The Washington Commanders started the 2024 season unlikely to move forward beyond the first week of January 2025. Conventional wisdom in the DMV was a 9-8 record or 10-7 at the very best and getting to the playoffs would be miraculous.
However, the Commanders are now in the NFC Championship for the first time in 33 years—one game away from the Super Bowl. The rookie-phenom quarterback Jayden Daniels is the clear NFL Rookie of the Year. He has shown that on any given day, the Commanders can beat any team, including the first seed, 15-2 Detroit Lions in Ford Field.
I’ve been pointing out that every playoff game is all gravy and fans should be riding the “gravy train,” meaning that the Commanders are playing with house money and fan should appreciate all of the team’s achievements because they have been completely gone beyond any expectations for this season. But Fox analyst and future Hall of Famer Tom Brady pointed out that every season is different and to appreciate each season because the next one will be different from the last. That’s what makes Kansas City so special.
My using the phrase “gravy train” was a loose reference to Tony Kornheiser using “bandwagon” early in the 1991 Super Bowl season because it was fairly obvious that the Washington Redskins were going to the Super Bowl that season with Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs and an offensive line with many of the same players that had already won two Super Bowls in the 1980’s.
But the word “bandwagon” is for fans to get onboard and root for the team like they’re your own. These were not die-hard Redskins fans who bled burgundy and gold and that’s fine because the more fans the better. “Gravy train” is a phrase to get new and long-time Washington football fans feeling satisfied that a loss is acceptable because the team has gone well beyond expectations this season.
Well, it’s not acceptable for today’s die-hard fans and there’s still time to get on the “die-hard” Commanders bandwagon–name and all–because this team, by any other name, is the Washington Redskins. The name is different but the sprit has returned to Washington, D.C.
Granted, beating the Philadelphia Eagles in Lincoln Financial Field next Sunday is an enormous challenge to overcome, but we’ve seen that nothing is impossible with this team. It is a real possibility that the Washington Commanders can be going to Super Bowl LIX after next Sunday. It will again require a herculean effort by the offense and defense but it certainly can happen.
For example, Marshon Lattimore generally shut down Amon-Ra St. Brown. St. Brown’s one major catch was against Noah Igbinoghene and St. Brown had a major run on a trick shovel pass. That was basically it. Even Jameson Williams had to get into the game by throwing the ball and that turned into an interception. The biggest playmaker for the Lions was Jared Goff—and many times in a bad way with four turnovers—and Jahmyr Gibbs, who did have good game.
This week gives us time to examine Saquon Barkley, who didn’t have just a good game against the Los Angeles Rams but was a gamebreaker. Jalen Hurts broke a long run for a touchdown and another star that can beat defenses in many ways. Then, there’s Dallas Goeddert, Davonte Smith and A.J. Brown.
But, the Commanders overcame Detroit’s weapons. Why can’t they do the same in Philadelphia?
“I always believe that we could achieve more than what people give us credit for,” Daniels said after the game.
Daniels is right that people didn’t give this Commanders team enough credit and they do play with house money because they have nothing to lose as underdogs. Going for it on 4th downs, any reasonable fourth down to go for it, is in head coach Dan Quinn’s DNA, but they’ve been able to go for it without the same pressure. And that should continue against the Eagles as they go in as underdogs.
But I just heard one analyst on the NFL Network forecast the Commanders to win and go to the Super Bowl to play the Kansas City Chiefs. It could be Commanders vs. the Buffalo Bills in a Super Bowl XXII following the 1991 season.
It’s real and Commanders fans no longer have the safety net of “it’s all gravy.” It should be disappointing to lose this game. Of course we can feel satisfied for the best Washington football team and organization in the past 33 years–win or lose.
But just as loss isn’t as painful for a bandwagon fan and a win not as gratifying, a win for a die-hard fan is pure joy and a loss hurts. I know because as a die-hard fan for the Washington Redskins starting as a 7 or 8-year old in the 1970’s, prior to Hall of Famers general manager Bobby Beathard and head coach Joe Gibbs taking over the team, there was an inherent thrill of winning games and heartbreaking disappointments in losing close games.
Probably the same way Baltimore Ravens die-hard fans feel today after falling to the Buffalo Bills on turnovers and a dropped pass that would have tied the game.
If Washington Redskins fans never went through the most agonizing 35-34 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on the last game of the 1979 season, when Roger Staubach brought the Cowboys back from 34-21 with just over five minutes left in the game, knocking the team out of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, then they never really could fully appreciate the 1982 NFC Championship game win against the Cowboys. Bandwagon fans could not feel the same ecstasy that I know I felt after Dexter Manley batted quarterback Gary Hogeboom’s flat pass into the air and Daryl Grant caught it and ran into the end zone in the fourth quarter giving Washington a two-touchdown lead clinching a trip to the Super Bowl. I always thought that a bandwagon fan never really appreciated the thrill of the Redskins victories or the agonies of defeats as much as die-hard fans. But, it is a nice feeling when everyone in town is behind the team. It’s like Chrismas in January–or February.
After more than 25 years of mediocre football teams and an egotistical Napoleonic owner, perhaps the worst NFL owner history, who decimated a traditional franchise with seasons ending in locker room and front-office dramas, and ending its traditional nickname of Redskins, I thought there was no more spirit remaining in my heart for Washington football. But I was wrong.
When Josh Harris and the new ownership team purchased the team and Earvin “Magic” Johnson said winning is the reason he’s on the ownership team, anyone interested could see the hope and celebration in the DMV. It was as if the football team was liberated from a maniacal dictator keeping the team and fans’ spirit hostage to his own selfish pursuits.
I trusted the process early because the ownership team did exactly what any ownership should do–hire the best, most talented general manager available and let the football professionals do their work. Then, find the best head coach available, who will hire top offensive and defensive coordinators and find the right players to fit a culture of winning. The first real appearance by all the starting players of a completely revamped team was the season opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but game two against the New York Giants gave a glimpse of a winning culture. The game was sloppy against the Giants but the team still pulled it out. And then they kept winning.
All fans wanted at first was to get a good prodcut on the field and then show improvement during the season so that by the end of the year the prospect of reaching the playoffs looked hopeful for next season. Maybe not all fans felt the same way but that was all I asked for and by the time the Commanders were playing the Chicago Bears at Northwest Stadium, I felt that old Redskins spirit returning.
After the miraculous Hail Mary pass by Daniels at the end of the Bears game, tipped and completed to Noah Brown in the end zone, the Washington Commanders spirit hit me like a lightning bolt and injected that ecstatic, euphoric feeling once again. It was as if I had returned to the moment that John Riggins ran down the sideline on 4th and 1 against the Miami Dolphins to give the Washington Redskins a 20-17 lead in Super Bowl 17. I knew the Washington football team, by any other name, was back and it was a joyous night.
I still didn’t have the expectations for the playoffs until the team solidly beat the Tennessee Titans following three consecutive losses and moved into the bye week. I then experienced the anxieties of close games all pulled out at the end against the New Orleans Saints, the Eagles, the Atlanta Falcons and the finale against the arch-rival Cowboys.
Just being in the playoffs–and at the 6th seed–was unexpected and anything else was gravy. The great proud tradition of Washington football had returned. In my previous stories, I used “gravy train” for the team’s playoff run because the Commanders had gone beyond expectations and looking forward, the organization and culture of the team had unlimited possibilites for the next season and beyond.
But young die-hard fans who have never seen their team in an NFC Championship much less a Super Bowl and past die-hard fans who cannot go back to their youth but still love this franchise–by any other name–need to believe that this team is for real on and off paper and they are one game away from the Super Bowl. Resting on our laurels is the last thing we should do.
With this reality, there should be anxieties for the potential disappointment of a loss–certainly the younger crowd should have that since they never experienced a Super Bowl champinship. There could also be the overjoyous enthusiasm of this city can have with a win. That’s why we root for the team. That’s why we get nervous during a game. That’s why die-hard fans yell at the television on a bad call.
But it’s also how cities comes together for the common purpose of winning an NFC Championship and going to the Super Bowl. And Washington, D.C., is a city that typically has problems uniting on anything.
This is the beginning for a new generation of Washington football fans, maybe even some outlier fans, to get on board now before getting on board is like jumping on a bandwagon. It’s a time of excitement for young, spirited die-hard fans and renewal of the spirit for Redskins fans who still hold onto great memories of the past. Or, even to the die-hard fans who have started to accept the new name or understand that it’s team sprit and not the name that truly embodies Washington football.
Speaking for myself, I’m going to buy Commanders merch for the first time because the organization has earned my monetary support that I refused to provide to the previous owner. This year’s team has given me great joy and enthusiasm once again for now and the future so I’m happy to wear the burgundy and gold under the Commanders name. The entire organization from the top down deserves enthusiasm from the DMV area because it has literally reawakened a once sleeping spiritual giant of Washington, D.C. football.
That’s what being a die-hard Washington Commanders football fan is all about—not just someone riding on the bandwagon or a gravy train with “that’s nice” after the team wins and “too bad” after a team loses. It’s about facing the reality that winning can make life better if not for a short time or losing, at least temporarily, can bring us down until hopes are raised for the next season.
I’m a die-hard fan of this Washington football organization whether it’s the Commanders or any other nickname ownership wants to give it. Sure, if they lose, I’ll be dejected, because if they win, then what a celebration it will be in the DMV on Sunday night following the NFC Championship game!
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