General DMV:

We're Not Dead...I Promise

Ok guys...I know I owe you all a sincere apology. Things have been quite hectic around the Miz's household over the past month or so, and I know I've done a terrible job of keeping up in the FFODC world, but it was a brief hiatus, not a long-term departure. Just to give you a run-down, here was my last month:

I took over six geography classes that were two units behind the ESOL kids (read: not so strong with the English) with two months to the SOL test.
I had to complete two graduate courses, one involving a 14-page paper and a 9-page final and the other requiring a 165-page unit plan. In other words, I typed quite a bit over the last month, just not on here...
We got a puppy and he rocks. Unfortunately he needs lots of walks, so I've been burning off some unnecessary winter weight.
I finally got my remembrance tattoo (with pictures to come soon).
My head exploded.

Anyway...it's been quite eventful around here, but it's killed me to be away from the site, and I promise that I'm returning with serious purpose. As we enter the so-called down time in the DMV sports world (a la Nats/O's season), I've got plenty of football coverage planned and Sean will be killing it on the Nats coverage throughout the summer. I will also try and decipher the debacle that was the 2010 postseason for our beloved Washington Capitals, and can hopefully highlight a few bright spots leading into next season. I might even send out these damn T-Shirts that are still sitting in my room from the FFODC Bracket Challenge (sorry CGally!).

Let's just say that my Hokie season tickets are ordered, I've been blasting 'Enter Sandman' in my car and it feels about time for football to come around again. Time to get back at it! Hope to see you guys around here quite a bit over the next few months!

DMV Hate Scale: #2 New York

It takes quite a bit to top a town like Pittsburgh when it comes to the ire of D.C. faithful. Luckily, we've got two towns you should really love to hate. There's been a bit of disagreement with some of our choices to this point, and since this is a pretty subjective list, it's open to criticism. However, it's certainly hard to argue with our runner-up and geographic rival, New York. The Big Apple has five teams that are conference rivals, and four that have been division rivals at some point or another. Not only do they have a lot of teams, but they have historically good teams, and teams that have met ours in the playoffs. That breeds some contempt between the two cities, no matter which way you look at it. Let's get into it.

DMV Hate Scale: #3 Pittsburgh

Now we get to the fun part. Oh Lordy do we HATE Pittsburgh...I mean absolutely HATE. The average outsider might ask "why the heck does D.C. get so pissed off over Pittsburgh? They don't even have any teams in your divisions?" So what? There are thousands of reasons to hate Pittsburgh, from the winning, to the bragging, to the mullets and the "superior people from an inferior city" attitude. It all sucks. Let's do this thing.

DMV Hate Scale: #4 Boston

Tonight we move onto #4 on the most-hated list for DMV fans: Boston. It's really easy picking to complain about Boston, but we're willing to take the obvious shots. Boston makes the list more on fan reputation and recent success than rivalry for those of us in the DMV. Regardless...I can't freaking stand Boston, and neither should you.

DMV Hate Scale: #5 Chicago

Tonight we begin FFODC's top five hate countdown. I thought before we jump into the fifth most hated city, we should clarify the rules of this little vote. In reading through the comments section of the original post, a lot of people assumed Dallas would make the top five. I just want to clarify that this is a review of all a city's major pro teams as well as their fans. Unfortunately, the Cowboys are the only rival team from the city of Dallas, and the only place where they earned brownie points outside of that rivalry was the huge bandwagon following. On top of that, they haven't been a true NFL "power" in a long time. Therefore, Dallas didn't make my list. I understand if you'd like to crucify me for that, but if you're still interested, let's move on to #5.

Chicago is known for its deep dish pizza, sausages, spontaneous German parades, and sports. Diving even deeper, their pro teams are known as a mix of lovable losers, extreme success, obnoxious accents, and a ton of tradition. All of those things can endear outsiders to Chicago, but it can make opposing fans want to vomit. Here's why we think you should hate Chicago: