Redskins fan keeps cheering at 95
RICHMOND, VA. — At 6 p.m. on Saturday, Melba Jacobson was sporting her No. 7 Joe Theismann jersey and white Washington Redskins sunglasses when she locked eyes with running back Derrius Guice. It was the third day of training camp, and he had been mingling with fans but not signing autographs. Then Jacobson told him she would turn 95 years old on Wednesday. He signed her poster.
“That’s, that, that is ... phew,” Guice said. “Thank you sweetie. Appreciate you for being here. Love you, baby,” he said, and then he winked at her as he walked away.
Jacobson, 94, was met with warmth from several players, because they know what she represents — a fan who fell in love with a team and never wavered. A fan who’s inching closer to 100, yet who came out for her sixth straight training camp. What the players didn’t know is that she grew up in Brownwood, Texas, a small town southwest of Dallas. Yet she despises the Cowboys.
Since moving to Washington at 17, she developed a devotion for the Redskins that continually refreshes and renews, enduring over decades, miles and heartbreak. She believes she is one of the longest-tenured fans, at nearly 78 years and counting. She wants to see the Redskins win their fourth Super Bowl during her lifetime. Her confidence has hardly waned.
She has refused to abandon the team she started rooting for during the Second World War, when the National Football League franchise was just four years old after moving to the nation’s capital from Boston. She is a rare superfan who doesn’t find games excruciating, because she has managed to not let her rabid fandom interfere with the other aspects of her life. The result of Redskins games doesn’t dominate her mood. She doesn’t obsess over plays, contracts and roster moves, and her gear consists only of a few jerseys, pictures and ticket stubs.
A few years ago, after she met Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, he arranged a training camp tent for her. She sat there with family on Saturday, despite the heat.
“It’s a wonderful life and they’ll always be my team,” she said, surveying the practice field during training camp. “These are my boys.”
In recent years, she has felt the burden of being a Redskins fan, holding a strong allegiance to a team that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005. Washington has won three Super Bowls but is now amid a three-decade championship drought.
But Jacobson vowed long ago to support the team unconditionally. She can still be hard on them, criticizing players for dropped balls or fumbles. On Sundays, after she prepares some snacks, sits on her couch and keeps her eyes glued to the game, she yells all she wants. The organization’s playoff slump seems to matter to her, of course, but not to the extent that it matters to other extreme fans.
“I feel bad about it,” she said. Then, as the avid fan she’s always been, she bounded to her cheerful self. “I hope everybody here can turn it around, and I’m just so excited for this year.”
Jacobson moved to the Washington area in 1941, when she was introduced to the team by her aunt and uncle. After all of these years, she said the most frustrating season she’s ever witnessed was 2018, because of all of the injuries. No single player or team is her favourite. If she had to pick a favourite game, it came Dec. 30, 2012, when Robert Griffin III led Washington to an NFC East-clinching win over Dallas, the Redskins’ first division title in 13 years.
“It was ice cold that day,” Jacobson said, “but I didn’t feel the weather at all.”
Griffin III and Jacobson met less than two years later. Although she has attended only a few games since, this year she will attend the Sept. 15 home opener against the Dallas Cowboys, seated in section 133, row four, behind the end zone. When she sees big hits and players get hurt, she tries to look away — the violence of the sport is one of her least favourite parts.
It is training camp that gives her the best chance to greet her beloved players. She isn’t much of a screamer — never was — but when receiver Jehu Chesson caught a pass during a drill nearby, she popped up in her seat. “Yeah!” she said. Soon her loyalty was repaid, as several Redskins stopped to hug and kiss her. She thanked them.
Linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton: “I hope I look as good as you when I get this old.” Cornerback Josh Norman requested a hug. Told of her age, kicker Dustin Hopkins said: “That’s impossible. Can I get a picture with you?” said rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins, whose No. 7 matched Jacobson’s.
Earlier in the afternoon, Jacobson was growing antsy, unsure whether any of the players would see her behind one of the end zones.
Then, with help from her daughter, Sharon Ramboz, quarterback Case Keenum and receiver Trey Quinn found her underneath her tent. “I heard there’s a cougar over here,” Keenum joked. “A hot mama. Ninety-five, staying alive, baby!”
As Jacobson posed for a photo with Quinn, she looked at the poster referring to her age and quipped: “Make sure they know that’s not you,” to the 23-year-old Quinn. “We’re both 23,” Quinn replied. “I feel 23,” she said, a few days from her 95th birthday. “This is my second childhood.”
“I’m staying young forever,” Quinn told her.
“Just have a good life,” Jacobson said, beaming.