Not sure if anyone already said this, but it feels like the actual dagger here was the culture change.
DQ got the players to buy in and create this Commanders Code they all talk about. They live it and breathe it and their play on the field this year made it MEAN something. Not just to them in the building, but to us as fans.
There used to be, in the past, something we all referred to as ‘Redskins Football’ and it felt like a badge of honor. That we know the team would be tough in the trenches, run the ball tough, play tough. It was a throwback to the Hogs, to the Diesel, to the Joe Gibbs era.
For decades since we’ve not been that team. Redskins football was a memory. WFT football was a non-entity. Commanders was a name not an identity.
But this year the team GAVE the commanders an identity. We’re exciting and we don’t quit. It’s a brotherhood (another catchword they’ve been using all season!)
In some ways this has been the biggest change and the biggest contributor toward success. And will be moving forward. Free Agents are going to want to come here because we’re not a laughing stock any more. We’re the Commanders, and love or hate the name, it’s now beginning to MEAN something bigger.
Snyder may have given us this crappy name, but this year the players and coaches TOOK it by force and made it mean something. I hope it continues to mean something moving forward so that in a couple of decades, with some Superbowls under our belt, we can look back, with a smile, and remember JD, Scary Terry, and Dan Quinn and the era of ‘Commanders Football’.