Leesburg Store Supplies Ultimate Redskins Man Cave

For all the Washington Redskins fans out there who think you have the ultimate man cave, chances are you ain’t got nothing on Jimmy Duvall.

When he and his wife, Tonya, decided five years ago to build an addition in the backyard of their Manassas Park home, he decided the new room over the garage would be his Redskins man cave.

“I built it because we throw a lot of parties and I got tired of cleaning my house,” Duvall said. “It’s funny because I have a lot of friends who are (Dallas) Cowboys fans, but even they come up here and like it.”

Redskins helmets, flags, plaques, jerseys, mugs, cups and scoreboards fill the walls and surround the windows. Even the carpet has flecks of maroon and gold.

About 80 percent of the memorabilia Duvall owns is autographed by Redskins players, he said.

A good friend of Duvall's owns Bellator Sports Memorabilia in Leesburg, he said, which is not very far from the team's headquarters at Redskins Park in Ashburn. A lot of the players come through there, so he gets many autographs there.

All 101 of his Redskins mini helmets came from Bellator and all are signed by Redskins players, Duvall said.

“Some of the minis are up here because I ran out of shelves on the wall," Duvall said, pointing out a few mini helmets placed on a ledge near the stairwell.

Duvall has an entire corner of his home dedicated to Sean Taylor, the late former Redskins player who was gunned down in his Miami home in 2007.

Duvall said he can’t take all the credit for his tricked-out man cave, his wife is the one who does most of the decorating.

“I got in trouble for these knobs here,” Duvall said, pointing out the Redskins knobs on the cabinets in the man cave kitchen. “They were $10 a piece; my wife didn’t like that too much.”

He’s now thinking about adding on space because his collection keeps growing.

“I can take some things down to add some things, but most of the time, when something goes up, it stays up,” Duvall said.

His 15-year-old son Jimmy Duvall III, who is appropriately known as “JD III,”  is even in on the Redskins decorating act.

The walls of his bedroom are painted to look like the gridiron, complete with goal posts at each end of the room. The original idea was to paint the room to look like the inside of the stadium, the elder Duvall said. 

“We were going to paint the ceiling blue for the sky and have friends come in here and paint people who were sitting in the stands, but then I thought, you won’t be able to see any of that with the (memorabilia) on the wall,” Jimmy Duvall said.

JD III also has a pair of gloves that once belonged to Redskins player Chris Cooley. Cooley wore them in 2008 during a pivotal game against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Duvall family also has a dog named Cooley and another dog named Taylor, after Sean Taylor.

The football fanaticism can also be seen in Jimmy Duvall's office, where he keeps mini football helmets from other NFL teams as well as the helmets he and his son wore while playing football.

Jimmy Duvall played semi-professional football for the Virginia Mutiny and won a championship. His son plays safety and running back on the Manassas Park High School team.

“We’re not just Redskins fans, we’re just football people,” Jimmy Duvall said.

The only place better than your man cave for watching your favorite football team play is FedEx Field.

Three generations of Duvall men—JD III, his father Jimmy and his grandfather—are all heading out to Maryland to watch the game live on Sunday.

“You see that burgundy (Ford) Expedition out there? That’s the Redskins truck,” Jimmy Duvall said. “It says 'number one Redskins fan'.” Ain’t that the truth.