On December 22, 1996, Washington beat Dallas 37-10 in front of a sellout crowd. The postgame scenes were a sight to behold: fans tore up seats on their way to storming the field, ‘Auld Lang Syne’ played, a fire was set inside a helmet. The outpouring of emotion was about more than just a win over the Cowboys; it was about closing a chapter and saying goodbye to hallowed grounds that meant so much to so many.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Swarm the field in droves, desperately clutching for keepsakes.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
And then I realized as it was ending, people were
storming the field and tearing up pieces aside.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Police arrested twenty fans for disorderly conduct out of the
thousands who stormed the field.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
Oh yeah, people were burned stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
And I mean guys had like, you know, ranches and
tools with them so they could dig up the seat
and people were like guys were carrying out two and
three seats.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
At a time.
Speaker 6 (00:28):
You're this hardcore full weall player. But you see fans,
grown men, grown women, crying, tears in their eyes.
Speaker 7 (00:34):
It's a little after seven pm on December twenty second,
nineteen ninety six, inside the walls of a football stadium
near the west bank of the Anacostia River in Washington,
d C. Chaos is unfolding.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
But some of these people were in their seventies, and
you know, they had been doing this for a long
long time, and you know, so there were hugs and
maybe a few tears because you didn't know if.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
You're going to see those people ever again.
Speaker 8 (01:03):
There we'll talk about the RFK and the stadium and
the last time and what days you don't hate the Cowboys.
Speaker 7 (01:11):
Here too, Championships and Super Bowls, hogs and Hall of Famers,
Shaking stands and flying cushions. Cheers turn to tears. This
goodbye wasn't easy. This is hail tales. Stories from Washington
(01:44):
football history. The last game at RFK. The idea for
a national stadium in the Capitol can be traced back
as far as nineteen sixteen, with the goal of attracting
(02:06):
an Olympics to the area. A DC stadium concept saw
spikes of popularity in the nineteen thirties and again in
the nineteen fifties. In nineteen fifty eight, President Eisenhower finally
signed the District of Columbia Stadium Act, which authorized a
fifty thousand seat stadium to be used by Washington's baseball
(02:28):
team and football team at the Armory site. Builders broke
ground in nineteen sixty The stadium, the one we'd know
as RFK but was then called DC Stadium, opened on
October first, nineteen sixty one, with the Burgundy and Golds
Week three tilt versus the New York Giants.
Speaker 9 (02:51):
A dream of decades comes true next Sunday, when the
gates swing open on Washington's new twenty four million dollar
Beauty stadium, spawned by an Act of Congress and now
spiraling into the skies. More than forty thousand fans are
expected to flock into the spacious stadium, described by sports
(03:11):
figures across the nation as perhaps the prettiest sports park in.
Speaker 10 (03:15):
All the land.
Speaker 9 (03:17):
When the Washington Redskins played the New York Giants one
week from this afternoon.
Speaker 7 (03:22):
It didn't take Washington very long to fall in love
with its new stadium. Going to see the local pro
football team became a popular to do in the district.
Speaker 11 (03:32):
The way that the architects designed it, where the noise
would go up and come back down. I think it
was as loud as any outdoor stadium you could find,
and low did some of the teams that were indoors.
Speaker 7 (03:42):
Brian Mitchell, super Bowl Champion running back in return specialists
for the Burgundy and Gold from nineteen ninety to nineteen
ninety nine.
Speaker 11 (03:50):
Certain things about it. You look across the field and
you see the stadiums actually rocking. You know, the band,
The way they would be right there right on you.
The crowd was you're coming out of a dug like
you're going onto a baseball field. Thing I love so
much about it. Where I've been many places, and I
never saw a place where it didn't make a difference
what color, raised creek, religion you were. Everybody came together
(04:12):
that you have for the BERGA didn't go on that
day and you had no issues.
Speaker 12 (04:15):
It was the It was the intimacy knowing where people
were sitting. They were the same people sitting in those
same seats over and over and over again.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
Charles Mann, three time Super Bowl champion, Washington defensive end
from nineteen eighty three to nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 12 (04:32):
The stands rocking. I mean that just juiced us up.
If you can't get excited about that, you need to
be on an ivy and maybe it get some oxygen
and may be your comatose.
Speaker 7 (04:47):
There were other sensory elements about RFK that stood out.
Paul Butler, who has had season tickets and his family
since nineteen sixty three, remembers it.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Smelled the same way every time you went. You know,
you'd park out in the grass parking lot and walk
through the tunnel where everyone would who thought they were
the funniest people on earth, would move like cattle.
Speaker 13 (05:10):
The main reason it was so special for us was
we truly did have You know a twelfth.
Speaker 7 (05:16):
Man Gary Clark, two time Super Bowl champion wide receiver
for Washington from nineteen eighty five to nineteen ninety two,
and you.
Speaker 13 (05:26):
Came into RFK, your chances of winning. Don't get me wrong,
we weren't one hundred percent winning inn RFK, but your
chances of beating us in a RK was like two
out of ten. I mean, for the most part, we
were going to spank her, but just because our crowds
got into it, they never they never gave us bonus ever.
(05:47):
I mean, we could be down by twenty points in
the fourth quarter with three minutes lap, and they still
think we're going to figure out a way to pull
it out.
Speaker 7 (05:55):
Former Team beat writer for The Washington Post, Christine Brennan.
Speaker 14 (05:59):
The other wonderful piece of the puzzle in the story
of RFK was that it was in DC, and you know,
those camera shots from outside the stadium would go looking
down all the way to the Capitol because it was
perfectly symmetrical the line to the Capitol and then to
the Washington Monument and then to the Lincoln Memorial. Amazing,
(06:23):
just amazing. Vistas and everything about it just screamed out,
this is the nation's capital, this is Washington, and this
is Washington's team.
Speaker 7 (06:31):
So many iconic franchise moments unfolded on that grass, But.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
There wasn't one time that I walked out of the
stadium that I didn't know that I had watched a
great player.
Speaker 10 (06:40):
As Komer dropped right back being rushed. PA what neat
on the fly for clash caught it for fifteen there
Watch now Washington.
Speaker 8 (06:52):
Red can run.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
John Regan got off the frame, bat it in the air,
pick like you old black Nay.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
I didn't let go.
Speaker 8 (07:01):
I don't believe it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I want to play kick the day kept the path
cut the other captain and now their kadium kick.
Speaker 7 (07:22):
RFK wasn't just a home in the way all sports
teams have one. It was a place of belonging where
the many, no matter where they came from, literally rocked
as one. All the core memories, all the shared joy
and the shared struggle and everything in between. It made
(07:43):
being on that field, being in those stands feel something
like magic. And while so much about RFK emotionally was enduring,
the infrastructure, well, that was maybe a different story Eventually
Father Time began taking its toll. That, in combination with
(08:09):
the evolving business landscape of the NFL, led to a
call for change by some.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
You have to.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Understand there's a lot of nostalgia RFK, There's no question
about that.
Speaker 7 (08:20):
Charlie Casserly, Washington general manager from nineteen eighty nine to
nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
But it was an older stadium.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
From the team's point of view, the teams were moving
franchises all over the place. They were getting big money deals,
they were getting new stadiums.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
What did a new stadium mean. It meant club seats. Okay,
it meant sweets.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
None of these things existed at RFK. So here's Jack
Kent Cook announced this, he will build a stadium. Well
twice it was rejected in the city by the different
things that happened. Mayor Barry got arrested, that killed that deal.
One time that a striging situation. The president of city
council hung himself. That eliminated that deal. The governor in Virginia,
(09:03):
Doug Wilder, had given him the land in Alexandria on
Route one by Eminent Nomaine. We had a press conference
announcing the building of the stadium that got mixed by
the people in Alexandria. He bought half a Laurel, Maryland
to try to buy a Stay Stay and put a
stadium there when there was no time, no team in Maryland,
but the governor blocked it. There's this a ten year odyssey, okay,
(09:25):
and one interesting story, so we knew it was coming.
But one story, and I don't know this one's ever
been told. I'm sitting at practice one day with Jack
can Cook and he says to me, he says, you know,
I can go to la meaning they gave him the
land and he could buy the stadium, and that's why
La wanted a team. It never gotten until the owner
of the team now behemen belt the stadium. They gave
(09:48):
him the land. He said, I can't leave here, and
he says because of the fans. But it was a
ten year odyssey to keep the team in Washington. That's
what really happened.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
A deal does finally get done in the DMP in
the very last days of nineteen ninety five, Maryland and
Prince George's county leaders and team owner Jack Kent Cook
reach an agreement that clears way for a new stadium
on the site of a dairy farm in Landover, Maryland, April.
Speaker 9 (10:15):
Twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six. The Washington Redskins will begin
the nineteen ninety six regular season on September first against
Philadelphia at RFK Stadium and complete the campaign there against
Dallas on December twenty second. Redskins owner Jack Kent Cook
is hoping his new stadium in Prince George's County will
be ready for the nineteen ninety seven season, So it's possible,
(10:39):
unless the Redskins do well enough to host a playoff game,
that the December twenty second contest could be their last
at RFK Stadium.
Speaker 7 (10:51):
The nineteen ninety six season doesn't go as well as
Washington would have hoped, so that possibility becomes reality. Washington
versus Dallas will be the last game at OURFK.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
It couldn't have been a better rival, you know than the.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
Cowboyd Henry Ellard, three time Pro bowler and receiver for
Washington from nineteen ninety four to nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 11 (11:19):
And you didn't have to get up for a game
like that, you know, I was your divisional arrival, and
then you played them twice a year, and so of
course they always had these good seasons, so you really
if we weren't doing so.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
Well, that was um motivated. Okay, if we can.
Speaker 13 (11:31):
Finish this thing off the right way, especially meeting the cowboard,
that's icing on the cake for us.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
Lifelong Washington fan Mark McGarry was at that December twenty
second game against Dallas.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
The Cowboys were you always talking smack and they weren't
even playing their best players.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
They were resting their players.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
The coach said, so I'm like, yeah, you know, this
isn't really a meaningful game, and that irritated a lot
of the hometown fans.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
It was meaning to us because we knew this was
the last game.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
But but the Cowboys, there's always been a love heat
thing there and to this day we always root for
them to lose, no matter, no matter who they are.
But yeah, it was a you know, bris knight. It
wasn't too cold out. You know, it wasn't stone or anything,
but it was you know, it was mid forties fifty
degrees outside, but everybody the parking lot was a zoo.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Everybody was just ready to go. It was a very
festive atmosphere.
Speaker 10 (12:24):
If a stadium could only talk for the last time.
OURFK Stadium site today's match between the Dallas Cowboys and
Washington Redskins another sellout and no surprise there they've had
them since the beginning.
Speaker 8 (12:48):
Pat Summer.
Speaker 10 (12:49):
All John Eddin at OURFK Stadium. We won't be able
to say that much longer, John, but this is.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
A great place.
Speaker 10 (12:55):
As Boniole and the Dallas kickoff team are out on
the field, Brian Mitchell and William Bell bank deep for
the Redskins. It's Brian Mitchell, he breaks out of the
pack Jill about the thirty four yard Undy where the
Redskins will start. Here's Brady's Wilcome Mass is almost picked up.
(13:19):
Darryl Green almost intercepted it.
Speaker 8 (13:22):
Yeah, we talk about all the old Washington Redskins and
great Worshton Redskins. There's one right there, Darryl Green.
Speaker 10 (13:30):
Rock take to turn down. It's Henry Ellard.
Speaker 8 (13:36):
Right at the twenty.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Westbrook gets the slant.
Speaker 8 (13:43):
And he signals for.
Speaker 10 (13:44):
Another first that it is out of the air and
there ut out the corner, his nineteenth touch down of
the air and the Redskins.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Fo fart of the head for the Redskin to the restaurant.
Speaker 8 (14:04):
This guy is an up of player.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Too tight end set up for the Red Skin.
Speaker 8 (14:23):
Did you see that fat down? Darry Allen put the
ball down and he ran into the stands.
Speaker 10 (14:30):
Ritson throws the interception, throws the Red Skins take over.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
Oh wave Botha just threw that one up for grabs.
He was getting the path ruck and that has to
be on the path rose. He just went to get
rid of that one.
Speaker 10 (14:48):
And again into the end zone into the stands from
six yards out.
Speaker 8 (14:57):
Now you're talking, Now you're talking. This is the way
to remember it.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
That was as deep.
Speaker 8 (15:05):
A Mson without a Redskin touchdown. This is what it's
fun to play when you have them rip the venus,
just bury their nose in it. Today's their days. I'm
gonna lift it too.
Speaker 12 (15:22):
The Redskin band.
Speaker 8 (15:25):
Hails of the Red Skin. They're going to the new stadium.
Speaker 7 (15:33):
Washington goes on to silence the doubters and electrifize RFK
Stadium one last time, crushing Dallas thirty seven to ten.
After the victory, the Burgundy and Gold faithful give the
stadium a send off in a way only they knew
how Paul Butler had brought actual tools inside the stadium
(15:54):
to help him lift a seat during the.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Course of the game, as I was trying to get
the wrench on nuts and bolts, they had so many
coats of paint on them for over the years. Because
these are the old These were wooden and metal seats.
They weren't the plastic ones that they have now or
had recently, and I couldn't get a wrench on them.
(16:17):
I couldn't get the.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Flyers on them. So I started hacking away with a hacksaw.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And the two guys that sat behind us, who are
also the same two guys that sat behind us when
we moved to FedEx Field. They helped me and when
I would get tired, because a hacksaw doesn't cut through
the wood very well, when I would get tired, one
of them would take over.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
I eventually made my way down to the fifty yard
line and this woman in a full length of a
coat and five inch toletto heels is on her hands
and knees with one shoe digging up a piece of turf.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
This woman goes, hey, can you help me? I said,
help you do what you're doing a pretty good job.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I don't have a shovel, but she was literally wearing
a full make coat, and I was like, my God,
So that that's that's something I've never just that vision.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
I wish I could have taken a picture in her
first coat.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
You saw people, like you said, taking pieces of the stadium.
It's a memory for them, and so you know that
to me was just it was it was precious because
it was like this was a part of that little
piece of whatever. That chair, that stadium was generations of
people going to the game. It was seen the first
black quarterback in the Super Bowl. It was the players
(17:34):
that I played with who were still on the team
from when you know they won the Super Bowls. That
those little pieces of it was history and.
Speaker 13 (17:41):
There's a special moment, you know, Like I said, this
history coming to a close and run place and get
ready to start to.
Speaker 10 (17:46):
Number and John your final box about today about the
season for these two, Well, it's.
Speaker 8 (18:00):
My final plots are really about being here at RFK.
Like I said earlier, there's no place that I would
rather be than right here in RFK Stadium today because
there were so many great moments here and the moments
that we've been together over the years and games, and
it wasn't just one player or one group or one guy.
It was a combination to me, the memories of all
(18:23):
the fans, you know, and how great they were, and
how this whole place would shake and jump in the
you know, in the fight song, and the hogs and
Rigo and players and close games and Joe Jacobe going
against Lawrence Taylor and the great battles and Joe Fisman
and you know, I mean, all the all the players
(18:43):
and and things that happened here, and you just kind
of collect them all and put them right in here
and say, Doug Hunt, this was pretty.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Good, and that was goodbye.
Speaker 7 (19:00):
The Burgundy and Gold started their move to the freshly
built Jack Kent Cook Stadium, as it was then called.
When all was said and done, that venue went up
in seventeen months, faster than any modern football stadium at
that time. The Washington hasn't played a game at RFK
in nearly thirty years. All of its meaning, how it
(19:22):
made people feel lives on.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
One time, we were at FedEx and my dad had
not gone to the game, and.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
My mom and my stepfather were giving me a ride home,
and for some reason we decided to go down Central Avenue,
which becomes East Capitol Street and right before we went
across Anacostia River.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
You're driving right at RFK, and my mom said, it's
like coming home.
Speaker 11 (19:49):
But it was just a great spot, you know, in
that stadium. I went to boxing matches in it. I
saw soccer matches there, I saw baseball games in it,
and every time I had a certain little feel when
I walked into it, Like you know, I went over
one day to talk to my buddy to work. They're
basically destroying it from the inside out. And when I
went over there, my hand stands up with my mom steele,
(20:10):
and I'll guess it'd be like that have the rest
of my life, I'm time on those grounds.
Speaker 8 (20:14):
I out feel that way.
Speaker 7 (20:16):
There's a new chapter in the legacy of RFK ready
to be written. To learn more and pledge your support,
please visit Commanders dot com backslash Stadium. This episode of
Hailtals was narrated, produced, and research by me Hannah Liechtenstein,
(20:38):
senior copywriter for the Washington Commanders. It was produced and
edited by Jason Johnson. Executive producers are Ryan Yoakum and
Kevin Klein. Additional voiceover help comes from Bram Weinstein. Graphics
designed by Zach Osborne and Matt Cashman. Like, subscribe, comment,
and stay tuned for more Haletales episodes this summer. Thank
(20:59):
you to our guests for their contributions, and thank you
for listening.
Swarm the field in droves, desperately clutching for keepsakes.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
And then I realized as it was ending, people were
storming the field and tearing up pieces aside.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Police arrested twenty fans for disorderly conduct out of the
thousands who stormed the field.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
Oh yeah, people were burned stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
And I mean guys had like, you know, ranches and
tools with them so they could dig up the seat
and people were like guys were carrying out two and
three seats.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
At a time.
Speaker 6 (00:28):
You're this hardcore full weall player. But you see fans,
grown men, grown women, crying, tears in their eyes.
Speaker 7 (00:34):
It's a little after seven pm on December twenty second,
nineteen ninety six, inside the walls of a football stadium
near the west bank of the Anacostia River in Washington,
d C. Chaos is unfolding.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
But some of these people were in their seventies, and
you know, they had been doing this for a long
long time, and you know, so there were hugs and
maybe a few tears because you didn't know if.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
You're going to see those people ever again.
Speaker 8 (01:03):
There we'll talk about the RFK and the stadium and
the last time and what days you don't hate the Cowboys.
Speaker 7 (01:11):
Here too, Championships and Super Bowls, hogs and Hall of Famers,
Shaking stands and flying cushions. Cheers turn to tears. This
goodbye wasn't easy. This is hail tales. Stories from Washington
(01:44):
football history. The last game at RFK. The idea for
a national stadium in the Capitol can be traced back
as far as nineteen sixteen, with the goal of attracting
(02:06):
an Olympics to the area. A DC stadium concept saw
spikes of popularity in the nineteen thirties and again in
the nineteen fifties. In nineteen fifty eight, President Eisenhower finally
signed the District of Columbia Stadium Act, which authorized a
fifty thousand seat stadium to be used by Washington's baseball
(02:28):
team and football team at the Armory site. Builders broke
ground in nineteen sixty The stadium, the one we'd know
as RFK but was then called DC Stadium, opened on
October first, nineteen sixty one, with the Burgundy and Golds
Week three tilt versus the New York Giants.
Speaker 9 (02:51):
A dream of decades comes true next Sunday, when the
gates swing open on Washington's new twenty four million dollar
Beauty stadium, spawned by an Act of Congress and now
spiraling into the skies. More than forty thousand fans are
expected to flock into the spacious stadium, described by sports
(03:11):
figures across the nation as perhaps the prettiest sports park in.
Speaker 10 (03:15):
All the land.
Speaker 9 (03:17):
When the Washington Redskins played the New York Giants one
week from this afternoon.
Speaker 7 (03:22):
It didn't take Washington very long to fall in love
with its new stadium. Going to see the local pro
football team became a popular to do in the district.
Speaker 11 (03:32):
The way that the architects designed it, where the noise
would go up and come back down. I think it
was as loud as any outdoor stadium you could find,
and low did some of the teams that were indoors.
Speaker 7 (03:42):
Brian Mitchell, super Bowl Champion running back in return specialists
for the Burgundy and Gold from nineteen ninety to nineteen
ninety nine.
Speaker 11 (03:50):
Certain things about it. You look across the field and
you see the stadiums actually rocking. You know, the band,
The way they would be right there right on you.
The crowd was you're coming out of a dug like
you're going onto a baseball field. Thing I love so
much about it. Where I've been many places, and I
never saw a place where it didn't make a difference
what color, raised creek, religion you were. Everybody came together
(04:12):
that you have for the BERGA didn't go on that
day and you had no issues.
Speaker 12 (04:15):
It was the It was the intimacy knowing where people
were sitting. They were the same people sitting in those
same seats over and over and over again.
Speaker 7 (04:24):
Charles Mann, three time Super Bowl champion, Washington defensive end
from nineteen eighty three to nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 12 (04:32):
The stands rocking. I mean that just juiced us up.
If you can't get excited about that, you need to
be on an ivy and maybe it get some oxygen
and may be your comatose.
Speaker 7 (04:47):
There were other sensory elements about RFK that stood out.
Paul Butler, who has had season tickets and his family
since nineteen sixty three, remembers it.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Smelled the same way every time you went. You know,
you'd park out in the grass parking lot and walk
through the tunnel where everyone would who thought they were
the funniest people on earth, would move like cattle.
Speaker 13 (05:10):
The main reason it was so special for us was
we truly did have You know a twelfth.
Speaker 7 (05:16):
Man Gary Clark, two time Super Bowl champion wide receiver
for Washington from nineteen eighty five to nineteen ninety two,
and you.
Speaker 13 (05:26):
Came into RFK, your chances of winning. Don't get me wrong,
we weren't one hundred percent winning inn RFK, but your
chances of beating us in a RK was like two
out of ten. I mean, for the most part, we
were going to spank her, but just because our crowds
got into it, they never they never gave us bonus ever.
(05:47):
I mean, we could be down by twenty points in
the fourth quarter with three minutes lap, and they still
think we're going to figure out a way to pull
it out.
Speaker 7 (05:55):
Former Team beat writer for The Washington Post, Christine Brennan.
Speaker 14 (05:59):
The other wonderful piece of the puzzle in the story
of RFK was that it was in DC, and you know,
those camera shots from outside the stadium would go looking
down all the way to the Capitol because it was
perfectly symmetrical the line to the Capitol and then to
the Washington Monument and then to the Lincoln Memorial. Amazing,
(06:23):
just amazing. Vistas and everything about it just screamed out,
this is the nation's capital, this is Washington, and this
is Washington's team.
Speaker 7 (06:31):
So many iconic franchise moments unfolded on that grass, But.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
There wasn't one time that I walked out of the
stadium that I didn't know that I had watched a
great player.
Speaker 10 (06:40):
As Komer dropped right back being rushed. PA what neat
on the fly for clash caught it for fifteen there
Watch now Washington.
Speaker 8 (06:52):
Red can run.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
John Regan got off the frame, bat it in the air,
pick like you old black Nay.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
I didn't let go.
Speaker 8 (07:01):
I don't believe it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I want to play kick the day kept the path
cut the other captain and now their kadium kick.
Speaker 7 (07:22):
RFK wasn't just a home in the way all sports
teams have one. It was a place of belonging where
the many, no matter where they came from, literally rocked
as one. All the core memories, all the shared joy
and the shared struggle and everything in between. It made
(07:43):
being on that field, being in those stands feel something
like magic. And while so much about RFK emotionally was enduring,
the infrastructure, well, that was maybe a different story Eventually
Father Time began taking its toll. That, in combination with
(08:09):
the evolving business landscape of the NFL, led to a
call for change by some.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
You have to.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Understand there's a lot of nostalgia RFK, There's no question
about that.
Speaker 7 (08:20):
Charlie Casserly, Washington general manager from nineteen eighty nine to
nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
But it was an older stadium.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
From the team's point of view, the teams were moving
franchises all over the place. They were getting big money deals,
they were getting new stadiums.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
What did a new stadium mean. It meant club seats. Okay,
it meant sweets.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
None of these things existed at RFK. So here's Jack
Kent Cook announced this, he will build a stadium. Well
twice it was rejected in the city by the different
things that happened. Mayor Barry got arrested, that killed that deal.
One time that a striging situation. The president of city
council hung himself. That eliminated that deal. The governor in Virginia,
(09:03):
Doug Wilder, had given him the land in Alexandria on
Route one by Eminent Nomaine. We had a press conference
announcing the building of the stadium that got mixed by
the people in Alexandria. He bought half a Laurel, Maryland
to try to buy a Stay Stay and put a
stadium there when there was no time, no team in Maryland,
but the governor blocked it. There's this a ten year odyssey, okay,
(09:25):
and one interesting story, so we knew it was coming.
But one story, and I don't know this one's ever
been told. I'm sitting at practice one day with Jack
can Cook and he says to me, he says, you know,
I can go to la meaning they gave him the
land and he could buy the stadium, and that's why
La wanted a team. It never gotten until the owner
of the team now behemen belt the stadium. They gave
(09:48):
him the land. He said, I can't leave here, and
he says because of the fans. But it was a
ten year odyssey to keep the team in Washington. That's
what really happened.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
A deal does finally get done in the DMP in
the very last days of nineteen ninety five, Maryland and
Prince George's county leaders and team owner Jack Kent Cook
reach an agreement that clears way for a new stadium
on the site of a dairy farm in Landover, Maryland, April.
Speaker 9 (10:15):
Twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six. The Washington Redskins will begin
the nineteen ninety six regular season on September first against
Philadelphia at RFK Stadium and complete the campaign there against
Dallas on December twenty second. Redskins owner Jack Kent Cook
is hoping his new stadium in Prince George's County will
be ready for the nineteen ninety seven season, So it's possible,
(10:39):
unless the Redskins do well enough to host a playoff game,
that the December twenty second contest could be their last
at RFK Stadium.
Speaker 7 (10:51):
The nineteen ninety six season doesn't go as well as
Washington would have hoped, so that possibility becomes reality. Washington
versus Dallas will be the last game at OURFK.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
It couldn't have been a better rival, you know than the.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
Cowboyd Henry Ellard, three time Pro bowler and receiver for
Washington from nineteen ninety four to nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 11 (11:19):
And you didn't have to get up for a game
like that, you know, I was your divisional arrival, and
then you played them twice a year, and so of
course they always had these good seasons, so you really
if we weren't doing so.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
Well, that was um motivated. Okay, if we can.
Speaker 13 (11:31):
Finish this thing off the right way, especially meeting the cowboard,
that's icing on the cake for us.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
Lifelong Washington fan Mark McGarry was at that December twenty
second game against Dallas.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
The Cowboys were you always talking smack and they weren't
even playing their best players.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
They were resting their players.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
The coach said, so I'm like, yeah, you know, this
isn't really a meaningful game, and that irritated a lot
of the hometown fans.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
It was meaning to us because we knew this was
the last game.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
But but the Cowboys, there's always been a love heat
thing there and to this day we always root for
them to lose, no matter, no matter who they are.
But yeah, it was a you know, bris knight. It
wasn't too cold out. You know, it wasn't stone or anything,
but it was you know, it was mid forties fifty
degrees outside, but everybody the parking lot was a zoo.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Everybody was just ready to go. It was a very
festive atmosphere.
Speaker 10 (12:24):
If a stadium could only talk for the last time.
OURFK Stadium site today's match between the Dallas Cowboys and
Washington Redskins another sellout and no surprise there they've had
them since the beginning.
Speaker 8 (12:48):
Pat Summer.
Speaker 10 (12:49):
All John Eddin at OURFK Stadium. We won't be able
to say that much longer, John, but this is.
Speaker 8 (12:54):
A great place.
Speaker 10 (12:55):
As Boniole and the Dallas kickoff team are out on
the field, Brian Mitchell and William Bell bank deep for
the Redskins. It's Brian Mitchell, he breaks out of the
pack Jill about the thirty four yard Undy where the
Redskins will start. Here's Brady's Wilcome Mass is almost picked up.
(13:19):
Darryl Green almost intercepted it.
Speaker 8 (13:22):
Yeah, we talk about all the old Washington Redskins and
great Worshton Redskins. There's one right there, Darryl Green.
Speaker 10 (13:30):
Rock take to turn down. It's Henry Ellard.
Speaker 8 (13:36):
Right at the twenty.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Westbrook gets the slant.
Speaker 8 (13:43):
And he signals for.
Speaker 10 (13:44):
Another first that it is out of the air and
there ut out the corner, his nineteenth touch down of
the air and the Redskins.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Fo fart of the head for the Redskin to the restaurant.
Speaker 8 (14:04):
This guy is an up of player.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Too tight end set up for the Red Skin.
Speaker 8 (14:23):
Did you see that fat down? Darry Allen put the
ball down and he ran into the stands.
Speaker 10 (14:30):
Ritson throws the interception, throws the Red Skins take over.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
Oh wave Botha just threw that one up for grabs.
He was getting the path ruck and that has to
be on the path rose. He just went to get
rid of that one.
Speaker 10 (14:48):
And again into the end zone into the stands from
six yards out.
Speaker 8 (14:57):
Now you're talking, Now you're talking. This is the way
to remember it.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
That was as deep.
Speaker 8 (15:05):
A Mson without a Redskin touchdown. This is what it's
fun to play when you have them rip the venus,
just bury their nose in it. Today's their days. I'm
gonna lift it too.
Speaker 12 (15:22):
The Redskin band.
Speaker 8 (15:25):
Hails of the Red Skin. They're going to the new stadium.
Speaker 7 (15:33):
Washington goes on to silence the doubters and electrifize RFK
Stadium one last time, crushing Dallas thirty seven to ten.
After the victory, the Burgundy and Gold faithful give the
stadium a send off in a way only they knew
how Paul Butler had brought actual tools inside the stadium
(15:54):
to help him lift a seat during the.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Course of the game, as I was trying to get
the wrench on nuts and bolts, they had so many
coats of paint on them for over the years. Because
these are the old These were wooden and metal seats.
They weren't the plastic ones that they have now or
had recently, and I couldn't get a wrench on them.
(16:17):
I couldn't get the.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Flyers on them. So I started hacking away with a hacksaw.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And the two guys that sat behind us, who are
also the same two guys that sat behind us when
we moved to FedEx Field. They helped me and when
I would get tired, because a hacksaw doesn't cut through
the wood very well, when I would get tired, one
of them would take over.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
I eventually made my way down to the fifty yard
line and this woman in a full length of a
coat and five inch toletto heels is on her hands
and knees with one shoe digging up a piece of turf.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
This woman goes, hey, can you help me? I said,
help you do what you're doing a pretty good job.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I don't have a shovel, but she was literally wearing
a full make coat, and I was like, my God,
So that that's that's something I've never just that vision.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
I wish I could have taken a picture in her
first coat.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
You saw people, like you said, taking pieces of the stadium.
It's a memory for them, and so you know that
to me was just it was it was precious because
it was like this was a part of that little
piece of whatever. That chair, that stadium was generations of
people going to the game. It was seen the first
black quarterback in the Super Bowl. It was the players
(17:34):
that I played with who were still on the team
from when you know they won the Super Bowls. That
those little pieces of it was history and.
Speaker 13 (17:41):
There's a special moment, you know, Like I said, this
history coming to a close and run place and get
ready to start to.
Speaker 10 (17:46):
Number and John your final box about today about the
season for these two, Well, it's.
Speaker 8 (18:00):
My final plots are really about being here at RFK.
Like I said earlier, there's no place that I would
rather be than right here in RFK Stadium today because
there were so many great moments here and the moments
that we've been together over the years and games, and
it wasn't just one player or one group or one guy.
It was a combination to me, the memories of all
(18:23):
the fans, you know, and how great they were, and
how this whole place would shake and jump in the
you know, in the fight song, and the hogs and
Rigo and players and close games and Joe Jacobe going
against Lawrence Taylor and the great battles and Joe Fisman
and you know, I mean, all the all the players
(18:43):
and and things that happened here, and you just kind
of collect them all and put them right in here
and say, Doug Hunt, this was pretty.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Good, and that was goodbye.
Speaker 7 (19:00):
The Burgundy and Gold started their move to the freshly
built Jack Kent Cook Stadium, as it was then called.
When all was said and done, that venue went up
in seventeen months, faster than any modern football stadium at
that time. The Washington hasn't played a game at RFK
in nearly thirty years. All of its meaning, how it
(19:22):
made people feel lives on.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
One time, we were at FedEx and my dad had
not gone to the game, and.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
My mom and my stepfather were giving me a ride home,
and for some reason we decided to go down Central Avenue,
which becomes East Capitol Street and right before we went
across Anacostia River.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
You're driving right at RFK, and my mom said, it's
like coming home.
Speaker 11 (19:49):
But it was just a great spot, you know, in
that stadium. I went to boxing matches in it. I
saw soccer matches there, I saw baseball games in it,
and every time I had a certain little feel when
I walked into it, Like you know, I went over
one day to talk to my buddy to work. They're
basically destroying it from the inside out. And when I
went over there, my hand stands up with my mom steele,
(20:10):
and I'll guess it'd be like that have the rest
of my life, I'm time on those grounds.
Speaker 8 (20:14):
I out feel that way.
Speaker 7 (20:16):
There's a new chapter in the legacy of RFK ready
to be written. To learn more and pledge your support,
please visit Commanders dot com backslash Stadium. This episode of
Hailtals was narrated, produced, and research by me Hannah Liechtenstein,
(20:38):
senior copywriter for the Washington Commanders. It was produced and
edited by Jason Johnson. Executive producers are Ryan Yoakum and
Kevin Klein. Additional voiceover help comes from Bram Weinstein. Graphics
designed by Zach Osborne and Matt Cashman. Like, subscribe, comment,
and stay tuned for more Haletales episodes this summer. Thank
(20:59):
you to our guests for their contributions, and thank you
for listening.
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