"Finally...We're Playing Football"
It was the strangest training camp in the most uncertain of times, but somehow the Washington Football Team begins its season. And despite six weeks of preparation, nobody really knows what’s about to happen.
Washington welcomes the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Just getting to the game is a victory of sorts in a shutdown culture amid a pandemic. Nearly 190,000 people didn’t live to see the NFL season’s start because of COVID-19. Who knows how many more won’t see it finish, if it finishes.
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Coach Ron Rivera has his own battles, having started treatments for skin cancer last week. But Rivera is like everyone else in knowing kickoffs around the nation on Sunday bring hope to fans that life will be OK.
“Finally – I promise you that will be my first thought when that ball gets kicked,” he said. “Finally, we’re playing football. . . . To me, when that happens that’s going to signal some normalcy in our lives and in my life, for sure. That’s what I’m looking forward to on opening day that we’ve gotten to something that we as coaches and athletes and our organization, fans and our fan base, can all kind of wrap our arms around and say, ‘Man, we at least have got some normalcy in a time that is crazy.’ ”
You want to talk crazy? How about no preseason games to judge talent? No scrimmages. Aside a few intense moments on the fields of Ashburn, Rivera has no real idea what’s going to happen versus the Eagles. Nor has he studied the Eagles aside past encounters.
Marco Polo is now playing football.
Yet, there are few secrets in the NFL. At best you sneak a play or two past a competitor some weeks. That’s about it so Rivera isn’t too concerned over tricks the Eagles play. And, Washington won’t have too many surprises for Philadelphia despite several new starters.
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“Who we are – [Philadelphia will] see very quickly what we’re going to do,” Rivera said. “To me, there really is no surprises. As a coach going into this, you’re game planning for somebody, especially the opener. You’re going to try to look at every possibility. We know who their quarterbacks are, we know who their backup quarterback is. . . . There’s a lot we have to prepare for. Hopefully, you hit it right and they do come out in one of those formations and things like that so you can say, ‘We were ready for it and we expected it.’ ”
A pregame speech isn’t really needed for an opener. Everyone knows this is more than winning a game. But in a season where national pundits expect little from Washington, Rivera knows how to play the respect card.
“Based on I’m going to come out and say, ‘Let’s earn the right, let’s earn the right, let’s earn the right.’ Well, you can do that all the way through training camp and at the start of the season you’ve earned the right to be here,” he said. “Now, what’s the next step? Well, ‘Hey, let’s go out and now let’s begin our journey. Let’s climb that mountain. Let’s get to the top. Let’s compete.’ ”
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Because it’s finally time for America to move ahead. It begins at kickoff.
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Rick Snider is an award-winning sports writer who has covered Washington sports since 1978. He first wrote about the Washington football team in 1983 before becoming a beat writer in 1993. Snider currently writes for several national and international publications and is a Washington tour guide. Follow Rick on Twitter at @Snide_Remarks
