Board 8 > I feel like a total idiot for having never realized this...

(+) Yeah! (+)

I just recently found out that the Washington Redskins are from DC, and not Washington state lol.

I'm from Utah, and our team there is the Utah Jazz. Just south of us are the Arizona Cardinals. I just always assumed that the Redskins were from Washington state, and I'm not sure why it never occurred to me that they were DC based. However, my family just relocated to DC for my wife's job at Postal Service Headquarters, as a result I also learned that DC has a team of practically every sport.
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By the way... having now lived in Virginia for almost 3 weeks now, I feel like I can confidently say that the roads and traffic here are horrible comparatively to the west coast.
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The Washington Capitals are also DC. Just incase.
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I live near Seattle, and when I was like 6 years old I always found it really weird that there was a Seattle Seahawks and a Washington Redskins in Tecmo Super Bowl, but then I figured it out

The Washington D.C. thing is an annoyance for everyone who lives here, believe me

The vast majority of our sports teams do not have the name Washington, aside from the (University of) Washington Huskies. We had a National Lacrosse League team for 4 years called the Washington Stealth which I always found weird because we never use the name Washington

...I'm from Seattle and am just now learning this fact. I think I assumed they were just based somewhere in eastern Washington.

I am not a sports fan though.
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wait WHAT

you are definitely not alone in having not known this
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I also thought that as a kid
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I did use to think this. My only excuse is I don't follow sports that much.

I only realized I was wrong when I went to visit family out in DC and was wondering why they were all huge fans of a team from the West Coast.
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I'm sort of upset that people think we're the one with the racist sports team, but I understand the confusion

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...
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MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

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As a DC native, I always went the other way. "Wait, why does DC have a state on the other side of the country?"

More dialect habits: when talking to an American about where I'm from, I'll say DC. Never 'Washington' or 'Washington DC'. When talking to a non-American, I'll always say Washington DC.

I think DC may have the worst traffic in the country. Virginia is marginally better. The beltway here is awful, from about 3-7PM it's stop-and-go through VA/MD/DC all over. Truly terrible.
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azuarc posted...

MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

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MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

Oh, this is probably where the idea of eastern Washington came from, lol.
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mnkboy907 posted...

MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

Oh, this is probably where the idea of eastern Washington came from, lol.

Even the eastern part of Washington is farther west than all but 7 states, though. It's certainly nowhere near New York or Philadelphia. (Granted, Dallas is also in that division, which has always been WTF from a geography perspective.)
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azuarc posted...

mnkboy907 posted...

MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

Oh, this is probably where the idea of eastern Washington came from, lol.

Even the eastern part of Washington is farther west than all but 7 states, though. It's certainly nowhere near New York or Philadelphia. (Granted, Dallas is also in that division, which has always been WTF from a geography perspective.)

mnkboy907 posted...

I am not a sports fan though.

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wait mnk do you live in seattle

why don't have have you on my list of washington people to hang out with one day
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When I was little, I had NHL 96 on Game Boy and played as the Ottawa Senators all the time, under the impression that they were based out of Ottawa, Kansas. I didn't know of any big cities called Ottawa anywhere else in the US, so I figured that had to be it.

I think I was probably like 12 before I ever figured it out.
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MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

So does Dallas, and I wouldn't really consider Texas as an Eastern State.

That being said, I never really paid that much attention to which division each team is in. Hell, I probably couldn't reliably tell you if a team was AFC or NFC for most of the NFL.
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Peridiam posted...

As a DC native, I always went the other way. "Wait, why does DC have a state on the other side of the country?"

More dialect habits: when talking to an American about where I'm from, I'll say DC. Never 'Washington' or 'Washington DC'. When talking to a non-American, I'll always say Washington DC.

I think DC may have the worst traffic in the country. Virginia is marginally better. The beltway here is awful, from about 3-7PM it's stop-and-go through VA/MD/DC all over. Truly terrible.

Any time I go out of state (especially east coast) and someone asks me where i'm from, I used to just say washington. But 9 times out of 10 they would say "oh DC?" So now I just say Seattle.
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Born and raised in NW Oregon and I didnt know either until I was like 8. This warms my heart
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Yeah many dont know this. I'm a huge football guy. Skins arent doing bad this year either

Alex Smith > Kirk cousins
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azuarc posted...

(Granted, Dallas is also in that division, which has always been WTF from a geography perspective.)

True. If you wanted to be more geographically accurate with teams and divisions, you'd switch the Cowboys and Panthers. The only other slight discrepancy is the Colts playing in the AFC South.

Then again, divisions/conferences have been geographically confusing for years. Notre Dame plays basketball in the Atlantic Coast Conference and they're in Indiana.
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Yeah the DC area is a contender for worst traffic and it will only get worse since public transportation options are so bad
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ZeroSignal620 posted...

The only other slight discrepancy is the Colts playing in the AFC South.

easy. Make the Ravens AFC East, the Dolphins AFC South, and the Colts AFC North.
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azuarc posted...

mnkboy907 posted...

MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

Oh, this is probably where the idea of eastern Washington came from, lol.

Even the eastern part of Washington is farther west than all but 7 states, though. It's certainly nowhere near New York or Philadelphia. (Granted, Dallas is also in that division, which has always been WTF from a geography perspective.)

There were some weirder ones before the last expansion+realignment back in 2002. Arizona was in the NFC East back then, I believe.
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DanKirby posted...

azuarc posted...

mnkboy907 posted...

MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

Oh, this is probably where the idea of eastern Washington came from, lol.

Even the eastern part of Washington is farther west than all but 7 states, though. It's certainly nowhere near New York or Philadelphia. (Granted, Dallas is also in that division, which has always been WTF from a geography perspective.)

There were some weirder ones before the last expansion+realignment back in 2002. Arizona was in the NFC East back then, I believe.

Yep, becausd the moved from St. Louis.

Then the Rams moved to St. Louis and ended up in the west anyway lol
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SantaRPidgey posted...

wait mnk do you live in seattle

why don't have have you on my list of washington people to hang out with one day

I said I'm from Seattle, but nah, I haven't lived in Washington in over a decade now.
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MZero11 posted...

DanKirby posted...

azuarc posted...

mnkboy907 posted...

MZero11 posted...

But they play in the NFC East! Can't get much further west than Washington state...

Oh, this is probably where the idea of eastern Washington came from, lol.

Even the eastern part of Washington is farther west than all but 7 states, though. It's certainly nowhere near New York or Philadelphia. (Granted, Dallas is also in that division, which has always been WTF from a geography perspective.)

There were some weirder ones before the last expansion+realignment back in 2002. Arizona was in the NFC East back then, I believe.

Yep, becausd the moved from St. Louis.

Then the Rams moved to St. Louis and ended up in the west anyway lol

Back then, the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers were in the NFC West.

The expansion/4-division-per-conference realignment was the best thing to happen to the NFL. Before that, there were some strange bedfellows in divisions...

AFC East - Buffalo, Miami, New York Jets, New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts (Formerly Baltimore).

AFC Central - Cleveland/Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Houston/Tennessee, Cleveland

AFC West - Seattle, Denver, Oakland/Los Angeles, San Diego, Kansas City

NFC East - Dallas, St. Louis/Arizona, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York Giants

NFC Central - Tampa Bay, Chicago, Minnesota, Detroit, Green Bay

NFC West - Los Angeles/St. Louis, New Orleans, Carolina, Atlanta, San Francisco.
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Phoenix Down is literally the down (feathers) of a Phoenix
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Jakyl25 posted...

Phoenix Down is literally the down (feathers) of a Phoenix

It wasn't until I saw a comic of someone trying to throw the down of a phoenix onto someone that I figured this out. I was always super confused by the name, because I assumed it was somehow analogous to Blackhawk Down.
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Jakyl25 posted...

Phoenix Down is literally the down (feathers) of a Phoenix

We literally just had this in a topic a few days ago.
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Bartzyx posted...

Yeah the DC area is a contender for worst traffic and it will only get worse since public transportation options are so bad

It feels like Auto Accidents are a way of life here too. I've lived in 5 different states in my life, and this is the only area where there are literally signs every mile telling you to pull over to the side of the road if you get a fender bender.
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