You probably like Sonny 'n' Sam.Let's say you're not a Redskins fan. (I'm talking about the fellow to your right with the Bob Irsay voodoo doll.) You probably don't like Sonny 'n' Sam. In fact, you probably try not to listen to them.Let's say you're not a Redskins fan, but you're trying to be objective about Sonny 'n' Sam (sort of like the guy whose picture is running with this column). In this case, you must fall somewhere in between.

In this game-day staple, blogger Matt Vensel makes four sometimes-courageous predictions for the game. All he asks is that you don't hold it against him whenever those predictions end up being embarrassingly wrong. The Ravens had no time to dwell on their surprising loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. Up next are the 6-6 Washington Redskins, who have won three straight since their bye week. At 9-3, the Ravens remain in great shape in the AFC North -- they have a two-game lead -- but they have lost grasp of their first-round bye. They have more pressing things to grab Sunday, mainly rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III, who has quickly become the most dynamic dual-threat passer in the NFL. Griffin has completed 67.1 percent of his passes this season with 17 touchdowns and just four interceptions.

Matt Birk has made his home in Baltimore for nearly four years. Only quarterback Joe Flacco has a longer consecutive games streak among Ravens. The center has played against all but two teams in his 60 games with the Ravens - and the team closest to Baltimore isn't one of them. That's right, the closest Birk has come to crashing into something with a Washington Redskins logo is when he passes cars with Redskins bumper stickers and license plates around Baltimore. "I see a lot of Redskins stuff.

Ryan Donaldson, an ardent football fan, spent most Sundays in the basement of his Eldersburg home. There, in an unfinished, dimly lit space used for storage, he would watch NFL games on seven mismatched older-model televisions, all tuned to different channels. "I'd invite friends over, and we'd sit on an old couch," says Donaldson, 34, a Redskins fan whose wife, Jessica, favors the Ravens. "I wanted to see as many games as possible. " Donaldson still tunes in to a variety of games, but now he watches them on flat-screen TVs. Five of them.

It would have been so easy, really. I was 7 years old, and my city's pro football team had played wretchedly for my entire sentient existence. In fact, the Colts were mere weeks from being hauled out of town for good on a fleet of Mayflower trucks. Just down the road, however, lay an alternative, the best dang football team in the world actually. They boasted a cool, telegenic maestro at quarterback and a dignified wizard of a head coach. Their receivers invented a dance routine to celebrate the pure joy of scoring touchdowns.

ASHBURN, Va. -- Early yesterday morning, the shocking word had spread: Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor was dead from a gunshot wound. From the Miami hospital where his son had died, Pedro Taylor had broken the news to Richard Sharpstein, the player's friend and former agent. "His father called and said he was with Christ and he cried and thanked me," Sharpstein said. "It's a tremendously sad and unnecessary event. He was a wonderful, humble, talented young man, and had a huge life in front of him. Obviously, God had other plans."

IT HAS already been another tough week in the Redskins wing of the palatial Schmuck Estate, where the demotion of quarterback Patrick Ramsey was met with a level of outrage normally reserved for lame-duck parental discipline or a sudden rise in the price of Coors Light. "If you don't crush Joe Gibbs for this, I'm never going to speak to you again," said the resident Redskins fan. I shudder to think what life might be like without the daily lectures on the superiority of Dave Matthews over Bruce Springsteen (I repeat, where did I go wrong?

Didn't somebody tell these Baltimoreans that they are supposed to love the Redskins? How about like the Redskins? Tolerate even? To some locals, Baltimore will never -- ever -- become Redskins territory.There's no football team to root for here and Washington is just down the road a spell -- 40 miles south as the crow flies. So what's the problem, people?"They are 40 miles from us and that's the reason we are supposed to like them?" said an unconvinced Mark Jackson. The 23-year-old who works at Harborside Seafood in Harborplace doesn't buy it."

Last week's question How do you think the Ravens will fare this season? 5.9 percent Worse than last year 17.6 percent The same as last year 26.5 percent Will win the wild card 41.2 percent Back to the Super Bowl 8.8 percent Don't care, I'm a Redskins fan 34 votes This week's question Which September release is at the top of your must-see list? Cellular A Dirty Shame The Forgotten The Motorcycle Diaries Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Wimbledon All of the above Other Vote at www.baltimoresun.