Showdown (eBook)

The Washington Whiteskins

On November 23, 1947, the Washington Redskins held a fanappreciation day for their iconic quarterback, Sammy Baugh. They presented him with a glistening maroon car with wide, white-walled tires, the number '33' on the front bumper plate, and a door panel reading 'Slingin' Sam--the Redskins Man.' On that special day, before more than 30,000 fervid fans, Baugh had one of his best games, rifling six touchdown passes to down the defending league champion Chicago Cardinals, 45--21. After the game, he drove his sister and brother-in-law to Philadelphia. On his return to Washington that same evening, an oncoming vehicle forced him into a skid that demolished his spiffy new automobile. Baugh was unhurt, but the car wreck would come to symbolize the Redskins' football fortunes in the years following World War II. From 1946 through 1961, the Redskins enjoyed only three winning seasons, appeared in no title or championship games, and amassed a record of 69 wins, 116 losses, and 8 ties. They devoured eight head coaches and played no black athletes.
The most obvious reason for the Redskins' futility is that they did not have enough skilled players, and for that crucial shortcoming, George Marshall must be held accountable. His skill at promotion did not extend to the building of a winning franchise. His monumental ego, and perhaps the team's past success under Sammy Baugh, gave him an exaggerated sense of his understanding of the game and his ability to assess talent. Arrogant, autocratic, meddlesome, bigoted, and caustic, he also failed to establish a comfortable work environment for his players and coaches.
By the mid-1940s, if not earlier, Marshall had developed an obsession with football that bordered on the pathological. To paraphrase Washington Post writer Richard Coe, George Marshall not only owned the Redskins, but the Redskins 'owned' him. 'I've never found anything I enjoyed more,' Marshall said of football. 'If I get out of football, I'll retire, there's nothing else I'd want to do. To do anything well, you have to enjoy it first. And not just for the money, either. Anything else is just another form of prostitution.' In 1946, he sold his laundry business to devote more time and attention to football. Aside from football, only the theater captivated him. When he went out on the town, which was often, he did so mainly for selfaggrandizement and promotion of the Redskins.
Marshall's preoccupation with football strained his family life. He rarely saw his two children from his first marriage, and his union with Corinne became a sham. 'How anyone can be interested in football when he's married to Corinne Griffith is one of the great mysteries of life,' wrote one baffled sportswriter. She lived most of the year in Beverly Hills, California, where she sold real estate. Marshall saw his wife occasionally when the Redskins travelled to Occidental College in southern California for training camp, but mostly the couple lived separate lives. Corinne moved west because she resented subordinating her life to football. On a local 1953 television program called The Redskin Show, Marshall said of Corinne: 'She used to be the Corinne Griffith of the movies until she became more famous as Mrs. George Preston Marshall.'
Corinne did try to take an interest in football. She wrote the lyrics to 'Hail to the Redskins,' helped choreograph halftime shows, initially attended games, and plugged the team in a 1947 book, My Life with the Redskins. But she never developed any affection for the game....