A few thoughts this morning after last night’s huge upset by the Washington Commanders of NFC top seed Detroit:
The Commanders this season have become the NFL version of the movie “Hoosiers.” They started out with some hope, but few expectations under new owners and new coaches.
Then Jayden Daniels morphed into Jimmy Chitwood. Every time it was fourth down or the last play of a game, seems like he’d go to Dan Quinn and say “I’ll make it.”
Which most of the time, he did.
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When you think about it, most pro sports owners fall into two camps: In one group, they buy a team as a vanity plate, as the title “pro team owner”, sitting in the VIP box during game day and having people constantly calling you for access to the seats us little people can’t buy makes them a celebrity.
The other is someone who buys a team and runs it as a business, with clear goals for success, hiring good people and letting them work their magic no matter what you think. It’s a business to them, not fantasy football.
Jack Kent Cooke, for all his wealth, was the latter. Dan Snyder was the former.
Josh Harris is also the latter. And man, are we lucky to have him…
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One of the longest running debates I have with my younger friends is the whole deal about talent vs. team chemistry. My younger friends think it’s all about talent and how much money you pay. I agree you have to have talent, but I’ve seen and played on teams where we weren’t the MOST talented group in the league, but we genuinely liked and respected each other, which motivated us to keep pushing in every situation so as not to let the others down.
There was also that feeling of camaraderie and friendship that kept people loose in the face of pressure, while the MOST talented teams always looked like it wasn’t that much fun because anything less than winning every game was considered a failure.
I think that’s what’s happening with Washington right now. It’s the same vibe as the 2019 Washington Nationals…without the baby shark 🙂
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I find myself thinking about the whole deal with Ben Johnson this morning. He is a genius when it comes to how to run an NFL offense, but we really didn’t know if he’s that kind of people-person general manager who can judge and motivate an entire organization, which is a significantly different skill. It’s like promoting a great salesman to senior sales management. The ability to sell and the ability to manage are two different skill sets (I know from experience).
With Ben backing out, ownership instead found a good (and experienced) manager of people in Dan Quinn, then hired an offensive expert in Kliff Kingsbury, and let them both do what they do best.
That may end up being a huge factor in how everything came together so quickly…
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Since we’re all going down memory lane this morning, last night’s win over Detroit reminded me a lot of Washington’s win over Chicago in 1986. The Bears were 14-2 and the defending Super Bowl champ. Bears fans were saying stuff like “you don’t actually think you have a chance to beat us, do you? C’mon.” We had beaten the Rams the previous week in the playoffs, and the odds were against the Redskins going any farther.
But somehow at Soldier Field, they won thanks in part to an incredible punt return for a TD by Darrell Green (every time I think of this I grab my rib cartilage in sympathetic pain). And while it got them into the NFC title game, they eventually lost to the Giants.
But the next season?
They won the Super Bowl.
