On the Sunday before Election Day, football and politics mix. Over time, there has been no more accurate gauge as to who will win the presidential election than the Washington Redskins’ performance in their final home game before the election.

Any time the Redskins won their final home game before the presidential election between 1936 and 2000, the incumbent party retained control of the White House. A Redskins home loss meant the election went to the party that was not in power.

Now there was one exception, in 2004, when Washington lost at home against Green Bay and George W. Bush and the Republicans retained control of the White House.

So when the Redskins play the Steelers in Washington on Monday night, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama should be rooting for Pittsburgh and Republican presidential candidate John McCain should be rooting for Washington.

Posted in: Adam Schefter  | comments  |