The Ten Biggest Games in FedEx Field History


FedEx Field is the worst place I've ever watched a football game. This includes a half-empty Groves Stadium in Winston-Salem and the field at the high school I attended, Winston Churchill in Potomac, MD. But I still love the place. Call it a love/hate relationship.
FedEx has no history. It has no presence. It has no feel. (It's like a Tuesday in that regard.) Despite its name, FedEx doesn't deliver. The stadium gives the team little-to-no homefield advantage, even in a rare successful season. Even while full, FedEx isn't very loud but, most of the time, it's not even full. Swaths of empty seats litter the club level and upper-deck during meaningful games, the result of Dan Snyder's greed in increasing the capacity of the stadium by 24,000 since he purchased the team. The empty seats are partly a result of fan-apathy, massive traffic jams and an increasingly-boorish gameday experience.
Tickets for Redskins games at RFK used to be one of the most difficult tickets in sports. Now, it takes little more than one or two phone calls to score good seats for a reasonable price. Still, depite these problems, FedEx Field is home and it's not going anywhere for the time being. This Sunday, the Redskins play one of the biggest games ever at the stadium, when they take on the Cowboys with a playoff berth on the line.
Earlier this week, my cousin and I were discussing whether this was the biggest game in the history of the stadium. We got to thinking and determined that the playoff game in 2000 was probably more important, but that this game was close. How close though? Does a win-and-you're-in game against your biggest rivals top an actual playoff game or the first game ever played in the stadium?
In order to figure this out, I polled five of the most-knowledgeable Redskins fans I know. Based on a nominating list of 14, they were to rank the five biggest games at FedEx Field. I defined "biggest games" as the games that had the biggest stakes and best electricity at kickoff. This wasn't an "in retrospect" activity, but a "prior to" type deal. Four voters responded with their top five lists. The other, well, let's just say he has an aversion to instructions. Five points were awarded for a first-place vote, four points to second place and so on. Ten games received votes, the other four on my original list earn honorable mention honors.

Honorable Mention

November 23, 1997
Redskins (6-5) vs. Giants (7-4)
This game became famous for the Gus Frerotte head-butt incident in the endzone (and for ending in a tie), but few remember that it was a pretty important game for the NFC East lead. The teams met on a Sunday night in Raljon and played one of the uglier NFL games of the season, eventually trading missed FGs to end in the 7-7 tie. Amazingly, this game was played just one week after the Ravens and Eagles played to a tie of their own. Since those games, there has only been one tie in the league, meaning there twice as many ties in a seven-day stretch of 1997 then there have been since.

November 7, 1999
Redskins (5-2) vs. Bills (5-3)
I remember three things about this game:
1) It was the first "big game" for the Redskins in a few seasons.
2) It was moved to the 4:15 national telecast.
3) It was never close, as the Bills cruised.
On second thought, I was a freshman in college for this game, so maybe it's not the same game I'm thinking of. I seem to remember being at home for that big Bills game, mowing the lawn during the 1:00 games and listening to Redskins pre-game on my WalkMan. (Confirmed: I'm thinking of a game in '96 at Rich Stadium when the 'Skins were 7-1. That really was the first big game for Washington since Joe Gibbs left. And the Redskins were blown out 38-13. They rebounded to run their record to 8-3 later in the month, then lost four straight to slip-out of the playoff hunt, thus ruining RFK's final game later in December.)

December 2, 2001
Redskins (5-5) vs. Cowboys (2-8)
This is largely forgotten in recent Redskins memory (as is pretty much all of Marty Schottenheimer's one year here), but after starting the year 0-5, the Redskins won five straight to run their record to .500. Stephen Davis appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and everyone assumed Marty and the boys would continue their winning-streak over the lowly Cowboys. Instead, the 'Skins laid an egg and lagged to an 8-8 finish. This is the sort of game the Redskins often lose to the Cowboys, which makes me more nervous than most for Sunday.

September 28, 2003
Redskins (2-1) vs. Patriots (2-1)
In Steve Spurrier's second year, the Redskins started 2-1 and faced a "struggling" Patriots team two years removed from their surprise Super Bowl. It ended up being the last big win (only?) for Spurrier, as Washington lost 11 of their next 13. The Patriots, on the other hand, wouldn't lose again until Halloween... 2004.

The Top Ten Biggest Games in FedEx Field/Jack Kent Cooke Stadium History

#10) November 26, 2000 (1 point)
Redskins (7-4) vs. Eagles (8-4)
The most expensive team in NFL history was still in good position in the NFC East race on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. They welcomed a young Donovan McNabb into town, who was in the midst of leading the Eagles to the playoffs for the first time in his career. Donovan, as was his M.O. early in his career, tried to give the game away to Washington, but Eddie Murray missed a makable field goal with under two minutes left and the 'Skins lost. When they dropped their next game to the Giants, Norv Turner was fired. (It's always interesting to note that if the $120 million team had simply signed a competent kicker, they probably would have gone 12-4 and Norv Turner would never have been canned. At least for the time being. Also, the lone vote for this game was from me. We all have short-term memories for these types of things so it's easy to forget just how big this game was.)

#9) September 16, 2002 - Monday Night (1 point)
Redskins (1-0) vs. Eagles (0-1)
A write-in vote from my buddy Jaf. He wrote, "We were 1-0. We had Spurrier. And the Eagles were 0-1. And we had Spurrier."

#8) November 6, 2005 (3 points)
Redskins (4-3) vs. Eagles (5-3)
My cousin George and I bought tickets off eBay for this one, which means it had to have been big, as I almost never pay for Redskins tickets (thanks to the generosity of family, friends and friends' fathers). The 'Skins won, then dropped their next three before winning their final five.

#7) September 14, 1997 (4 points)
Redskins (1-1) vs. Cardinals (1-1)
Jack Kent Cooke didn't live long enough to see the stadium that bore his name open in an artificially-named city that bore his son's name (Raljon, MD). He missed the Redskins winning their inaugural game at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium thanks to one of the rarest sights ever seen in these parts: A Michael Westbrook touchdown catch.

#6) December 24, 2005 - (6 points)
Redskins (8-6) vs. Giants (10-4)
This was the second of the three straight victories against the NFC East (and five straight overall) that capped the 'Skins 2005 playoff run. Mark Brunell went down with an injury early in the second half, but Patrick Ramsey hit a double-covered Santana Moss on a deep out that went for a TD, en route to what would be an easy Redskins win. Rob writes, "Winter break, crowd was nuts, we had just killed Dallas. You could tell that team was special."

#5) December 30, 2007 (7 points)
Redskins (8-7) vs. Cowboys (13-2)
Horo mentions that this weekend's game would be bigger if the Cowboys had something to play for. That it's still the fifth biggest game in the 89 home games since 1997 says a lot about how good (or not) the Redskins have been in those 11 years.

#4) December 2, 2007 (10 points)
Redskins (5-6) vs. Bills (5-6)
The first game after Sean Taylor's murder. Both Jaf and The Commish voted this game #1, but it didn't appear on any other ballot. Both sides have a point. On one hand, this was the most anticipated event in FedEx Field's history. However, the game itself was secondary, as The Commish writes. The day was all about SeanTay. The game was a mere afterthought, even though it was a fairly big one.

#3) September 12, 2004 (10 points)
Redskins (0-0) vs. Buccaneers (0-0)
Joe Gibbs' first game back. The excitement was palpable and it only intensified when Clinton Portis took his first touch as a Redskin to the house for a touchdown.

#2) December 18, 2005 (11 points)
Redskins (7-6) vs. Cowboys (8-5)
Everyone just called this "The Cooley Game", as Chris Cooley rumbled for three TDs in a blowout win over the hated Cowboys. The backstory: Washington needed three straight wins against division opponents in order to make the playoffs. They had to begin the winning streak against a Dallas team that was fighting for a playoff spot of their own. I'll let the AP lede speak for itself:

A perfect day for the Washington Redskins would include a complete, start-to-finish, no-let-up humiliation of the Dallas Cowboys. Make it a game that puts the playoffs within serious reach, and you've got sheer nirvana.
From the raucous pregame chants of "We Want Dallas" to the seven sacks, four turnovers and four touchdown passes, the celebration never stopped in Sunday's 35-7 blowout, Washington's most one-sided victory in the 45-year history of the rivalry.

The 'Skins held a 14-0 lead at the two-minute warning, but scored two more TDs before halftime to go up 28-0 at the half. This was the most fun Redskins game I've ever attended at FedEx Field. (I've been to six of the games on this list, including #1. But there was just something about this one that made it a little more special.)

#1) January 8, 2000 - Wild Card Playoffs (23 points)
Redskins (NFC East Champions) vs. Lions (NFC Wild Card #3)
The only playoff game in FedEx Field history. Enough said.