How did you become a Redskins fan?

[illdefined]

if you grew up anywhere in the metro area in the '80s, how could you NOT be a diehard Skins fan?

i went to elementary school in south Arlington, where all the local kids would run over to the community center after school to get these football cards with colorful superheroes on them. Art Monk, Gary Clark, Joe Jacoby, Wilber Marshall, Charles Mann, Dexter Manley... they were the coolest things i'd ever seen outside of a comic book and the kids wanted them all, carrying their huge stacks around.

there's no way you could avoid wild superbowl parties in the '80s, seeing these heroes in action, making everyone around go crazy. in the middle of this superhuman squadron was this completely unassuming guy with glasses, Joe Gibbs, who couldn't be meeker, and couldn't inherit more earth.

i could barely comprehend the game, but i knew it was good when Art Monk caught a long pass in the end zone, or Riggins ran over somebody. these guys were gods in my most formative years. something pure and positive about my childhood when i wasnt hearing about scary things called the Soviet Union and Nuclear War.

seems like forever ago and i've long sinced moved to NYC, but the imprint went far too deep. an unfading brand for an unfading fan, way behind enemy lines.