I expected some happiness, enjoyment, perhaps even delight. What I just heard moments ago in listening to the first segment of Thursday’s show was, to my surprise, even more than I had anticipated.
Grant Paulsen was literally elated, exhilarated, almost giddy. No, he was giddy. It was a different Grant in some way. He was so full of joy and enthusiasm I suddenly found myself realizing I was happy for him.
I’ve followed the Washington NFL team since the 1969 season. I recall many good seasons, great seasons, six NFC championship games, and five Super Bowls and three Super Bowl victories!
Paulsen was born in 1989. Therefore, he doesn’t remember nor did he experience any of the Super Bowl seasons of Joe Gibbs and Bobby Beathard. He never experienced the George Allen teams ALWAYS achieving winning seasons in 1971-77.
Paulsen hasn’t had any of that to fall back upon and reflect on from time to time. He has simply grown tired of all he knows about Washington football… dysfunction, black clouds, and losing seasons.
Paulsen began Thursday’s show:
“Nobody threw for 300 yards; nobody won a football game today.
It’s better than that, though, isn’t it?
(Raising his voice) “Hey, everybody! It’s your pals, Grant and Danny!
Ready to talk about sportin’ stuff.
Anybody have anything they want to hear us talk about today?
Who wants to listen to the radio today?
Who wants to listen to the radio today?”
“Daniel, a big smile on your face today.”
“We have been doing shows together since 2009 in some capacity, and Grant & Danny has existed since 2010, and I’m not sure any of those shows we’ve done were as big as today’s or have been bigger or meant more to our audience, than today’s.”
“This is special and different because maybe, just maybe, there is a gleam! Twenty-four years of turmoil and ineptitude, 24 years of people being treated badly, of irrelevance and losses and being the butt of jokes…it could all be coming to an end because Daniel Snyder’s reign of terror is over.”
When Paulsen referenced “the gleam,” I burst out in laughter, knowing he was referencing the late Marty Schottenheimer, who was caught on film telling his huddled-up team of a “gleam” for certain players who love to be there in big moments.
This, for Paulsen, was a big moment, and he so loved conveying to his audience Thursday that Daniel Snyder had reached an agreement in principle to sell the franchise. I couldn’t help but wonder if Paulsen’s “gleam” was illustrious of thousands more who have longed for the Burgundy and Gold to return to greatness.
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Roger Goodell told D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) that the league supported her efforts to obtain the RFK Stadium site from the federal government because he wanted D.C. to have a seat at the table in the Commanders’ efforts to build a new stadium, according to two people with direct knowledge of the call.
Would city officials, once Daniel Snyder is removed from the equation, concede and permit that a new Commanders Stadium would be a good value for the current site?
In previous months, when Snyder was aggressively searching for ways to get a new stadium approved for construction in the DMV, Mayor Bowser had publicly been adamant about expressing her desire to use the RFK site and surrounding acres for “affordable housing.”