Thank Goodness I'm Not A Nats Fan: The DC Sports Curse!??

Although I want to devote most of my time on this blog to music-related stuff, from time-to-time I will post about other things that are on my mind, and today that is the DC Sports curse.  This is a topic that I've talked about with my friends many times over the years and one that was recently re-ignited by a conversation with a co-worker the other day.  

You may or may not be familiar with the DC Sports curse, but it exists.  As a fan of every DC sports team except the Nats (Thanks Grandpa for raising me to be a Braves fan!), I've been subject to sports misery ever since the age of 10 despite many, many talented teams.  Follow me here.  Ever since the Redskins Super Bowl victory back in '92, things just seem to go wrong with every sports team in DC no matter how talented the players.  For whatever reason, it seems like whenever a DC team like the Redskins or Wizards get good players they suddenly get lazy and become bad, even if they have all the talent in the world (for a current example see: Andray Blatche).

The Redskins have pretty much sucked ever since that Super Bowl victory save for a few decent years here and there and have been basically god-awful for the last ten years.  This, I know, is due mostly to Dan Synder and his tendency to shell out ridiculous contracts to players just as they get past their prime, but still.  The Skins have had many a group of very, very talented players during this span and had one of the top-ranked defenses in the NFL for several years prior to this one yet still can't put it together for a solid season and run into the playoffs.  

The Bullets/Wizards have been bad really ever since the late 70's even though they've had several talented groups of players come through during that span.  Yes, some of this has to do with just having bad players (such as they do now), but even when they have had good players they still can't put it together.  The Chris Webber/Juwan Howard/Rod Strickland Bullets of the late 90's weren't able to do any better than the #8 seed in the playoffs.  The Gilbert Arenas/Antwan Jamison/Caron Butler-led Wizards of the mid 00's made the playoffs several times and even won a first-round series in what was a very weak Eastern Conference during that span, but were unable to realize their true talents and make a run deep into the playoffs.  Now, they just plain suck.  

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know-the Caps are good.  But how good are they really?  Even they should have done better in the playoffs the past couple of years (including last years' first round loss as the number one seed) and are under-achieving so far this season.

And the Nats, well they can't get anyone decent to take their money unless they ridiculously overpay.  Tell me they're not gonna be kicking themselves over that Jayson Werth deal in a couple of years.

So, tell me fellow DC sports fans: what do you think is the cause of the DC Sports curse?  Is it bad ownership, bad coaching/management, poor work ethic, the DC nightlife making players lazy, etc?  I have tried for years to come up with some kind of a solution to this and in the end I think it's really a combination of all of the above.  Let me know your thoughts...