Teaching the Band to Play

It was twenty years ago today. Sergeant Pepper taught the band play. 

Musing about supergroups and football. 

When you draft guys and bring them together for the first time it is a bit like supergrouping. You pick guys you think would be good together. Do some riffs. See what people can do in OTAs. Figure out what signature sounds the band will have. Then after OTAs and mini-camps, start writing some music scheming up the 2024 playbook.

Put the finishing touches on the concert material right after training camp. Hopefully go on a whirlwind tour during the season.

So when you try to evaluate the Washington Commanders it is to say the least a bit premature to make judgments. I don't think it is ever appropriate to judge guys. You put an artificial ceiling over their heads. That goes for everybody not just the young guys with their fluid brains and their virtual reality tutors. Even a veteran can surprise. And surprising football teams are a joy to behold.

Remember the Sgt. Pepper film where they put the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton together. Featuring the one and only Billy Shears, the central figure in the Paul is Dead alternate reality/conspiracy theory which was really the Beatles doing a Stanley Kubrick to create buzz. 

It was okay. But it wasn't the real Billy Shears was it? Billy was a Beatles creation, their attempt at Paperback Writing. The Beatles were creative geniuses. Never underestimate the extent of their playfullness.

I guess the equivalent of creating a phony narrative to sell records in football would be selling the defense on misdirection plays. Phony screens. Phony jets. Phony horror stories about bad practices. 

The worst supergroup I can think of would be the 2000 Washington Redskins, the 1999 Redskin version of Billy Shears. Snyder thought that was a supergroup. They sounded horrible.

I think the NFL banned phony injuries which must be the least enforceable rule they have because phony injuries are the go-to gimmick play at the end of games. Nobody throws a flag. 

Nobody threw a flag on Paul McCartney's phony injury. He's made millions and he's a Knight of the Realm.

Hopefully, Kingsbury and Whitt, like Lennon and McCartney, have a few good tunes up their sleeves getting this Commander Band ready to be a smash hit in 2024.

For now, the Coaches are teaching the band to play. It is mostly experimental music right now. But there is a glut of Commander Commentary. A ton of new people jawboning about Washington. 

I recommend the people on the sidebar for your edification and enjoyment.