THIS COLUMN has to be about the Washington Redskins. How could it be about anything else?

The fiscal cliff? Who cares! Those crazy politicians who can't get anything done? Put 'em on a barge and ship them down the Potomac. We've got more important fish to fry.

Or should I say, "Birds [as in Seahawks] to pluck."

You have to go all the way back to the days of John Riggins and Joe Gibbs to come up with the amount of enthusiasm generated by this year's Redskins team.

Fans in this part of the universe are wild with excitement--except for Dallas Cowboy followers, that is. As for those guys, well, maybe there's room on that political barge for them, too.

Of course, after last Sunday's loss to the 'Skins, most of those Dallas fans probably jumped into the Potomac on their own.

Washington winning the NFL East and hosting a playoff game! Whoda thunk it, especially after the burgundy and gold started out 3-6?

At that point, when everyone else had given up on Washington, some ESPN football analyst predicted that the 'Skins would win the East. I don't remember who the analyst was, but we need to find out and start his 2016 presidential campaign.

Now I admit that I am not the greatest football fan in the world. To me, the NFL is second-rate entertainment that fills the gap between the end of one baseball season and the start of another.

But right now even I am excited. I'm not jumping up and down, but there was a John Wayne movie on TV opposite the Redskins-Cowboys game and I didn't flip the channel once. That's dedication! Why, I sneaked a peak at "Rio Bravo" when my first child was being born.

I like this team. It is fundamentally sound. Why, against Dallas I watched London Fletcher actually wrap up a runner while making a tackle.

Both arms around the runner's legs! No defensive player does that anymore. They just halfheartedly throw a shoulder into the guy, who then runs 10 more yards.

One amazing thing about this season is that we have made it all the way into January without a quarterback controversy. The last time that happened in Washington, Lyndon Johnson was president and Pat Summerall was punting for the Giants.