Tag: WUSA 9

WUSA9 becomes the DMV’s official station for the Commanders

Inside the Commanders’ partnership with WUSA9.

“WUSA9 is now the DMV’s official station for the Washington Commanders.”

That was the announcement made Tuesday by station sports director Chick Hernandez and Commanders head coach Dan Quinn.

In announcing the deal WUSA declared they will have five exclusive shows, as well as broadcast two of the three preseason games for the 2024 season. Hernandez will be the play-by-play announcer for those games.

The five shows announced by WUSA are:

COMMANDERS WEEKLY: Thursdays at 7 p.m.; Airing Sept. 12, 2024 through Jan. 9, 2025

This will be a 30-minute program highlighting the Commanders’ community outreach and inspiring stories and will be hosted by Chick Hernandez.

COMMAND CENTER: Saturdays at 11:35 p.m.; Airing weekly beginning June 8

Bryan Colbert Jr will continue to host and continue to be joined by former Washington Redskins players London Fletcher, Santana Moss, Logan Paulsen and Fred Smoot.

THE PLAYER’S CLUB: Sundays at 12:05 a.m.; Airing Sept. 1, 2024 through Jan. 12, 2025

This will be hosted by Fletcher, Moss and Smoot.

THE GAMEPLAN: Sundays at 8:30 a.m.; Airing Sept. 1, 2024 through Jan. 12, 2025

This show will be hosted by Colbert and Paulsen, with special recurring guest Commanders head coach Dan Quinn.

COMMANDERS KICK-OFF: Sundays at 11:30 a.m.; Airing Sept. 8, 2024 through Jan. 5, 2025

WUSA sports hosts Chick Hernandez and Wisdom Martin will lead the show.

Hernandez said he and Quinn will also sit down together on Mondays during the season:

“There’ll be some laughs and of course, if there’s some losses, there’ll be some tough times.”

Quinn responded, “Basically, what that day is, whether it’s for a coach or for a ball player, that’s tell the truth day. This is what happened in the game. And so, on that day we put up the things that we did well. But we also put up the things that need attention or work on. Here’s the lesson, you know, moving forward.”

“Because if you don’t get to the truth, after a win or a loss, you could be missing something. So, we will always do those and debrief the game after action, going back to the military term, like an after-action report, to say, this is what went well, this is what needs attention. This is what we are going to do moving forward.”

“So, those days telling the truth with you and I, that will be no different than what we’ll do with the team, to make sure that we all know how we are going to go about our business together.”

Commanders’ Ron Rivera on Sam Howell: ‘We’ve got to help him’

Rivera believes Howell will continue to grow by playing through the difficult times, and the team needs to do everything it can to support him.

Ron Rivera is not leaving Sam Howell to blame for what occurred Sunday in the Washington Commanders’ 37-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Rivera met with WUSA 9’s Chick Hernandez to discuss the game, which dropped Washington to 2-1 on the season.

The main takeaway was that Rivera said of Howell, “We’ve got to help him.”

Hernandez began noting that with the nine sacks that Buffalo had of Howell, the Commanders lead the league in sacks allowed. Rivera admitted he sometimes worries about the psyche of the young quarterback in taking all of these hits.

But Rivera, thinking proactively, also said: “We can control a little bit more of it, and we need to. We need to be better at certain aspects of protection.”

In this respect, Rivera was talking about coaching adjustments.

He then turned his attention apparently to Howell, saying, “We need to be better at getting rid of the ball.”

Rivera is experienced, having been in the NFL for 36 years. He is keeping this in perspective. Howell played his fourth NFL game, and the Bills are perhaps one of the top five teams in the NFL.

Rivera also pointed out to Hernandez that Howell was getting hit. He wanted to go deep down the field and missed some underneath routes that were available to him.

Rivera pointed out he has had a worse day in the NFL than he did Sunday against the Bills.

“If you are in it long enough, you are going to go through these things,” he said. “But there is a certain point where you know you are going to come out on the other end. We have a young football team with guys that are learning and growing. They are learning on the job. This young quarterback is learning on the job.”

“We’ve got to give him the opportunity to grow. Keeping him on the field and having him play is probably the best opportunity for him to grow.”

Rivera made it clear the coaches sincerely believe Howell is going to be better in the end through playing.

Rivera then, without naming names, alluded to two NFL greats who began their careers going 1-15 (Troy Aikman) and 3-13 (Peyton Manning). Rivera was not claiming Howell would become an Aikman or Manning. However, he was making his point that he genuinely believes Howell “is going to learn and grow.”