Grant & Danny were out at 1757 Golf Club Tuesday for the Heroes & Legends charity golf event, which meant a few Washington football alumni were bound to pop by…and one of those was Mark Rypien, who is excited by what the Commanders’ new signal caller can bring and the aura of optimism in DC.
“We’re all eager and excited to see the Commanders get back on track, but it’s a process. As we all know, Jayden Daniels is pretty special if we can keep him healthy, that’s the main thing this year, and our defense has to be better, too; you can’t give up four touchdowns to Baker Mayfield and expect to make the playoffs. We have to tie some loose ends together there and get back here on our home turf and play well in front of our fans, who are a little more excited about our football team this year.”
Rypien joked that he had some ‘questionable injuries’ that kept him on IR in his first two seasons before he got to 1988, but that was a blessing in disguise – one Daniels doesn’t quite have.
“You want Jayden Daniels to be good last year when he wasn’t even here!” Rypien joked. “It’s like, what you can do for me right now is the narrative of the league. I was fortunate we had things we could manipulate to keep guys on IR, and I was very blessed by that because I was able to watch – and that’s the hard thing for Jayden, is he doesn’t have that opportunity to watch how fast the game is and what it’s going to be like. I had two years to do that, so when my time came, I was more prepared, but this kid is as gifted as they come. He has more talent in his pinkie than I do in my body – but you have to be good on defense and let him get our skill players more touches.”
So optimism is high, but as we move into the new era, well, there’s one thing Rypien REALLY wishes was different: the name on the front of the jersey.
“It’s not growing on me, and it never will,” Rypien said of Commanders. “I support the team and what they’re doing now, but I never played for the Commanders. It’s this day and age we have to deal with, but I just hope they don’t lose the fact that we were Redskins; that’s all I knew and remember.
I’m not a Commanders legend, I’m a Redskins legend, but we’ll support this thing because it’s where we are now.”
And as you hear that, you can probably guess what Rypien’s preference is for the location of the next stadium.
“I care a lot where the next stadium is, and I hope they get back to RFK. Wipe the whole place out and build a new stadium there, and get back to being one of the most dominant franchises in the NFL,” Rypien said. “If we can do that, it will also bring back some memories of fathers and sons, who are now fathers who can bring their sons to that special place where we can reminisce and build something again, because we’re starting from scratch with these new owners. They’re proven winners with their other franchises and know what the formula is. It hurt to come back to a Cowboys-Redskins game 10 years ago and see more Cowboys fans…that’s embarrassing, but we have to put out a winning product.”