Rypien Tries to Win Them Over Again : NFL: Holdout and poor outing in opener helped turn Washington fans against him, but a victory over Detroit today could help Redskin quarterback mend some fences.

It’s often said that quarterbacking the Washington Redskins is the second-toughest job in the nation’s capital.

Following in the footsteps of such larger-than-life figures as Sammy Baugh, Sonny Jurgensen, Billy Kilmer and Joe Theismann can be a rather intimidating experience.

No matter how tough it gets for Mark Rypien, though, he has one advantage over President Bush. He doesn’t have to face an election.

If fans who boo him at RFK Stadium or call the talk shows did the voting, he’d be on the bench.

Rypien’s fall from Super Bowl MVP to a target of the boo-birds is one of the most improbable events of the football season.

Rypien should be the toast of the town, but the combination of his holdout and shaky performance against the Dallas Cowboys in the opener turned off some Washington fans.

The result is that they booed him during the introductions before the game against the Atlanta Falcons last week and he lashed out at them after the game.

He was talked into apologizing to the fans by team officials the next day, but it was a rather halfhearted apology. He didn’t apologize to the fans who did the booing and said he’d say the same thing again in the same situation.

Which brings us to Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions. Since it’s the defense’s turn to be introduced, Rypien won’t be booed during the introductions.

But if he struggles against a team that the Redskins beat 45-0 in the opener last year and 41-10 in the NFC title game -- a team that is 0-for-16 in Washington -- he’ll hear more booing.

Coach Joe Gibbs says he isn’t worried about how Rypien will react, calling his quarterback “battle-tested.”

And Rypien doesn’t seem too worried, either. “I’m looking forward to getting things going early,” he said. When Rypien was asked if he’ll win the fans back, he said, “It’ll probably take awhile for that.”

Added Rypien: “It’s going to be a real good test for us. I know they’d like nothing better than to get rid of the jinx.”

For Detroit, which is off to a 1-1 start, coping with the jinx of never winning in Washington is no big deal. This is a team that has had to cope with tragedy in the last year.

When they played at RFK Stadium last September, Mike Utley and Eric Andolsek were the starting guards and Len Fontes, brother of head coach Wayne Fontes, was an assistant coach.

Utley is now paralyzed and Andolsek and Len Fontes are dead. Utley was paralyzed in a game last November, Andolsek was run over by a truck while weeding in his front yard and Fontes died of a heart attack in the off-season.

“How much more pain can this team take?” quarterback Rodney Peete has asked.

Coach Fontes has tried not to dwell on it. “The best thing we’ve done is try to put it behind us. We never talk about it,” he said.

They still get asked about it, though, and the emotion can be heard in their words.

During a conference call with Washington writers this week, Fontes talked about how emotional it is for him at the start of a game. The problem is that he thinks about the way it used it be.

“Once the national anthem was played, I’d usually go over and talk to the players who are no longer here. I’d always grab the headset and tell my coaches good luck and my brother would say, ‘Let’s go get ‘em, Wayne.’ I kind of miss that. That’s very difficult for me. I have a hard time before the ballgame,” Fontes said before pausing.

The silence hung in the air for a few seconds before reporters politely changed the subject.

Fontes hired another brother, Johnny, to replace Len and the Lions have gone on.

When Fontes is asked if the Lions are due for some good luck, he said, “I just believe in working hard, keeping your mouth shut, good things will eventually happen for you.”

It helps that the Lions have Barry Sanders going for them. Richie Petitbon, the assistant coach who runs the Redskins defense, calls him the best runner he has ever seen.

Sanders said the players don’t want any sympathy as they go through this season.

“It hurt the families of those guys more than I could ever imagine. People give us a lot of attention, but we really don’t need the attention,” he said. “They had wives and children and grandchildren. That’s really where the hurt is. ... We’re trying to go on in spite of all the things that happened.”

For the Lions, going on is all that’s left for them to do.