Check out these images of the Redskins fans having some fun in the tailgate lots at FedExField prior to the 2015 Week 2 matchup against the St. Louis Rams.
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Growing up in Aberdeen, Scotland, Darren Coutts had been waiting for an opportunity to see the Redskins play on television. Once the UK began broadcasting NFL games in the early 1980s, it finally offered him a new sport to discover.
As a teenager in 1983, then, you can imagine his excitement and anticipation for Super Bowl XVII, waiting to watch Joe Theismann and John Riggins lead the Redskins to glory.
But a few days before Sunday, a storm took out the main television transmitter in his town. Three of the main channels were restored, but the fourth, the one the game was to be broadcast, wasn't fixed in time. Coutts had to settle to listen to his team instead of watch it.
"I had to listen to the game on Armed Service Radio, which I managed to tune into on long wave," Coutts wrote to The Redskins Blog. "I have never been so excited at a radio broadcast!"
Since the games started being broadcast, Coutts has been a lifelong fan, "relishing the highs and accepting the lows." When he first saw John Riggins playing he knew Washington was the team for him.
"Total uncompromising running, blasting everyone out of his path," he wrote about Riggins.
Now, at 49, he's making his first trip to FedExField this Sunday against the Eagles (Hurricane Joaquin be damned!) after he makes a pit stop in New York (he's seen 44 Broadway shows since 2008 and doesn't plan to stop).
"I am the only football fan in my family, but in visiting New York regularly over the last few years I have met a fellow Redskins fanatic who got the tickets for Sunday's game," he wrote. "To say I am excited is an understatement."
After graduating from Heriot-Watt University he moved to Edinburgh and began working in the events industry. He's now the Innovations Director at a company called MCLCreate, which involves researching and implementing new technologies and services for events.
But his passion for American football still remains as strong as it was as a kid. He's attended at least one international NFL game at Wembley Stadium since they began hosting teams in 2007 and this year plans on catching two games – Bills vs. Jaguars and Cardinals vs. Lions – to go along with his trip abroad.
Since planning this trip in May, he's been eagerly awaiting the opportunity because he believes real progress is taking place and that the Redskins have a bright future. He'll also get his first taste of a Redskins crowd.
"It's one of the best spectator sports in the world."
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