OPINION:
What is it about Washington and shutdowns?
Not government shutdowns. But the shutting down of healthy athletes for fear of what might happen.
I can’t believe we are here again — 13 years after the most famous “shutdown” in the history of sports divided the nation.
Overstating it? Then-President Obama voiced his opinion on the September 2012 shutdown of Washington Nationals star pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who was on an innings limit coming back from 2010 Tommy John surgery, before the start of the 2012 National League Division Series. So did Sen. Mitch McConnell. It was the topic of network news and morning talk shows.
I wonder if the debate over whether Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels should play again this year will be as controversial.
It could be, for the opposite reasons — this time, the team is not shutting down its star player. The Washington Commanders are willing to put Daniels, who has missed five games this season with three different injuries, the latest a dislocated left elbow, back behind center for a losing team with nothing to play for.
Coach Dan Quinn has not said yet if he will play Daniels, who returned to practice this week but has still not yet been cleared for contact.
He will still be a spectator Sunday night at Northwest Stadium when the Commanders (3-8) face a fearsome Denver Broncos (9-2) defense. But the week after against the Vikings in Minneapolis? The expectation is that Daniels will be on the field.
Quinn responded to the question about shutting Daniels down even if he is healthy with this answer: “That’s not something we really discussed internally.”
For some — like for some who thought it was insane to shut Strasburg down — putting Daniels at risk in a lost season, even with five games remaining, is insane.
“I am begging my beloved Commanders. This is not our year. We should not risk further injury to our franchise QB in a lost year. He shouldn’t have been playing at the end of a blow-out loss and he shouldn’t play again this season. We are 3-8,” posted national football fantasy sports analyst Matthew Berry on social media.
Could the debate reach the fever pitch that the Strasburg back-and-forth did?
There certainly are differences.
The Nationals were about to play in the postseason. The Commanders are playing for 2026 draft position. Obviously, football, by its nature, is considered a riskier proposition, although some might argue throwing a baseball more than 95 mph 100 times every five days, is more damaging.
Football has a different mentality. The very culture of the game demands if you can walk, you can play.
But the heart of the issue is the same — should a team sit a healthy athlete out of the fear of an injury.
Daniels has shown that when you get down to his core, he is a football player.
“If I’m back out there and I’m healthy and ready to go I want to be out there,” Daniels told reporters Tuesday while handing out free turkeys at the team’s annual Harvest Feast at Northwest Stadium. “As a football player, you want to go out there and play, as a competitor. And that’s who I am.”
Shutting down a healthy Daniels with five games left in the season may damage the team’s relationship with their young quarterback.
It could also affect his status in the locker room, where players are taking the field at the end of a season, hurting all over their bodies.
If you are worried about Daniels in this Washington offense, then you should be worried about their very valuable backup quarterback Marcus Mariota, who the Commanders are fortunate to have. He is facing the same risk. You might as well trot third-string quarterback Josh Johnson out there if you believe the position is so dangerous on this team.
This same argument is going on in Cincinnati, where quarterback Joe Burrow, who has missed 22 games over his six-year career from injuries, the latest being turf toe, has declared he is coming back to play for the 3-8 Bengals and was set to play Thanksgiving night against the Baltimore Ravens.
“I’m not ever going to go to somebody and say, ’Yeah, I’m healthy, but I don’t think I should go out there and play,’” Burrow said Tuesday. “That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’m not going to live my life and play this game scared of something happening.”
Washington football fans, though, live in fear, beaten down by decades of dysfunction and disappointment. Something has always happened.
• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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