Since a lawsuit was filed in 2006 by three hearing-impaired fans, the Washington Redskins have been captioning game announcements, public service spots, and a variety of advertisements on a few small screens placed near midfield. Now, however, a federal judge has ruled that in order for the deaf fans to get the full experience of the game, they must also caption out “music with lyrics” being played inside the stadium. Which means that someone, hilariously, will have to type out every “Who!” in “Who Let the Dogs Out?”
(”Do YOU know who let the dogs out?”)
The ruling is important because, while the Redskins have been doing this out of the goodness of their hearts over the past few years - and because they didn’t want to be seen as hearcist - they’re now FORCED to caption nearly everything that goes on in the stadium. And because of that, other teams around the league might be forced to become more hearing-impaired-friendly.
From the WASHINGTON POST:
Joseph B. Espo, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the effects of the decision could be far-reaching. “We think this has significance for other sport venues,” he said. “The people who run other sports venues need to take note of this and bring their stadiums into compliance with the law.”
Washington’s newest stadium, Nationals Park, captions everything said on the ballpark’s public address system, said team president Stan Kasten, who said he had not seen Williams’s ruling.
Since the screens are reportedly pretty tiny, it’s not going to affect many of the fans in the stadium who don’t need them. It will, however, finally give drunk fans a chance to perform dramatic interpretations of their favorite piece of Jock Rock.







4:35 pm on October 6th, 2008
They also should have someone describing the urinal odor when an olfactory-challenged gentleman enters the restroom."Oh my, quite the pee pee soaked heck hole in here!"
4:36 pm on October 6th, 2008
The Redskins should employ Garret Morris:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oKaGvHqhq8
4:38 pm on October 6th, 2008
WHAT? WHAT?!
4:43 pm on October 6th, 2008
talk about dumb
4:47 pm on October 6th, 2008
What happens when they play an instrumental?
4:52 pm on October 6th, 2008
More importantly, did they ever figure out who let the dogs out?
5:37 pm on October 6th, 2008
Awesome. I can't wait to see how they handle some of the rap that they play.
5:59 pm on October 6th, 2008
Zorn looks like Michael Douglas in Falling Down. Without the gun.
6:02 pm on October 6th, 2008
ESPO SCORES!
9:38 pm on October 6th, 2008
DMSG: It was the Seattle Mariners. They were the first baseball team to play that moronic ditty at games.
9:56 pm on October 6th, 2008
Taima: Then I'm glad the M's had such a sucky season this year. Serves them right for unleashing such horror in the sports world.
3:49 pm on October 15th, 2008
Why can't they just play "Hail To The Redskins" and be done with it.