Did a double take when I saw it

On Monday, Adam Peters assessed his third Washington Commanders operation thusly: “I have a ton of confidence in this team. I have a ton of confidence in this coaching staff.”

Dan Quinn, the man who will coach the players Peters picked, evaluated the entire preseason like this: “I thought as a team standpoint, we threw a really productive and tough camp. … It was good to see the systems come to life offensively and defensively.”

That’s great, gentlemen. Now, the tricky part: You have to be right.

Think about how different the weeks leading up to Year 3 of the Peters-Quinn operation are in comparison to previous seasons.

At this point in 2024, there was an unprecedented mix of relief and anticipation as the first general manager (Peters) hired by an owner other than Dan Snyder (Josh Harris) in a quarter of a century got to work with his hand-picked coach (Quinn) and unveil their second-selection-in-the-draft quarterback (Jayden Daniels). Heady stuff.

Last year at this same time, that four-headed leadership group rode the wave of momentum provided by a trip to the NFC Championship Game into the most highly anticipated season of Washington football since the salad days that brought three Super Bowl trophies. It felt like uncharted territory.

And somehow, that produced a 5-12 clunker.

He goes through a pretty detailed analysis of the issues and potential solutions. As usual Mark is thorough and impressive. I think you'll all find it interesting.

https://substack.com/@markbullock/note/p-213740486?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=18eze

P.S. If you don't subscribe, and you like this level of detailed analysis, you might want to.

it’s a bummer to be a fan and see other fans be just absolutely ridiculously negative non stop about players coaches the org etc, especially during the preseason. I think it’s fair to critique poor results but we had one awesome season and one bad under this regime. why not just wait until the season and make informed judgments? whole fanbase has just non stop cognitive distortions from post snyder era. i think national media does too to a certain degree.

I am NOT saying this to be like commies winning the superbowl but everyone was super down on the Seahawks last off season, especially their O line. the middle tier of the nfl is incredibly volatile (see 2024 and 2025 seasons for us).

anyway, it’s a game, it connects families and neighbors, our players seem like they’re practicing hard. it doesn’t take nothing to be optimistic, golly!!!!! I will probably get downvoted to hell but pls im sick of the fans being like the vibes are bad meanwhile they are in fact responsible for the bad vibes, my god.

Give it a shot
https://trivia-gauntlet.com/nfl-mode/qb/jayden-daniels

Fuck the Eagles and fuck the doomers in this sub. Personally took this photo at the Croatia vs Ghana World Cup game this past summer

Thought I'd share a little fun trivia related to our uniform and logo refresh.

Yes, this is pretty loosely semi-off topic. No, this isn't about the game of football per se, but as much as we've been up here stressing and complaining about the roster and the pre-season, maybe we could use a little distracting trivia to lighten the mood in here.

OK. They fixed the uniforms. YAY!

They even brought back a version of the spear motif. YAY!

Looks pretty sweet too. (Don't start with that optical illusion MC Escher stuff.)

But why the spear now?

The two comments I keep seeing around are

1. But what does a spear have to do with a "Commander"?
2. Does a "Commander" use a spear? I don't think so.

Spoilers:

1. Actually, a lot. Like, A LOT.
2. Yes. Like 100% fully, no debate about it, Yes.

Let's talk about it.

This is the "Spontoon"

​It could be described as a "half-pike" or even a "partisan", its basically just what it looks like, a 6(ish) foot long spear.

The Spontoon was a common, even a standard issue weapon for commissioned officers in the field, in European AND American Continental armies.

By "commissioned officers in the field", yes we specifically mean unit leaders, i.e. unit "Commanders".

They were used so widely in the American colonial forces that you can still find plenty of surviving antiques today.

Sometimes they had side lugs like a boar spear

​​Sometimes they were simpler

​Note: I figured it was worth addressing examples with and without side lugs, before we get into the "wait so should the logo have boar lugs then?" question.

Ok, so we've established that Spontoon Spears existed, and officers carried them, but what were they used FOR?

Were they just a thing that existed, or were they something explicitly "Commander"ish?

(Obviously its going to be the second one. That's the point right?)

The Officer's Spontoon served a few different purposes.

One was obviously combat.

Remember, unit commanders were not armed with muskets like the line troops.

Why not?

For the same reason we associate musket era officers with swords and pistols. Or 20th century officers with pistols, or tommy guns.

Unit leaders carry personal defense weapons that are small enough to allow them to be mobile, since they are running back and forth managing the battle, but also effective enough to let them do close combat, if/when the battle comes to close combat range.

As my old platoon sergeant (truthfully and correctly) explained to me once, officers don't carry line troop weapons, because its not their job to be on the line trying to engage the enemy. If they're on firing line trying to shoot at the enemy, they can't be doing their ACTUAL job of standing back from the line, watching the full picture, and managing the battle.

You can't conduct the orchestra from the violinist's chair. You can't manage the offense if you're lined up at slot WR. Same idea.

Ok, so no musket but WHY the Spontoon?

For close combat its just pretty good.

(Going to steal a bit from Matt Easton's Scholagladiatoria youtube channel, but I agree with his take here)

Basically the spontoon is "better" than the sword or the fixed bayonet for a close combat weapon.

It delivers a stabbing thrust with more power than a sword.

Its lighter and more nimble than a bayonetted musket.

Its got a significant reach advantage over both.

But what else?

A Commander COULD fight with it, but its primary uses were...

COMMANDING the troops.

First, the Spontoon was a symbol of a Continental officer's authority. More so than a sword even. You saw the guy walk up carrying the Spontoon, you knew he was the boss.

​In fact, that's another deliberate reason Spontoons were chosen. Carrying a six foot tall shiny bladed stick makes it easy for your troops to pick you out. This isn't Vietnam, where officers don't want to look obviously like officers for the enemy. This is the block formation era where officers need their troops to be able to recognize them and follow them and their directions.

"What do we do? Where's the Major?"

"Over there?"

"WHERE"

"Next to the giant 6 foot spear, dummy."

IN FACT, IN FACT,

Commanders used the Spontoons as their signaling item to give orders.

There is a whole manual of arms for issuing orders. Example, tilting it forward told your troops to forward march. Posting it in the ground meant halt. Etc.

Bottom line, you have it, they know you're in charge. You hold it up, they know where you are. You point it and wave it around, they know what you are telling them to do.

BUT WHAT ELSE?

Well its a giant long, straight pole, or a fixed regulation length. Its basically a ruler/straight edge.

Commanders would use it to "dress" their troops.

In this era of combat, battle formations were critical. Not just for massing fire, but because the expectation is that we'll fixing bayonets and closing ranks for a glorified pike battle. And even more than that, your ability to hold everyone together in a properly spaced block is what kept the enemy calvary from running you down with horses and just killing everybody.

So the giant ruler straight edge, their Spontoon, was used to measure out troops spacing, but also to maintain the line.

Troops getting out of alignment on the march to contact? Literally hold the stick up against the ranks and push everyone on line

​Alright, I think I've gone on enough about Spontoon spears being pretty useful, and military commanders definitely using them, but are we sure American commanders used them?

YES.

We have the receipts.

George Washington was a fan of the Spontoon.

He used one?

No.

For his specific role a pistol and sword combo made sense. HOWEVER; it was on George Washington's personal orders, as General of the Army, that officially required all unit commanders in the field to carry the Spontoon.

So he ordered it in the military. Then he did it again as President.

During George Washington's second presidency, Congress passed the "Militia Acts of 1792". These were laws dealing with giving the President the authority to raise troops if defense was needed. Like if there was some crazy rebellion, or if the Brits tried to come back. You know... if.

The second of those acts specified details like what resources would be provided, troops would get a musket, some powder, some shot, etc, and officers would be required to receive a sword or hanger, and... a spontoon.

Point is, not only did he mandate its use as a General, GW literally signed into law, that American military commanders would be provided a Spontoon Spear. (They fell out of use in the early to mid 1800s, prior to the civil war, but the law wasn't actually updated to drop the Spontoon requirement until 1903.)

Ok, so tell me some stories. Tell me about someone actually using one.

They were carried by a couple of Army officers on expedition, you might have heard of them.

Captain Meriweather Lewis and his buddy Lieutenant William Clark. The Lewis and Clark journals show both men carrying spontoons and using them in the field.

​Which makes sense, since both men served in the war under General "Mad" Anthony Wayne.

Called "Mad" because bro was a wild man. Attacked a whole British outpost without ammo.

The Battle of Stony Point, Wayne wanting to make sure that no one accidentally gave away the sneak attack, gave his officers Spontoons and had his troops unload their muskets, so that they could ninja all the way up to the British position and jump over the perimeter and start stabbing dudes up before they realized what was happening.

They actually have the letter from Wayne to George Washington, requesting delivery of 50 Spontoons to arm his officers with.

Battle result: Americans 15 killed, 83 wounded. British 20 killed, 74 wounded, 472 surrendered.

Homeboy brought knives to a gunfight and won.

Battle of Cowpens

This famous battle was basically the beginning of the end for the British Campaign in the South.

The Americans led by Daniel Morgan, who was partially the basis for THIS character in "The Patriot"

​Dealty the first severe defeat to the forces of British Banastre Tarleton,

AKA war criminal POS, AKA the basis for THIS character in The Patriot

​The win at Cowpens was a huge deal. And a flat out win it was. Final results:

Americans - 25 Killed, 124 wounded.

British - 110 killed, 229 wounded, 629 captured or missing, 2 guns captured

2 guns captured. ABOUT THAT.

As the Americans were whipping the British all over the field, A Captain Richard Anderson, of the "Maryland Line" (Yes, a reformed unit from the same Marylanders whose "Maryland 400" earned the "Maryland Line" nickname that Maryland's "Old Line State" motto is taken from, Captain Anderson got into a race with a Lt from either a PA or VA unit, to see who could capture the British cannons first.

Captain Anderson, just for bragging rights, used his spontoon to pole vault over the obstacles in their way just to reach his cannon first.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, I've rambled on enough about my obscure history trivia rant here, but

TL;DR:

The Washington Commanders have a spear on the helmet. Spears are cool.

The Spontoon is an 18th-19th century spear, used by military commanders as a field weapon, and symbol of their office.

Commanders in the American Continental Army used these spears because George Washington himself told them to.

The Commanders and Spear connection actually kinda makes sense. (even if an unintentional coincidence. Imma just lean into it, ok?)

​

Are any of you going to the NFL International game at the MCG?

I'll be there with my son in Redskins jerseys, say G'day if you see us. Can't wait. Wish it was the Commanders playing though.

Lmaoooo