Watching Redskins Games Simply Isn't Enough Anymore

If you've never been to a Redskins game at FedEx Field, there is no way possible to describe the atmosphere so that you can understand the energy in the air. When you have almost 90,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs, it's like putting your ears on a vacuum cleaner. The decibel level is shattering!

But not everyone who attends the games can hear. You see, the National Association of the Deaf filed the class-action lawsuit Aug. 31 in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, on behalf of three fans from Maryland who regularly attend home games. The three are deaf. So when announcements are made over the loudspeaker, obviously, they can't hear it.

One of the issues brought up was when a player gets ejected, deaf fans don't know why. All they know is Sean Taylor is sitting on the sidelines when the game is coming down to the wire. It should be obvious if this happens why Taylor is sitting on the sidelines next to Jason Campbell, but wouldn't it be easier to simply read why and know for sure?

One solution being suggested is offering closed-captioning in the stadium. The University of Texas has it for their games, making it obvious that Daniel Snyder can open up his pocketbook and make it possible at FedEx Field. Another idea floating around was providing deaf and hearing-impaired fans with seven-inch televisions, which would pick up captioning in the stadium.

Who knows, maybe they can even give a few of the seven-inch TVs to those fans who have seats in the sections where part of the field is blocked from their view and they have to rely on the big screens to see what's going on.