Competition creates two things: Winners and losers. Typically, those results are temporary, and when it comes to the Washington Commanders and Philadelphia Eagles this season, both sides experienced each fate going 1-1 in their two matchups against each other.

In fact, both teams held the fourth-quarter leads in each one, with the Commanders taking the lead into the final stretch in the first game and the Eagles doing the same in the second.

Both teams failed to stave off the other’s comeback as well, leading most to believe Washington and Philadelphia will probably compete in a close matchup this weekend. But not if you ask former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner.

“By the way, they don’t stand a snowballs chance in hell in winning here on Sunday. You know that right?”  while making a guest appearance on the WIP Morning Show on Sportsradio 94WIP recently. “Make sure you take that, and you play that all damn week, alright?”

But before any Commanders fans get mad at Joyner for the outlandish comment, remember you’re talking to a wounded person.

Granted, Joyner was selected to two Pro Bowls in his eight seasons with Philadelphia, but before he left for the Arizona Cardinals, then the Green Bay Packers, and finally the Denver Broncos, the linebacker had to wear the loser tag more times than not.

At least when it came to Washington, and especially when it came to the biggest moments in the sport.

You see, in his day, the Eagles actually beat Washington more times than not. But where it mattered most, in the postseason, Joyner’s squads just never measured up.

Having to watch from home as Washington added two Super Bowl titles to the one it already had from just a couple of seasons before he joined the NFL was painful enough. Going one-and-done in the postseason himself in 1988, 89, and 90 is worse. Losing that 1990 playoff game to Washington, well, you can imagine the bitterness that can be born from that type of jealousy.

Even when Joyner’s Eagles finally won a playoff game in 1993, they immediately fell to the hated Dallas Cowboys, who eventually won the Super Bowl.

You might say Joyner was a good luck charm for the rest of the division, in fact. During his eight seasons in Philadelphia, the NFC East won five Super Bowls – two for Washington, two for the New York Giants, and one for the Dallas Cowboys. None for the Eagles.

Even when Joyner left Philadelphia to play for the Cardinals, the blessings for the rest of the division continued. He spent 1994, 95, and 96 in Arizona, and the Cowboys won two more titles. Really, the hayday of the NFC East is all tied to Joyner’s presence in it, if you think about it.

Seeking a ring of his own, Joyner latched on in Green Bay and lost in the Super Bowl. So he joined the Broncos, the same team that beat his Packers, and contributed five tackles to the team that figured out how to break the ‘Joyner curse,’ just don’t play him.

Really, Commanders fans shouldn’t be upset with Joyner. Nor should the players or coaches. While he lives vicariously through this Eagles roster, just remember all of the times he had to watch burgundy and gold-clad players celebrate while he struggled to get just one postseason win in Kelly green.

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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Associated Press

Iowa Hawkeyes (12-7, 2-6 Big Ten) at Washington Huskies (13-6, 4-3 Big Ten)

Seattle; Wednesday, 9 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Washington hosts Iowa after Sayvia Sellers scored 24 points in Washington’s 87-58 victory against the Purdue Boilermakers.

The Huskies are 10-2 on their home court. Washington ranks ninth in the Big Ten in rebounding with 34.8 rebounds. Dalayah Daniels paces the Huskies with 7.4 boards.

The Hawkeyes are 2-6 in Big Ten play. Iowa ranks ninth in the Big Ten scoring 35.1 points per game in the paint led by Addison O’Grady averaging 8.0.

Washington’s average of 7.8 made 3-pointers per game this season is only 0.5 fewer made shots on average than the 8.3 per game Iowa gives up. Iowa has shot at a 45.8% rate from the field this season, 6.9 percentage points greater than the 38.9% shooting opponents of Washington have averaged.

The Huskies and Hawkeyes square off Wednesday for the first time in Big Ten play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Sellers is averaging 16.8 points, 3.6 assists and 1.8 steals for the Huskies.

Taylor McCabe is shooting 44.9% from beyond the arc with 2.1 made 3-pointers per game for the Hawkeyes, while averaging 7.1 points.

LAST 10 GAMES: Huskies: 6-4, averaging 73.1 points, 30.7 rebounds, 13.7 assists, 6.2 steals and 4.4 blocks per game while shooting 47.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.8 points per game.

Hawkeyes: 4-6, averaging 72.0 points, 36.5 rebounds, 18.1 assists, 7.5 steals and 3.3 blocks per game while shooting 43.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.1 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Then, there are the rank-and-file supporters of the winning party. Wearing transparent plastic raincoats, they have to brave the weather conditions and slosh around icy sidewalks, often being misdirected by police transferred from other cities and states to assist the security operation — it’s a far cry from the well-heeled taking high tea in the lobby of the Willard Hotel, listening to harp music a stone’s throw from the White House. 

But with this inauguration, more than any other, there’s sense of a profound break with the past. The crowd who’ve descended on Washington, donning their red MAGA hats, Trump-adorned shirts and American-flag regalia, seem more like an army of sans-culottes — the working-class who played a significant role in the French Revolution.

They feel they’ve conquered, and they mean to take the nation’s capital back.

Whether that’s how it will play out isn’t clear, though. As Trump bragged at a campaign-style pre-inaugural rally on Sunday night, his electoral coalition has expanded. Railing against his adversaries, from Democrats to journalists and immigrants to never-Trump Republicans, he promised his cheering supporters: “Once and for all, we’re going to end the reign of a failed and corrupt political establishment in Washington, a failed administration.”

Other speakers at the raucous rally were even more belligerent, denouncing opponents who stood in Trump’s way. “They did everything they could to stop this movement, and they failed,″ Eric Trump, the president son, said.

“Accountability is coming,” said senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller. “The whole federal bureaucracy is about to learn that they don’t work for themselves; they work for you, they work for President Trump, and they work for the American people. We are about to get our country back and our democracy back.”

But a bigger coalition risks tensions and flare-ups. The MAGA crowd may like the spectacle of tech and Wall Street titans coming to them cap-in-hand, but who will co-opt who? Republicans have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, but the five-seat majority they have in the House of Representatives will make life difficult — and Trump strategists have already walked away from attempting what Trump dubbed “one big, beautiful bill” to enact a huge raft of reforms.

“At the moment Trump doesn’t have to choose between competing parts of his coalition,” Sean Spicer, a former Trump aide who served as press secretary for part of the president’s first term, told POLITICO. “There’s nothing making him have to pick … at the moment.”