Terry McLaurin’s latest leadership display proves why he’s face of the franchise

The Washington Football Team isn’t playing their best football at the moment, and their playoff chances have plummeted as a result.

On the surface, it’d be easy to come on here and rattle off excuses as to why they’ve been dominated these last three games. Injuries and a worse-than-expected COVID breakout certainly haven’t helped matters.

But that does really excuse going out and losing by 42 points to a division rival with the entire country watching? In a vacuum, no, there’s never a valid excuse for getting your doors blown off to that extreme.

However, when you couple all of those hardships with a pair of late-season tragedies, you start questioning the state of the locker room.

With fans desperate for some reassurance, or at least an update on how the team is coping with the unrelenting adversity, team captain Terry McLaurin did just that during his Wednesday media session.

Terry McLaurin is the face of the Washington Football Team.

"“You don’t really know what guys are going through on a personal level outside of this building, and when you see things with (Deshazor Everett] and Montez (Sweat), we’re all human and are going through things that are much bigger than football,” McLaurin said. “Then you take into account the challenges that we have in this building and the expectations, and it can be a lot.”"

McLaurin just gets it. On top of being the most talented player on the roster, he’s also the undisputed voice of the locker room and the face of the franchise. When adversity strikes, true leaders step up and take the pressure off their teammates when off-field distractions spill over into on-field performance.

That’s exactly what McLaurin did here, though he’s not asking for extra sympathy or making excuses for his brothers.

"“I don’t think any of us use that as a crutch or an excuse because we know what comes with being a professional football player and the expectations that come with it. But it still does affect you, and you try to just compartmentalize the best you can. We’re trying to support our brothers that aren’t here, praying for them, thinking about them, but we still have to try to gather ourselves and make something of the rest of these last two games.”"

What more can you say about McLaurin? Without calling anyone out or burning any bridges, he managed to convey that, at the end of the day, these players, though they’re paid millions to play a game, are humans with emotions and feelings. You can’t expect them to flip a switch once they step between the sidelines.

That, my friends, is what you call a face of the franchise.

Every time McLaurin gets the chance to address the media, he makes fans fall in love with him all over again. We didn’t think that was possible, but the 26-year-old just continues to set a new bar for himself, both on and off the field.

We desperately hope Washington can find a way to convince McLaurin to sign a lifetime contract with the organization.

He might not have much reason to from a football standpoint, but he’s the kind of character that’s capable of carrying Washington through and beyond this period of uncertainty.

When that day comes, we hope he’s still repping the Burgundy and Gold.