The date was May 25, 1999. Some fifty eight years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but it, too, is a day that will live in infamy. For it was the day that Daniel Snyder (aka Danny Boy) bought the Washington Redskins franchise for $800 million.
Ever since that day, until he finally sold the franchise to Josh Harris in April 2023 for $6.05 billion), Redskins fans (now “Commanders fans”) have been in a state of gloom, despair, and agony. Deep, dark depression. Excessive misery. Ask any one of us.
The Washington Redskins was once a proud and glorious franchise. The only blight, really, in their history, was the fact that under owner George Preston Marshall the Redskins were the last NFL franchise to draft and play an African-American football player. That, (and depending on who you ask) and the team name “Redskins” eventually coming under scrutiny and later being dropped altogether due to racial sensitivity.
When Jack Kent Cooke (aka “The Squire”) became the majority owner of the Redskins in 1974, an upward trajectory of success and glory was achieved over the next fifteen to twenty years. Yes, he was a millionaire. Yes, he was an old curmudgeon. But he had previously owned the NBA Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL Los Angeles Kings, and as an owner, he knew how to step out of the way and let others who really knew the business and sport of football do their thing. So in stepped Bobby Beathard and Joe Gibbs (General Manager and Head Coach, respectively). Beathard brought in the players, Gibbs coached ’em up, and The Squire cut the checks. And glory ensued.
Now those were the days to be a Redskins fan and go to RFK Stadium (or just to watch on TV). RFK literally rocked during Redskins games. There was nothing fancy about it. Luxurious, heated, enclosed suites which now inhabit modern stadiums were once open-air mezzanine boxes: great seats from which to view but really nothing luxurious. But you felt like you were there with every other fan in the stadium.
And the Redskins won. A lot! There were few defeats in the regular seasons, home playoff games and wins, home NFC championship games and wins, and two Super Bowl wins in 1988 and 1992. The victories just kept on coming for years in a row it seemed. Star players like John Riggins, The Hogs, The Fun Bunch, Darrell Green, Dexter Manley, every quarterback from Joe Theismann to Mark Rypien to Doug Williams. The braves were on the warpath, and woe be to the opponent in the way. To be a season ticket holder you were on a waiting list for years and years. Crowds at RFK were burgundy and gold predominantly. It was a smaller stadium but filled with passionate fans and it was a tough place to play for opponents. Redskins fans knew it was a good thing and that they had it. The glory was deeply ingrained. Winning was everything and the only thing for quite a long time.
And then, Cooke moved the Redskins to Landover, Maryland to a new, monolithic, nondescript stadium and the decline seemingly began. The wins came, but they were fewer and farther between.
Jack Kent Cooke died, left the team to his sons, and his sons sold the team to Dan Snyder.
Redskins fans could only watch. Year after year, glorious offseason after glorious offseason, losing regular season after losing regular season, the franchise slowly sank. Dan Snyder was a guy who was an extremely successful young businessman who knew absolutely nothing about football. Yeah, he supposedly played sandlot ball as a youth and was an avid Redskins fan, but he was what was known as a “jocksniffer” in sports parlance: he didn’t know jack @%^! about football and never really played. He was such an idiot as a new owner that supposedly he named his Offensive and Defensive Coordinators “VP of Offense”and “VP of Defense.” Yes, professional football is a business, Dan, but not in that way. He knew how to make money for the franchise and but not how to make the franchise a winning and successful team on the field. Every offseason acquisition was a big name that was nothing but a big name to him. But he held the purse strings. And what he wanted he got. And year after year, all the Redskins fans could do was watch, shake their heads, and watch the team they loved sink into a cesspool of losing seasons, embarrassments, and scandal.
Over the years, fans have clung to every last sinew of glory that they remembered and enjoyed for as long as they could.There was alot of “meat on the bone,” but it was gnawed down to the very marrow. For that was how much winning there was in the good old days. Still fans hung on. Losing seasons and seldom getting into the postseason was a bitter pill to swallow. “Fire Dan Snyder” gear and websites started to spring up everywhere. The only hope, fans surmised, would be for Dan Snyder to sell the team. Then, and only then, would this proud franchise hopefully rebound from its endless moribund state. But alas, Danny Boy swore up and down that he would never, ever sell the team. And who were we to disbelieve him? It was like the blind leading the blind type thing: Snyder was such an inept owner that everyone saw it but him. He couldn’t get out of his way. It was a hopeless scenario for every Redskins fan. There was no end in sight. We were stuck with this guy for not only the foreseeable future but perhaps a lifetime. He even had children for whom to leave the franchise. Yikes!
But Snyder, along with saying he would never sell the team, also said he would never the drop and change the name “Redskins.” Never say never. Miracle among miracles, he did both, but not in that order. Scandal, profit loss, a major drop in season ticket sales, and an ever-growing demoralized fanbase occurred over time and swept up the ownership like a tornado.
First, he changed the name to the “Washington Football Team.” Then, to the “Washington Commanders.” Then, he sold the team to Josh Harris.
And now, the Washington fanbase is jacked once again!!! There is a new a new General Manager in Adam Peters to bring in the players, a new head coach in Dan Quinn to coach ’em up, and a new owner Josh Harris to cut the checks and stay out of the way. Just like Jack Kent Cooke and unlike that meddlesome Dan Snyder. And perhaps most importantly, there is a new rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels who so far this season (16 games in) has led the team to four comeback wins and a playoff berth. A true savior.
Could happy days be here again? They are! Let’s just hope they last. After over twenty years of doldrums swirling around for Washington fans, we will take them.
