Sunday, November 22: The Second-Place Sign At The Pep Rally
This is not the winning sign from the sign contest during Friday night's ESPN980 We Want Dallas pep rally. The winning sign belonged to a group of seven kids from Rockville -- Clayton, 11, Anthony, 7, Nicholas, 11, Zack, 12, Katie, 9, George, 12, along with, oddly, Dallas fan Cole, 13 -- and focused on a number of weeping Dallas Cowboys. It was an impressive piece of work, and if anyone got a good picture of it, please send it to me, because mine didn't come out at all.
What's pictured above is actually two-thirds of the SECOND-place sign, along with its creator, Ben McMurry.
This was a three step sign; steps two and three are pictured above. The first step was two pictures of Jessica Simpson, one from her waif-life early days, and the other from the infamously voluptuous appearance at a chili cook off earlier this year, along with the question "What happened to Jessica?"
The results, as seen above: "She got fat on Tony's endless supply of Butterfingers," plus five pictures of Cowboys quarterback (and Simpson's ex-) Tony Romo fumbling or otherwise dropping the ball.
"It's amazing what Google searches can do," McMurry said. "Just tony romo fumble gave me everything I needed, and then Staples printed 'em for 39 cents. That's all it was."
As the coup de grace to his elaborate sign/performance art piece, McMurry handed emcee Larry Michael an actual Butterfingers bar. "I knew that cute kids or good looking girls would take the prize no matter what I did," McMurry explained, laughing, "so I went with the props. I went with the complicated three-step sign, because I thought that my only chance was to completely outdo myself, so that's what I did."
McMurry, a graduate of Towson University, lives in Frederick, Md., where he was born and raised. He works in Rockville, writes about the Wizards for isportsweb.com, admits to feeling bad about falling back on a fat joke for his signs, and has been a Redskins fan "since the day I was born," he says. He reminisces about wearing out the family VHS tape of Super Bowl XXII against the Broncos, and watching Super Bowl XXVI against the Bills at a neighborhood bonfire with a big group of Redskins fans and one hapless Bills fan.
But it's his story about his grandfather's Redskins fandom that's REALLY impressive.
"My grandfather, Rolly Atkinson, was a bike rider and the ultimate Skins fan," McMurry explains. "His station wagon was called the Skinsmobile or something, and that was all decked out. But before he had that, he would ride his bicycle as a kid -- and into his adulthood -- down to watch Redskins games."
This ride, from Frederick to RFK Stadium, is currently 58 miles (per Google Maps), and takes about an hour by car withOUT traffic. But that's now, down the (theoretically) high-speed Interstate 270. Atkinson was regularly making this trip by bike in the 1960s, long before 270 was constructed.
"He would leave Frederick before the sun came up, ride his bike down there whether he had tickets or not. He would try to get 'em by somewhat not-legal means somewhere around the stadium; if he couldn't, he would sit there, listen to the game on his little portable radio along with the roar of the crowd, and then just ride his bike home after the game."
A Google search doesn't turn up this particular story anywhere else, which is honestly a shame. But Atkinson's obituary describes him as "a devoted Redskins fan" and a member of the Frederick Bicycle Club (a group that also has a century, or 100 mile ride, named in his memory). So it makes sense that these two lifelong passions would coincide. (It also makes for a nice coincidence that the distance from Frederick to RFK is just about 60 miles, depending on where he started his ride, which is roughly the distance of a "metric century".)
Anyhow, Ben McMurry lives in Frederick now and is, obviously, a die-hard Redskins fan. When he talks about his grandfather's Sunday pilgrimages, the admiration and family pride is obvious. So I ask him if he's ever tried to replicate the feat, maybe write about it somewhere, and he laughs.
"I tried to ride maybe two miles once and couldn't make it," he says, "so I'm really not sure how he used to do that."
All winners received tickets to the upcoming Redskins/Cowboys game at FedExField, where I certainly hope their signs will be on display.
This ride, from Frederick to RFK Stadium, is currently 58 miles (per Google Maps), and takes about an hour by car withOUT traffic. But that's now, down the (theoretically) high-speed Interstate 270. Atkinson was regularly making this trip by bike in the 1960s, long before 270 was constructed.
"He would leave Frederick before the sun came up, ride his bike down there whether he had tickets or not. He would try to get 'em by somewhat not-legal means somewhere around the stadium; if he couldn't, he would sit there, listen to the game on his little portable radio along with the roar of the crowd, and then just ride his bike home after the game."
A Google search doesn't turn up this particular story anywhere else, which is honestly a shame. But Atkinson's obituary describes him as "a devoted Redskins fan" and a member of the Frederick Bicycle Club (a group that also has a century, or 100 mile ride, named in his memory). So it makes sense that these two lifelong passions would coincide. (It also makes for a nice coincidence that the distance from Frederick to RFK is just about 60 miles, depending on where he started his ride, which is roughly the distance of a "metric century".)
Anyhow, Ben McMurry lives in Frederick now and is, obviously, a die-hard Redskins fan. When he talks about his grandfather's Sunday pilgrimages, the admiration and family pride is obvious. So I ask him if he's ever tried to replicate the feat, maybe write about it somewhere, and he laughs.
"I tried to ride maybe two miles once and couldn't make it," he says, "so I'm really not sure how he used to do that."
All winners received tickets to the upcoming Redskins/Cowboys game at FedExField, where I certainly hope their signs will be on display.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-22-2009 @ 1:41PM
Jim Burneti said...
Sign ban is still on. Mine wasn't allowed into the room:
Dallas Sucks
Picture of Dallas helmet with universal no sign
Picture of Vinny with universal no sign
Fire Vinny
Hire a GM
Beat Dallas - 2011
Thanks Matt for the picture of Landry with the target on it. Had a hard copy. It, with the words "Beat Dallas" scrawled on it, was allowed - but Larry eliminated me first. Wish I had been allowed to enter the other sign - put a lot of work into it - best looking sign at the competition, and on theme.
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