Well how about that – A full offseason and season without Dan Snyder and suddenly the Washington Commanders are not only competitive, but won a playoff game. To keep in mind the last time that happened:
- RFK Stadium had two active tenants – the Nationals and DC United
- The Nats had completed their first DC season; rookie Ryan Zimmerman had not yet hit a DC record 284 home runs. He was homer-less in his September 2005 call up.
- Alex Ovechkin was a Washington Capitals rookie with 25 career goals. He’s scored 848 more (RMNB) since between football playoff wins.
- DC United was a year removed from their MLS record 4 championships.
- Abe Pollin was still the owner of the Wizards and MCI Center.
- The “final” Star Wars movie, Episode III Revenge of the Sith was the highest grossing movie of the year
- The youngest kids who probably remember that playoff win were born in 1998. Nobody under 40 really remembers the last time they won the Super Bowl.
- FedEx Field held 90,000+ fans and was only 7 years old.
- The original Wilson Bridge will still in service.
- RFK had a very different connotation than the present day.
Last week, the Commanders went to Detroit and beat the Lions to advance to the NFC Championship. Two playoff wins in a season.
No reasonable person saw this kind of season coming.
To put it in perspective, the last time the Washington NFL team appeared in the NFC Championship game was about 33 years ago which as long as DC did not have major league baseball.
A helluva honeymoon for new ownership
Things are trending up for the team and the fans. Josh Harris and Mark Ein have delivered as owners after the “they aren’t Dan Snyder” honeymoon. They got the general manager, head coach and quarterback right in one offseason.
My hot take from 2022 aged shockingly poorly
I didn’t think Dan Snyder would ever leave. Glad to have been wrong.
Regardless of how the NFC Championship goes, the most important issue facing the franchise is…
The next stadium
NFL stadiums, which get used something like 12.5 times a year are a poor use of urban land. Since the next stadium will almost surely have a roof, that number could be higher, however, not as high as say, 81 days like Nationals Park or 200 like Capital Centre 2.0 (I lost track of the corporate name).
Urbanist web site Greater Greater Washington recently reviewed the prospects of building at the RFK Stadium campus: RFK isn’t big enough for a stadium with NFL-sized parking
The average NFL stadium includes about 20,000–25,000 parking spots, a target of one spot for every three seats for stadiums with a capacity of about 60,000–80,000 seats.
Want a Super Bowl?
The NFL, in fact, requires a Super Bowl host have at minimum 35,000 parking spaces nearby, which means that any new stadium is likely going to aim for the high end of the range.
Read the whole thing, but building a typical NFL Stadium complex at the RFK location is in my view, an extremely bad decision in a city and region that needs more housing.
My alternative
The Commanders should consider setting up practice facility/HQ on the RFK campus andbuild the stadium closer to the blue line in Maryland.
My high-level concept – one big building with two fields on top. An indoor field, plus corporate offices and parking garage would be below the those outdoor fields. Since drones are illegal to fly around here, the spying on practice issue wouldn’t be too bad. Views from the outdoor fields would be monumental and the space would be utilized year round.Much needed housing and additional development could still occur on the existing RFK campus while allowing for parkland instead of tens of thousands of parking spaces.
The facility, probably something like SPONSOR NAME COMMANDERS CENTER would provide a D.C. connection to the franchise, while allowing the prime real estate to be 365 usage. Iconic shots of the Commanders flag blowing in the breeze with the Capitol and Washington Monument could naturally be made.
Given the current situation though, I think we can expect some top-down decisions that waste the land with a big indoor stadium and too many parking spots.
Remembering RFK Stadium
The uniforms
Oh less pressing concern for the ‘manders, I suppose, is the uniforms.
Three seasons of these late-Dan Snyder era uniforms has not made them any more tolerable other than the return of gold pants with the burgundy jerseys.
My reboot is pretty simple – bring back the classic looks with the current helmet with a gold facemask.
I changed the helmet stripe too – the colors are now aligned with the striping on the gold pants. They are still a bit of a mishmash – I wouldn’t be opposed to matching the stripes on the sleeves on the socks. Black shoes should be standard, along with traditional socks and pant lengths. Sleeves are basically gone from football uniforms, so I removed TV numbers (like the current set) and returned stripes again.
It’s familiar look that honors the legacy of the franchise while allowing the name to change again if ownership goes that route. Now, they aren’t going back to the old name if the owners are to be believed. Thankfully. However, since there is a contingent of the fanbase that insists on using the slur, perhaps we rename the team “Redasses” after them. But I digress.
Also, I’d drop the all black uniforms, in spite of the hail mary against the Bears. That was cool, but thankfully, it wasn’t the greatest on-field moment of the 21st century for more than a month or two.
How the NFC Championship should look
As for the NFC Championship, the host Philadelphia Eagles have brought back their Randall Cunningham-era kelly green and silver uniforms a few times this season. They are beautiful, especially with black shoes and when my fellow Penn Stater, Saquon Barkley is leaping over people in them. In a more perfect world, the Iggles would be wearing them during this run, but they’ll almost surely stick to the “we look like an AFC South team” midnight green duds. Emphasis on dud. However, they’ve been to t Super Bowls in them, so I can understand not moving on from them…
What the Eagles should look like
Way back in 2011, I proposed the Philadelphia Eagles “fix” their uniforms. It combined the current helmet and logo with the tradition kelly green and silver, emphasizing the silver elements more than ever.
How great would this match up look this Sunday?
Maybe someday…
Makin’ it better
I’ve mocked up a few other uniforms over the years…