It took me a while to sit down and write this post wrapping up the season — mostly because I was busy moving to a new place. Sadly, the 2021 NFL season has come and gone. I’m looking around, and I still cannot believe the season is over — it feels like the whole thing went out in a flash.
Anyhow, My Washington Football Team had a rough 2021 season — All of the Dan Snyder controversies overshadowed the season for Washington. The accusations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and toxic culture made constant headlines: the lawsuits, the cheerleading scandal exposed by the Washington Post. The John Gruden slash Bruce Allen email scandal. The secrecy surrounding the Beth Wilkinson investigation. The drama with the minority owners looking to bail on Snyder and sell their shares. The low fan attendance for home games. The whole screw-up with the Sean Taylor tribute — and of course, the congressional hearings, looking into Washington and Dan Snyder.
The team finished at 7-10. There were some highs and a bunch of lows. The 4-game winning streak and briefly climbing to the top of the NFC East was the highlight of the season for me. However, losing our NFC East lead, primarily due to the record number of Covid positive players becoming ineligible for crucial games, was the kill shot for our season. It was pure agony and misery week to week watching our lead shrink and shrink and eventually disappear into nothingness.
On top of all that, on 2.2.22, The Washington Football Team became The Washington Commanders. This new name doesn’t excite me at all — I wanted the new name to be Red Hogs and not this uninspiring name. Admittedly, I wasn’t crazy about the idea to rebrand from The Washington Football team name — a name that had actually grown on me. But, who knows, maybe Commanders will eventually also grow on me.
This was a mess of a rebrand, full of leaks and missteps. They even messed up the logo and the dates of our NFL championships. They put the year when the Super Bowl was played in the new logo — which was entirely wrong — it was supposed to be the year of the NFL season, not the year the game was played….what a bunch of fucking idiots, really.
As a Washington fan, I’m happy for our old QBs coach and offensive coordinator, Sean McVay, winning his first Super Bowl. It is becoming more apparent how special Mike Shanahan’s coaching staff was during his time in Washington. And besides McVay, the Mike Shanahan coaching tree is deep and impressive, with many former assistants now working as NFL head Coaches — Matt Lefleur (Packers), Kyle Shanahan (49ers), and Mike McDaniel (Dolphins). I think McDaniel will be an excellent head coach for Miami.
Their success as coaches and teams’ continued interest in hiring from the Shanahan tree is direct proof of how awful and stupid Dan Snyder was for allowing Bruce Allen to be part of Washington in any capacity regardless of George Allen’s legacy as a coach. They both wrecked this team and the potential of what the Shanahan era could have been.
In any case, I don’t really like this new name, but I have no choice but to accept it. I echo everyone else saying that the only way Washington fans and people in the DMV area will embrace this new name is by winning. They have to win — and win consistently — simple as that.
SUPER BOWL GAME:
LA RAMS 23 — BENGALS 20
The Rams bet massively in free agency, and it paid off big-time this season. They gave up so much to get Matthew Stafford, Von Miller, and OBJ, But it all worked out, they got to the Super Bowl, and they won the whole thing.
OBJ getting hurt early in the game after scoring a TD changed the entire outlook for LA’s offense. However, the triple crown of receiving, Cooper Kupp stepped up and delivered the goods again — Kupp was deadly in this game, especially in the final offensive drive, scoring the game-winning TD.
On the other hand, Cincinnati did not make things easy for LA. Joe Burrow had a solid game and showed flashes of future greatness. However, the Bengals have to upgrade their O-Line and actually protect Burrow to compete and get back to the big game next season.
Overall, the 2021 season was fun, and I really liked the extra regular-season game added. Although I’m getting annoyed with Thursday night games, I think they should scrap those at some point.
Rod Rioja 