The 2024 NFL trade deadline passed a month ago, but the Washington Commanders could still be involved in a major trade.
Maryland U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen have proposed a trade that would allow the District of Columbia to develop a stadium to lure the Washington Commanders away from their current home at Northwest Stadium (formerly FedEx Field), according to the WashingtonPost. .
The proposed exchange:
DC gets: Maryland senators do not oppose a bill that would allow the District to redevelop the RFK Stadium site, possibly for a new home for the commanders
Maryland gets: one of DC’s two Air National Guard squadrons (and the only one with fighter jets), a public statement from the commanders about their preferred location for their next stadium and assurances about what would be built in the place of Northwest Stadium
It’s a trade you don’t see every day, but it’s also something that can happen when pro football, military spending and the convoluted mess of DC politics intersect.
The last time we left DC in an effort to lure the commanders out of Maryland, the U.S. House of Representatives, with bipartisan support, had passed the bill that Maryland’s senators are currently threatening to oppose. The DC RFK Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act simply grants control of the RFK Stadium site to DC to do with as it pleases. That could be a mixed-use development site, a multi-billion dollar NFL stadium or something else.
The bill was opposed by Maryland lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate for obvious reasons. The Commanders and their tax dollars are currently in Maryland, which also faces Virginia in the battle to keep the team. The proposed trade would further open the door for DC to land the Commanders, but it would at least give Maryland something similar to a situation many NFL teams experience with impending free agents.
Maryland is reportedly the only state without a National Guard flying mission next year, due to U.S. Air Force plans to convert the state’s existing squadron into one with cyber responsibilities on the ground.
DC’s non-voting congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes, released a statement to the Post expressing concern about the proposed swap:
“The transfer would leave the DCNG without aviation units, leaving it dependent on the goodwill of other National Guardsmen for general aviation matters that arise in DC, such as intercepting aircraft, patrolling the skies, and rescuing or evacuating people in emergency situations,” Norton said. said in a statement on Tuesday. “While DC could request assistance from other National Guardsmen, there is no guarantee that air weapons would be made available in a timely manner – or at all.”
“DC rightly deserves to take advantage of the fact that the land where RFK Stadium is in decline, and the exchange for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over the campus to DC should not come at the expense of the DCNG’s aviation resources,” said Norton’s statement.
The situation also reflects DC’s inability to govern itself, despite having more people than Vermont and Wyoming. The district has no votes in Congress, and the two chambers have a say in its affairs, which makes for a sticky situation when you’re competing with actual states for anything.
