Washington

Commanders QB Jayden Daniels Enjoyed the Bye But Stayed in Football Mode

Published

1 year ago

December 12, 2024

Commanders QB Jayden Daniels Enjoyed the Bye But Stayed in Football Mode

Bye weeks are opportunities for players on teams like the Washington Commanders to get some rest, take a break from the grind that is the NFL season, and sometimes reconnect with the communities they come from and live in.

For Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, his first NFL bye week was a chance to do it all.

Before visiting the Children’s National Hospital in his local Washington community this week Daniels went back home to southern California where he held a holiday toy drive back at his high school. An opportunity and event that brought him some respite, but also an opportunity to show that he hasn’t forgotten where he came from.

Dec 1, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) runs with the ball Tennessee Titans linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr. (56) during the second half at Northwest Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-Imagn Images / Amber Searls-Imagn Images

“I stayed moving around, didn’t do too much, kind of let the body, mind and soul rest and reset. But I was out there to be able to spend time with family and friends, and blessed enough to do a toy drive back in my whole high school,” Daniels said of his bye week activities.

“It’s dope. I love being able to see the joy on kids’ faces. And obviously during different circumstances, obviously at the children’s hospital yesterday, just be able to go out there and bring some joy with them, interact with them. And then back home, be able to get some toys to some people that might be less fortunate and might be struggling to provide for their kids with some toys. So, it was dope to be able to be a part of that.”

While he was enjoying the ‘bigger than football’ moments of the week Daniels never let football get too far away from his mind though. Something that is expected from a rookie who shows the work ethic of a seasoned pro and a passion for the game that is both natural and enduring.

“I kind of stay in that mode,” Daniels said when asked if its been hard at all to get back to football after the break. “I know what’s ahead of us and we gotta go out there and compete and try to win some football games. But I mean, it’s always good to step back for a minute and kind of just reset and take the football hat off and just, we could be able to go out there and be a regular person. Not get caught up in, ‘Oh, I gotta watch film,’ or do this, or I gotta go lift and stuff like that. It is good to kind of just reset, be around the people that kept me grounded and keep me humble. And it was, but once I knew I got back out here, I knew it was time to go.”

Not only is it time to get back to playing, it’s time to get back to winning, something the Commanders did the last time they were on the field hosting the Tennessee Titans.

That win put Washington one step closer to securing a playoff spot, a great achievement for any team, let alone one with a rookie quarterback drafted No. 2 overall just this year.

Beating the New Orleans Saints this weekend is going to take focus, and a team effort, and features an opponent that will not give any leeway for a team if it struggles to regain its football footing. Fortunately, it looks like Daniels and his teammates never let the reality of their situation stray too far while getting some much-deserved rest and relaxation.

Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2024 season.

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Washington

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Published

23 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.

The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.

Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.

Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.

Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.

Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).

The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.

The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.

Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.

The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.

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Washington

Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.

The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.

The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.

The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.

The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.

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Washington

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

Press Room

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.

Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.

That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.

And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.

“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”

The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.

But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.

He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”

Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.

At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.

Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.

It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.

So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?

“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”

“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”

Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.

That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.

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