This year, 2025, is a big year for me. In July I will turn 50 years old. Ugh. But right now, I'm feeling like I'm 16 again.
The Washington Commanders will be playing in the NFC Championship against the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday. This is the first time the Washington franchise has played in this game since January 1992, when the then-Redskins beat the Detroit Lions to reach Super Bowl XXVI. I was 16 years old on that day and that NFC Championship didn't feel like the surprise event that the one in 2025 does.
The 1991 Redskins went 14-2 and had a lethal offense and a physical defense that dominated that season. After blowing out the Falcons and Lions, the Redskins pounded the Bills to win their third Super Bowl in 10 years. That franchise was elite then. Joe Gibbs was a Hall of Fame coach and Jack Kent Cooke was a solid owner. The 1980s was filled with great football -- the dynasty San Francisco 49ers, those '85 Bears, the Bill Parcells/Bill Belichick Giants and the team from the nation's capital.
That's how it was being a Redskins fan back then. Great teams in a great stadium.
I had no idea it would all go away so quickly and for so long. A little over a year after that Super Bowl title, Gibbs retired after a 9-7 season in 1992. Jack Kent Cooke would build a new stadium in nearby Landover, Maryland but died in 1997 before it opened. His will had instructions for the team to be sold, which businessman Daniel Snyder did in 1999. I don't have to remind you how bad Snyder's tenure was -- but I will. Just six winning seasons, six playoff appearances and two playoff wins in his 24 years at the helm. His last playoff win came in January 2006. That doesn't even touch on the dysfunction he cultivated in the organization.
That all ended in 2023 when a group lead by Josh Harris bought the now-Commanders from Snyder (who was essentially forced out). Harris spent the 2023 season assessing the franchise before making big moves last offseason. His main move was bringing in Adam Peters as the general manager of the team and ... get this ... let Peters do his job. Snyder meddled with his football people, but Harris enables his people to do the job as they seem fit. That led to Dan Quinn being hired as the new head coach and a near total overhaul of the roster. Of course, the most notable move was drafting LSU's Jayden Daniels with the No. 2 overall pick.
I won't go into what all happened this season, but where we are at now. The Commanders have won two road playoff games this season -- which matches the postseason wins during the Snyder era. The Commanders went 12-5 during the regular season, which is the franchise's most wins since that 1991 Super Bowl championship team. For Redskins/Commanders fans that have suffered for over 30 years waiting for this team to get back to mattering ... this season has been such a joy.
January 1992.
I was a high school junior. George H.W. Bush was the president. Michael Jackson's "Black or White" was the No. 1 song.
In sports, the Minnesota Twins were the World Series champions. Michael Jordan was trying to win his second NBA title. Magic Johnson ... who is now a minority owner of the Commanders ... had just retired from the NBA after contracting HIV. The Dream Team hadn't played a game yet. Duke's Christian Laettner would hit the shot to beat Kentucky two months later.
Look at the NFL in January 1992. There were no Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens or Houston Texans. There also weren't any Tennessee Titans -- as they were the Houston Oilers. The Phoenix Cardinals were in the NFC East. The Seattle Seahawks were in the AFC. The Raiders were in Los Angeles and the Chargers were in San Diego. Of the 27 stadiums of that year, only six are being used today.
Dan Quinn was a lineman at Salisbury University.
It's been a long time and after suffering through the Daniel Snyder era or dysfunction and promises squashed, it now feels like Washington is on a path that won't be screwed up by incompetence.
I don't think we will beat the Eagles on Sunday. That doesn't mean I don't think we can. Still, it doesn't feel like this is a aberration that will end when I wake up.
Raise hail!
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