Ol' Ricky's Redskins Tales - Ol' Redskins Park
Ol’ Ricky always winces when some random fan tweets Redskins Park is a dump and a new one is needed. First, very few fans enter the building so it’s doubtful the person on Twitter knows what they’re talking about (shocker.) Second, it’s not a dump.
The ol’ Redskin Park (Dan Snyder’s henchmen changed the name to Redskins Park in 1999) was created by George Allen in 1971 in nearby Chantilly. It was just a couple of miles off the now Dulles Toll Road. The whole area was remote and there was nothing around the NFL’s first full-time facility, which is how Allen liked it. Indeed, Allen employed a security guy that players called “007” to walk around the fence line to keep away spies.
Nearby Dulles International Airport was considered in another country if you lived in the city. There was no toll road until 1984 and the airport-only access road was built in 1962. I used to take it and then loop back to the exit for Redskins Park. If the cops caught you it meant a ticket so most people stayed on the back roads to get there. Hopefully, the statute of limitations is past and no old ticket is headed my way for my confession.
Allen liked the seclusion, but eventually the area was discovered and overrun so the team moved to its current facility in 1992 just after winning its third Super Bowl. Like its predecessor, the current one was in the middle of nowhere in Ashburn at the end of a road. People said one day Ashburn would be 70,000 people. I could have bought a house there for $135,000 that today goes for $900,000 easily. Yeah, I’m a dope.
The old park became surrounded by warehouses and commercial buildings where workers sometimes watched practice from their rooftops. Oh, Allen hated that, but could nothing about it. Allen was so paranoid he thought passing planes were Cowboys spies taking footage. Seriously. Then again, there’s a new bridge by the current practice fields with a tarp stretched across so no passerby can see practice so Allen wasn’t alone being paranoid.
The old Redskin Park was cutting edge in being devoted to the team, but by today’s standards it was spartan. No elevator. Small locker room half the current size. Fields covered with dandelions in the spring that caused Allen to ask players to each pull a couple on their way back to the locker room, which nobody did. The two-story brick building included little parking and a media room with one phone. The PR guys sat in cubicles and we could hear their conversations. Lunch was often catered by McDonald’s.
Mike Richman RedskinsHistorian.com
A few years ago, I visited a friend in a renowned Washington hospital and was shocked how old everything looked. It seemed straight out of the 1960s. I said hospitals aren’t about hallways, but medicine. Same goes for training facilities. The Redskins went to five Super Bowls and won three while working in that building. The current park has zero championship appearances despite being a respectable venue. It’s about players on the field, not paintings on walls.
Tomorrow: Ol’ Ricky rates training camp venues. Lots of stories in my book and these are the types of tales I’ll tell on my “Pizza and Pigskins Tours” later this summer.
Rick Snider is an award-winning sports writer who has covered Washington sports since 1978. He first wrote about the Redskins in 1983 before becoming a beat writer in 1993. Snider currently writes for several national and international publications and is a Washington tour guide. Follow Rick on Twitter at @Snide_Remarks.
