Attendance Hits New Heights

The NFL happily announced last week that it set a season attendance record for the second straight year by drawing 14,034,977 fans - or 62,656 per game. You could say some fans were a little more dedicated than others.

The most masochistic fans had to be those in Washington. Despite failing to win a game at home for the first time ever, the Redskins averaged 51,268 at RFK Stadium this past season. That topped the average attendance of 50,221 last year, when the Redskins won one more game than in ‘94.

The most amazing thing was not that the Skins ran their sellout streak to 215 games, but that only 9,097 ticket holders failed to show up for Washington’s final home game against those thrilling Tampa Bay Bucs.

Only 25,705 showed up at Anaheim Stadium a week later for what appeared to be the Rams’ final game in Los Angeles - which they lost to the Skins, 24-21. The crowd was the smallest since the Rams moved from Cleveland in 1949.