Last year the Washington Football Team entered their season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles on the road with not much expected.
The Lincoln Financial Field game would define Washington’s season as the team jumped out to an early 17-0 lead over the Eagles to see their lead dissipate over the second half. Washington would lose the game and start the wheels in motion for a roller-coaster season. The organization would ultimately fire coach Jay Gruden, team president Bruce Allen, defensive coordinator Greg Manusky, and most of the remaining coaching staff.
This offseason was one like no other in professional sports history. Washington’s executive powers were accused of sexual misconduct against team cheerleaders, employees, and media members.
The longtime name of the franchise, ‘Redskins’, was retired after nearly 90 years of existence due to pressure from corporate sponsors and political groups.
The team hired well respected veteran coach Ron Rivera to lead the players on the field. However, Rivera has taken on a much larger role and did a commendable job becoming the organization’s new face for most of the offseason. Rivera was recently diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, which is a form of skin cancer. He has started treatment and intends to continue to coach as much as his health allows.
Despite all of the negativity surrounding the organization, Washington’s leading the way for change and in diversity hires within the NFL. The franchise hired Jason Wright as team president. Wright is the first African American to hold such a role in the history of the NFL, not to mention the youngest currently in the league.
The team hired Julie Donaldson to oversee all media objectives in replacing long time media SVP, Larry Michael. Michael abruptly announced his retirement from his post as the team’s media voice on the radio broadcasts and their in-house tv programs simultaneously when the misconduct allegations surfaced. Donaldson is the first woman to hold such a position in the league.
Washington also added the NFL’s first full-time African American female assistant coach in Jennifer King. King previously interned with Rivera while in Carolina during the 2017 season.
Now, as Sunday approaches, things seemingly have turned full circle from last year’s opener. Washington has a chance to start a new era with optimism regarding the direction the organization is trending towards and the amount of talented, albeit young players on the roster.
A win over the Eagles would signal a fresh start and new winning ways to complement the well received new front office moves despite all of the offseason’s turmoil.
The young players on the roster will have a chance to finally close the ranks around a toxic culture that had engulfed previous teams. Often in the past, a set of players truly wanted to win but were consumed by a me-first culture that reared its ugly head every fall.
Rivera wants to do things differently and that starts by playing the game the right way and with energy.
“ .. The one thing I want to make sure, though, is that we play the right way. We play hard, we play physical, we play downhill, we attack,” Rivera said. “Those are the things we’re looking for. I’m serious when I say we’ve got to give our fans something to cheer about. First, it’s got to be good quality football. Then it’s got to be about winning. That’s what I want to see. I want to see us winning football games, but first and foremost we’ve got to see good football. That’s the thing that we have to do. As I look at the guys that we have, I think we have a lot of good players. Now it’s a matter of getting the right group on the field and having them go out and play the right way. Then the winning will take care of itself. It’s interesting because my first stint at it, it was—if you go back and look at my record, I think it was 3-13 in games decided by six or seven points or less. That was because we didn’t know how to win and we didn’t know how to finish. I think we were afraid to put it out there. I was – Shoot, if I go back and look at it there were a number of opportunities that instead of kicking a field goal or having gone for it on fourth down and converted, we would’ve taken the knee and won the game. So, it’s about understanding and knowing what we had to do. I learned from those two years of really just gut-wrenching losses. Knowing going forward this is what I’m doing, that’s kind of where the whole nickname ‘Riverboat Ron’ came from.”
To start the 2020 campaign under heavy COVID-19 restrictions, Washington can finally usher in a new way of doing business the right way in the front office and on the field. They can show fans a new-look team and not use the same cliche’ marketing ploys used in the past to keep fans interested enough to spend money.
Now, with no fans in the stands for home games, all eyes will be on the Washington Football Team, and for the first time in years, if not decades, fans might like what they see.