The Real Pocahontas

So, the conditions at the Meadowlands? Well, the Giants' practice bubble collapsed due to wind. I attempted to venture through the concourse to have a merry time with Giants fans, but the winds defeated me and I retreated to the land of satellite television and cranberry-apple cobbler. I appear to have been the only journalist to type the words "a festive shower of refuse confetti," although for some reason that was edited out of the final version of my "Hail to the Wind" sidebar, which can be read here. Here were the highlights:

"Awful," summarized Redskins punter Derrick Frost. "I played a game in Cleveland in 30-mph winds with eight inches of snow; this was just as bad."

"I think football is supposed to be played in cold weather," said Anthony Montgomery, who played for Minnesota in college. "But...I didn't especially like that kind of weather. It was freezing, man."

"That wind caught me one time and I thought I was in Siberia," linebacker Marcus Washington said.

But today is Victory Monday; today is 76 degrees and sunny. This all made me think of an e-mail I received last week from Reader Rachel, an avid Skins fan from Raleigh via Brazil. She had seen the photo I posted of a Redskins fan claiming to be Pocahontas; "A lot of people have told me I am the real Pocahontas," Rachel wrote me. "Well, I would not say that, but I got creative."

As you can see. She's been dressing like this since 2003; she calls Chief Zee "my partner in crime" and wrote that "I always try to find him so we can a pic."

But as you can also see, getting creative can sometimes expose your body to the elements.

"Being cold is the last feeling I have," she wrote. "I don't even worry about it - just wear a big Eskimo coat."

You see? This is sublimating self for team, folding the individual into the group, reaching the limits of human endurance and then reaching beyond.

"I couldn't be prouder of our fans, they just seem to never give up and to always keep fighting and wearing at-times skimpy costumes," someone surely must have said at some point. I asked Rachel why she wanted to dress like this.

"I just love being at the game - representing the Redskins," she wrote. "I just go by what people tell me - that my costume is the most original and plus I look like [Pocahontas] too. I never thought people would call me that. Hail to the Redskins!"