Why no NFL team deserves magical moments more than the Washington Commanders

Throughout the 2024-25 season, no NFL team has had a greater share of cinematic victories than the Washington Commanders.

Fittingly, no NFL team has been more deserving of a season like this than Washington.

An argument can be made that, when considering both on- and off-field dysfunction, no professional franchise in American sports has had a rougher go in the past quarter of a century than the football team in the nation's capitol.

The horrors of Dan Snyder's tenure as Washington's owner -- lasting between 1999 and 2022 -- were enough to make an entire multi-season Netflix series about. There was the workplace misconduct scandal. There was the constant controversy over the team name. There were the power struggles with sycophants-turned-fall guys such as Vinny Cerrato and Bruce Allen.

There were the dramas that spewed onto the field. Robert Griffin III and Mike Shanahan's messy falling out. Kirk Cousins' contract fiasco. The Trent Williams saga. The Albert Haynesworth contract. Alex Smith's devastating leg injury that nearly took his life after a botched surgery. All of it happened under Snyder's watch, either directly because of Snyder himself or because of people who Snyder hired.

Then, most of all, there was the losing. Lots, and lots, and lots of losing. Losing to the point where the entire identity of one of the most historically proud franchises in the NFL was destroyed, as fans of the team became conditioned to believe they were incapable of having good things. Nothing more needs to be said about the lack of success of Washington's NFL franchise under Snyder than that it experienced more name changes (two) than playoff wins (one).

Now, after 25 years of torture, Andy Dufresne has escaped from Shawshank prison. Washington football is allowed to have good things again, and no NFL fanbase deserves it more.