If you were a fan of the Washington football team around Christmas 2022, there were three things you asked Santa for.
You wanted a new owner. That wish was fulfilled when Josh Harris purchased the team from Dan Snyder in 2023. You wanted a franchise quarterback. The mission was accomplished when the Washington Commanders selected Jayden Daniels as the No. 2 pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.
And you wanted a new stadium, preferably back in the city that had been the team’s home since George Preston Marshall moved it from Boston to Washington in 1937.
News of that final wish potentially coming true is out. According to reports, there are agreements between the club, the city, and the league to build a new stadium in D.C. with a completion date envisioned by 2030.
It's not a done deal yet, but this is the clearest sign yet that Harris is in the process of engineering an emotional homecoming for this NFL powerhouse.
Commanders have hurdles to overcome, but their return to D.C. is moving closer
If this does become reality, it will be the fourth home the Commanders have had in their 90-plus-year history in the nation’s capital.
From 1937 through 1960, Washington played games in the old Griffith Stadium on Georgia Avenue in Northwest D.C. It was primarily a baseball stadium, home to the Washington Senators. The football club won two NFL championships while playing there.
They moved to a larger home for the 1961 season. D.C. Stadium was on East Capital Street Southeast. It would later be renamed in honor of the Robert F. Kennedy.
Though the Senators also played at RFK Stadium, it was much more of a football field. Washington would win there as well — three more championships before all was said and done. It became famous in legend and lore for the way that the upper deck rocked when the fans began to cheer.
As NFL stadiums grew larger and more ornate, owner Jack Kent Cooke dreamed of a new state-of-the-art home for his football team. He modeled it on Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands and chose a location in the nearby Maryland suburbs.
Perhaps had Cooke lived a little longer, things would have been different. Perhaps if the new owner had built a winning culture, the new stadium would not have seemed cursed. But Jack Kent Cooke Stadium — which would also be called FedExField and Commanders Field before going by its current name, Northwest Stadium — did indeed seem cursed.
The fans never warmed to it. The stands never shook. It never felt like home. Now, it appears it won’t be the Commanders' home after 2030 barring any drastic turn.
Rumors of a new stadium have been floating around for a decade or more. Anyone who covers the team has written about those rumors. They've weighed the pros and cons of putting a new stadium in Virginia, or perhaps near National Harbor. When it finally seemed that previous ownership was ready to make it a reality in 2021, the thought of locating the new stadium at the RFK site seemed like a pipe dream.
Snyder didn’t exactly get along with the D.C. Council. They were alone in their disdain of Washington's owner, who brought nothing but embarrassment and disgrace to this once-proud organization.
But Snyder is gone. The team name, which had also been a potential roadblock for any deal with the city, is gone as well.
The club, the city, and the NFL all appear to agree that the true and proper home for the Washington Commanders is back in DC. That matters to those who remember what the glory days at RFK Stadium were like.
This is not rubber-stamped yet. Current economic conditions remain volatile. Politics could intrude. In 1961, the federal government, which owns the land on which RFK sits, threatened to revoke Marshall’s lease if he refused to integrate his roster. They could again insert themselves into the ongoing negotiations.
That’s something to look out for in the days ahead. For today, all Commanders’ fans should simply rejoice.
Even if your life would be made easier by a different location, you should still be delighted that after many years in the wilderness, the third wish is finally coming true.
Echoes of Sonny Jurgensen, Charley Taylor, Darrell Green, John Riggins, Dave Butz, Dexter Manley, the Hogs, and the Fun Bunch — it’s all just flooding back. The Commanders look like they are coming home.
I hope they build a stadium where the upper deck rocks again.