Just what does a Redskins fan, slogging through another season in which the playoffs are not in the cards, have to be thankful for? Well, just about every Redskins fan I talked to on Thanksgiving day said the same thing: that Coach Gibbs will not forsake us. When next season comes and the win-loss record is back to 0 and 0, he will be there on the sidelines, guiding us to the promised land.

Now look. Leave aside for the time being that the first year of Gibbs’ return has filled his followers with doubt. And try to forget for a minute that when I talk about “talking to Redskins fans”, I really mean I talked to my brother-in-law. I’m in New Jersey, where everyone is a Rutgers fan, and if you believe what is written in what passes for a newspaper up here (the NEWARK STAR-LEDGER), you’d think that backers of the Scarlet Knights were the most put upon group of sports fans in the world. I mean, puh-leeze.

Our opponents this week, are an object lesson in one of the Football Virtues: continuity. Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher is in the middle of his thirteenth season, and once again, he’s got the Steelers cresting upward. Lots of touts whistle and coo at rookie Ben Roethlisberger’s undefeated streak–and, heck, I thought he was the best QB in the draft–but Roethlisberger got to benefit from the thirteen years of Cowher consistency that preceded him. It’s been a rare thing for Danny Six Flags to offer the Redskins thirteen games of consistency. Every year, the Redskins coaching staff are left asking Mike Wilbon for directions to practice, and the defensive players get more changes at defensive coordinator than their Escalades do oil.