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Rick Spielman had a big role in the Washington Commanders GM search

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2 years ago

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Rick Spielman had a big role in the Washington Commanders GM search


Albert Breer has some details on how the Washington Commanders hired their new general manager Adam Peters in his latest edition of the MMQB. We knew that Josh Harris had hired former NBA executive Bob Meyers and former NFL executive Rick Spielman to lead the search for his new head of football operations and head coach. Breer provides some background on how those two were paired, and how long they’ve been working on a list of candidates to interview for the position. Spielman played a big role in scouting the candidates for general manager.

The Commanders’ process moved fast. And, really, the wheels started turning a little over three weeks ago—when former Golden State Warriors GM Bob Myers, who’d gone to work for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, reached out to former Minnesota Vikings GM Rick Spielman, and asked whether he’d come to Miami to meet with new Commanders owner Josh Harris. Spielman’s been living on Florida’s Gulf Coast and is in Fort Lauderdale every weekend for his work at CBS.

That made things easy on everyone. Spielman got there over the weekend of Week 16, and Harris told him that while no decision had been made on coach Ron Rivera or his front office, he wanted to be ready to roll if the Commanders did move on. He invited Spielman to join Myers on his search committee and, as soon as Spielman accepted, asked the old GM to start doing background work to find a head of football operations and head coach.

Two weeks later, the original list of 15 that Spielman worked off was whittled to five. Three days after that, 49ers assistant GM Adam Peters was aboard as new head of football ops.

Spielman sought advice from several former NFL executives to get his short list of candidates ready for Meyers and Harris.

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Spielman’s work through the final two weeks of the season was done quietly. He made calls but didn’t tell folks who he was working for, gathering information discreetly. Then, the Monday after Week 18, once Harris let Rivera go, Spielman drove to Miami and got to work talking with folks such as former Arizona Cardinals GM and Fritz Pollard Alliance exec Rod Graves, former New York Giants GM Jerry Reese, former Jacksonville Jaguars exec Michael Huyghue and former Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert, all of whom worked in the league for decades, and attended last month’s accelerator program.

He was on the phone from 7:30 a.m. to about 11 p.m., checking every box on the five guys he’d identified, all of whom carried assistant GM titles: Peters, as well as Kansas City’s Mike Borgonzi, Cleveland’s Glenn Cook, Chicago’s Ian Cunningham, Philadelphia’s Alec Halaby.

Those five assistant general managers were interviewed at Josh Harris’s Miami offices.

The first round of interviews happened at Harris’s offices in Miami. Each candidate spent two and a half hours with Spielman, then another two and a half hours with Harris and Myers. Borgonzi, Cook and Peters went Tuesday, in that order, then Cook and Halaby went Wednesday.

The group then reconvened to pick two finalists, Peters and Cunningham, then met with three of Harris’s co-owners—Mitchell Rales, David Blitzer and Magic Johnson—to get a consensus and finalize those two as the leaders who’d get 90-minute second interviews Thursday morning.

After that, the larger group met one last time to pick Peters. It was close between the final two, with Peters’s seven years of experience as a No. 2, and the success his 49ers have had serving as a tiebreaker. (Cunningham is in his second year as a top lieutenant, and while the Bears seem headed in the right direction, they’re not there yet.)

Adam Peters got the job over Ian Cunningham, but both candidates would have been great hires by Washington. Peters will now help to select the team’s next head coach. Virtual interviews can start again on Tuesday, and Washington still has at least five more coaches to interview. Breer said Washington has already had virtual interviews with Baltimore Ravens DC Mike McDonald and Associate HC/DL coach Anthony Weaver. They have also requested interviews with Lions OC Ben Johnson, Lions DC Aaron Glenn, Rams DC Raheem Morris, Texans OC Bobby Slowik, and Cowboys DC Dan Quinn.

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And, again, there’s still plenty to figure out. But the framework now is in place. The club is set up like Harris’s other pro teams, the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and NHL’s New Jersey Devils, with a head of business (president Jason Wright) and head of football (Peters) reporting directly to the owner. The plan is for the coach to report to Peters, and finding that coach is obviously the next big priority (they’ve already interviewed Baltimore Ravens coaches Mike Macdonald and Anthony Weaver), with elements such as analytics and sports science left to be built out.



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Washington

Inside Woodlawn Cemetery’s mission to preserve history

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3 hours ago

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June 24, 2026

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Inside Woodlawn Cemetery’s mission to preserve history


The iron gate to Woodlawn Cemetery is almost always locked shut, but Toni White-Richardson was more than happy to let News4 inside.

As president of the Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, she was excited to talk about what makes this resting place so special.

“It is major D.C. history, first. Then it’s also major Black history, second,” White-Richardson said.

More than 30,000 people, mostly African Americans, are buried among the 22 acres of Woodlawn Cemetery, which opened in Southeast D.C. in 1895. And like so many cemeteries that date back to the 1800s, particularly African American cemeteries, this one has fallen into disrepair, is overgrown and has headstones tumbled over, like those of Wilhelmina and her husband James, and Eliza Spencer, a mother who died in 1887.

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“Let me do a very upfront disclaimer,” White-Richardson said. “We have no idea where these stones go. And when we looked at the grid, it became even clear as mud, it became less clear as to where these stones should really go. Unfortunately, when we look back, we can tell there was a plan, but we could see we never got totally completed. Even back then, there are no markers saying this is Section H or this is Section G or this is 102 and this is, none of that.”

One of the most notable Washingtonians laid to rest here is John Mercer Langston, Virginia’s first Black congressman.

“Langston University came one year because they had a grand reunion in D.C., and we arranged for them to come to see […] John Mercer Langston, the university that was named after this man,” White-Richardson said.

And Blance Bruce, the first Black U.S. senator to serve a full term and register of the treasury, is also buried in the cemetery.

“He’s the signature on our dollar bill, you know, back in the late 1800s,” White-Richardson said. “So, oh, it’s history. It’s capital letters. No getting around it.”

Woodlawn is also the resting place of several of the original founders of two of the country’s most prominent Black sororities, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta. Both organizations volunteer to help with clean ups.

The Perpetual Care Association recently received a grant from the D.C. Office of Planning to help with upkeep of the grounds and preserving the history here.

“These are important individuals who’ve made contributions to the District a century ago, but today still their history and their stories reverberate and really influence the trajectory of our city,” said Anita Cozart, director of the D.C. Office of Planning.

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The cemetery tucked away off Benning Road is only open to the public five days a year, but groups can request tours anytime. The next chance to visit Woodlawn when it will be open to the public is Labor Day.

They’re always looking for volunteers and donors to help with the upkeep of this sacred ground.



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Parsing Trump’s claims about Washington’s reflecting pool

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13 hours ago

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June 24, 2026

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Parsing Trump’s claims about Washington’s reflecting pool


US President Donald Trump wanted to mark the US’s 250th birthday with a renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.

The makeover, including a new coat of “American Flag blue,” cost taxpayers $16 million (€14.1 million).

But the water is covered in green algae. The blue paint is already peeling. Trump has blamed vandals, while his critics question the project’s transparency and cost.

DW’s Brent Goff and Washington correspondent Janelle Dumalaon unpack the whole fiasco.

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Social media reacts to former BYU star AJ Dybantsa going No. 1 in 2026 NBA draft

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23 hours ago

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June 23, 2026

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Social media reacts to former BYU star AJ Dybantsa going No. 1 in 2026 NBA draft


Former BYU basketball star AJ Dybantsa fulfilled his dream of going No. 1 overall in the 2026 NBA draft.

The Washington Wizards selected Dybantsa with the first pick.

Immediately after the pick, reactions poured in on social media about the Wizards drafting Dybantsa.

Social media reactions to the Washington Wizards selecting BYU star AJ Dybantsa

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSL and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast daily on KSL Sports YouTube and KSL NewsRadio (SUBSCRIBE). Harper also co-hosts Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL NewsRadio.

Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU athletics in the Big 12 Conference on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram: @Mitch_Harper.

Want more coverage of BYU sports? Take us with you wherever you go.

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