D.C. sports fans have been through a lot. Across the four major-league sports, for a long time, the city as a whole was “bad.” The Commanders couldn’t win a game, the Capitals and Nationals couldn’t get past their late-2010s championship wins and the Wizards were nothing short of abysmal. Fan attendance was dwindling. In 2023, seeing the Dolphins play the Commanders at home brought more fans in teal and orange than in burgundy and gold. However, in one short year, the four major-league teams have worked themselves into a hierarchy undeniable by sports fans everywhere.
Alexander Ovechkin has been consistent for years, a steady positive force in the formerly dark world of D.C. athletics. The Capitals’ captain led the team to victory in 2018, winning the team’s first Stanley Cup since their founding in 1974. For the next few years after, the Caps were consistently okay, losing key players like Braden Holtby and Evgeny Kuznetsov, and made low-ranking playoff spots that resulted in them losing in the first round. For the 2024-25 season, it seems like something in Ovechkin has snapped. Closing in on Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record, the Capitals have climbed to the top of the Metropolitan Divison’s rankings. Alternate Captains Tom Wilson and John Carlson have helped Ovi lead the team, while Logan Thompson, deemed “the second coming of Braden Holtby,” is defending the goal amazingly. In any way you look at them, the Capitals are at the top of the DC sports pyramid; they are Stanley Cup contenders, and the best they’ve been since they won it all in 2018.
Next in the tier list lies the Commanders, a surprisingly fantastic team led by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. Daniels has had arguably one of the best rookie seasons in NFL history, bringing his team to the NFC championship and making the Pro Bowl. He won the most Rookie of the Week awards in NFL history and won the Offensive Rookie of the Year award at the NFL honors. While the Commanders ultimately fell to their division rivals the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC championship, they went from being 4-13 to 12-5 in the regular season, almost reversing their results from the season before. Leadership from coach Dan Quinn, veteran players like Terry McLaurin and Zach Ertz and, of course, Jayden “That Kid” Daniels has led the Commanders to be the best they’ve been in years. While they aren’t as successful as the Capitals, they are a team to watch and will likely be true Super Bowl contenders within the next few seasons.
As the newest team in DC, the Nationals had an interesting standard to meet when they first played in 2005. Eventually finding success with players like Juan Soto and Stephen Strasberg, the Nats beat the Houston Astros for the World Series title in 2019. Unfortunately, after their trophy was won, a handful of their best players left, retired or got injured. The Nats have had horrible player retention, and as a result, fell drastically in the standings. With players like CJ Abrams, prospects such as Dylan Crews and local heroes like James Wood (from my hometown of Olney, Maryland), the Nationals are slowly rebuilding their lineup and will hopefully make the playoffs within the next few seasons.
Finally, the Wizards are unfortunately the worst team in the NBA, and they don’t seem to be getting any better. The talent of rookies Alex Sarr and Bub Carrington aren’t enough to elevate the team above last place in the league, even with Sarr’s high ranking in the Rookie of the Year ladder. Tickets are going for as low as six dollars on the resale market, at least giving fans the opportunity to go to multiple games for the same price Celtics fans get to go to one game for. Strangely enough, a small piece of optimism fans have is that they managed to beat the Denver Nuggets, a team consistently regarded as a championship contender and featuring three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. Even still, there unfortunately isn’t much to look forward to with the Wizards, but hopefully they will find their way back to the top soon.
Overall, major-league sports in DC are on the rise, even if some teams are still lingering towards the bottom of their respective standings. Fans across the DMV finally have something to be happy about in the Capitals and Commanders, something to look forward to in the Nationals and a team we try to forget in the Wizards. Now, it’s time for the Commanders to return to D.C. so all four teams can physically play in the great city they represent.
