The 2024 NFL trade deadline passed a month ago, but the Washington Commanders could still be involved in a major swap.
Maryland’s 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 Washington Post.
The proposed swap:
D.C. gets: Maryland senators not opposing a bill that would allow the District to redevelop the RFK Stadium site, potentially for a new home for the Commanders
Maryland gets: one of D.C.’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 place of Northwest Stadium
It’s a trade you don’t see every day, but it’s also the kind of thing that can happen when professional football, military spending and the tangled mess of D.C. politics intersect.
Last we left D.C. in its attempt to lure the Commanders from Maryland, the U.S. House had passed, with bipartisan support, the bill the Maryland senators are currently threatening to oppose. The The D.C. RFK Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act simply grants control of the RFK Stadium site to D.C., to do with it how it pleases. That could be a mixed-use development site, a multi-billion dollar NFL stadium or something else.
The bill received opposition from Maryland lawmakers in both the House and Senate for obvious reasons. The Commanders and their tax money are currently in Maryland, which also has to fight Virginia in its battle to retain the team. The proposed trade would further open the door for D.C. to land the Commanders, but it would at least get Maryland something, akin to a situation many NFL teams experience with pending 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.
Eleanor Holmes, D.C.’s non-voting Congressional delegate, released a statement to the Post signaling concern about the proposed swap:
“Transfer would leave the DCNG with no aviation units, forcing it to be reliant on the goodwill of other National Guards for common aviation matters that arise in D.C., such as intercepting aircraft, patrolling the skies and rescuing or evacuating people in emergencies,” Norton said in a statement Tuesday. “While D.C. could request assistance from other National Guards, there is no guarantee the air assets would be provided in a timely manner — or at all.”
“D.C. rightly deserves to benefit from the land where RFK Stadium sits falling into disrepair and the exchange for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over the campus to D.C. should not come at the expense of the DCNG’s aviation resources,” Norton’s statement said.
The situation also reflects D.C.’s inability to govern itself, despite being home to more people than Vermont and Wyoming. The District has no votes in Congress, and the two chambers hold authority over its affairs, which makes for an awkward situation when competing with actual states for anything.