Washington ? There are four times more sports magazines now than there used to be. There are more biographies and exposes on the all-time greats than ever, more sports-talk radio stations than we need to facilitate historic debate. The NBA has its own exclusive channel where you can watch Wilt battle Russell. And if three 24-hour sports channels aren’t enough, there’s a fourth devoted entirely to what happened 10, 25, 50 years ago. You can see Red Grange run in that grainy black-and-white film, or Jackie Robinson steal home, or Joe Louis pound Max Schmeling.

Even so, folks under 35 know almost nothing about sports that didn’t happen last night. That’s right, I’m making a sweeping and blanket generalization that is sure to offend some of you, but it’s true nonetheless. It’s precisely why an Internet vote of baseball’s all-time grandest moments last week concluded that No. 1 should be Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig’s streak for consecutive games. That, of course, happened yesterday, 1995. That’s as far back as the Generation Y mind and its software applications can go in time travel.

And that’s why I’m all in favor of this weekend’s celebration of the Washington Redskins 70th anniversary. Maybe some of the young videogame fanatics who get dragged to the game by the papas and uncles will pay attention long enough to find out that Bobby Mitchell and Charley Taylor were every bit as versatile and explosive 40 years ago as Marshall Faulk is today.

If they hear a little bit about Pat Fischer today, they’ll find out that Jason Sehorn isn’t the only fast white defensive back in the history of football. If they read the 70 Greatest Redskins program, they might notice that quarterback Eddie LeBaron, at 5 feet 9 and 165 pounds, paved the way for Doug Flutie. If they take the headphones off long enough, somebody might be able to tell that Len Hauss played center at 235 pounds, and that Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff did something around here before talking on the radio.

I’m not from around here, but you shouldn’t have to be to recognize and celebrate greatness and you shouldn’t have to be 70 years old either. It’s been nearly 10 years since Shaquille O’Neal inadvertently revealed he didn’t know that his coach, Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens, played his way into the Hall before becoming a coach. That was shocking, but we’ve become desensitized to what young players and young fans no longer know. That’s because they don’t know anything they didn’t see on “SportsCenter” this very morning. “Happened before I was born” is an all too familiar refrain.

This is how you wind up with Internet voters deciding baseball’s greatest moments but not acknowledging Bobby Thompson’s 1951 “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” home run or Bill Mazeroski’s World Series winning home run to beat the Yankees in 1960, or even Pete Rose bowling over Cleveland catcher Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star Game. Most of these little punks were voting for the greatest play they could remember seeing on “SportsCenter.”

This lack of familiarity with the subject matter and under-35 media people are as bad about it as anybody with grandiose statements that ignore history. You listen to the NFL games on Sunday, you’d think Marshall Faulk invented running and catching with equal brilliance. Fabulous as Faulk is, he did not.

I grew up a Bears fan and hated the Redskins as a child, but I’m sure it will give me chills to see Mitchell and Taylor, Jurgensen, Joe Theismann and I hope John Riggins walk to the middle of the field tonight.