MIKE BURKE

Allegany Communications Sports

For better or for worse, it all begins with leadership; it all begins at the top. Or, as someone once said, “A fish rots from the head down.”

Of course, it goes both ways; it also thrives from the head down. Provided, of course, there is good leadership.

Take for instance the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Commanders, the fanbases of both sports organizations till riding the giddy train because David Rubenstein is now the owner of the Orioles and Josh Harris is now the owner of the Commanders.

Or, perhaps  – no, definitely – it’s because the Peter Angelos family is no longer atop the Orioles organization and Daniel Snyder is not only nowhere near the Commanders, he’s nowhere to be found.

Aside from how the NFL team representing Washington has been very unsuccessful on the field since Snyder bought it 25 years ago (seems longer), everything else surrounding the team – the integrity, the morality, the morale, the atmosphere, the stadium (though not Snyder’s fault), the belief – has been worse.

Snyder makes money the way few others have made it (for himself, of course), but when it came to running a successful football team – on the field and in the community – everything he touched died, which, of course, is why his former brother NFL owners pulled the ixnay on him, and, believe it, very few of them are a day at the beach either.

Take, for instance, the Sunday afternoon of November 2022 at what was known as FedEx Field, but is now Commanders Field, when the newly named Commanders had made a big to do about honoring the late, great safety Sean Taylor, one of the greatest football players to play for the Washington Redskins/Football Team/Commanders, who was shot to death during a robbery attempt of his home in Miami in 2007.

As a lasting remembrance and to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the death of Taylor, one of the most loved players in team history, the Commanders organization hyped the unveiling of the “Sean Taylor Memorial Installation” that far too many of us allowed ourselves to believe would be a statue of Taylor.

Personally, there would be others from this organization’s history whom I would deem more statue-worthy, with Sammy Baugh, Bobby Mitchell, Charley Taylor, Sonny Jurgensen, John Riggins, Darrell Green, the original Hogs and Joe Gibbs coming immediately to mind; but given all that Sean Taylor meant to the organization and that generation of Washington fans, it felt to be a worthy and noble gesture on the organization’s part.

Except it wasn’t.

This came one year after the organization tried to honor Taylor on short notice by retiring his No. 21 jersey with a remarkably half-arsed ceremony that, believe it or not, not many of the fans tailgating in the parking lot at the time even knew about.

So even after that, the organization of Daniel Snyder had a year to finally get it right, choosing to announce the event the previous June and setting the hopes of the fans extremely high.

What the fans got, and what the disgraceful organization delivered on that day was a faceless wire mannequin, with a Nike No. 21 jersey (Taylor wore a Reebok jersey, but Nike had since become NFL issue) and soccer cleats with “World Cup” written on them.

Having never been an art critic myself, it seemed what the Commanders had unveiled that day looked more like a display from the team’s souvenir shop rather than any form of art or tribute.

It looked as though somebody told a team intern to throw something together a few hours before the game, as the words “cheap,” “irresponsible,” and “despicable” came immediately to mind.

All of which added up to one cheap, irresponsible and despicable word we had sadly come to know too well – Snyder.

Last Saturday, though, the organization now run by Josh Harris announced in a statement, “After careful consideration, we have decided as an organization to remove the Sean Taylor installation from Commanders Field. We realize that the installation fell short in honoring one of our franchise’s most iconic players. Together with the Taylor family, we are working on a plan, which includes unveiling a statue that will rightfully celebrate the legacy and impact that Sean had on our organization, fanbase and community.

“The Washington Commanders are committed to honoring our legends in a first-class manner.”

Said Josh Harris later that day, “I wanted to be sure he had a first-class memorial, a first-class exhibit.”

There seems to be hope, Washington football fans. All the way from the head down.

Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @MikeBurkeMDT