Jayden Daniels, a star is born, by Francesc Peirón

This Sunday in Washington, converted into the capital of the Trump empire and under the threat of a wave of arctic cold, it was a horrible day. Ugly as you might say. Windy, between rainy and an attempt at snowfall. Gray, very gray except for that walking red stain that the followers of the next president of the United States wear so much in their wardrobe, the vast majority arriving from other cities and corners of the country. For the residents of the capital, with a predominantly liberal tendency, if the presence of so many colonizers was added to the weather issue, the day looked even more miserable. Except for the fans of the American football team, the Washington Commanders, who, without eating or drinking it, are at the top. This team, known for a time as the “no name”, in that transition period when renouncing its historical nickname of Redskins ( redskins ), condemned in culture woke up according to Trump, when considered an insult to Native Americans, until consolidating as Commanders, which sounds more like law and order.

They had been one of the worst teams in the league, the NFL, for decades. So bad that that gave them the option of choosing first in the draft and they took a pearl, quarterback Jayden Daniels. They placed a lot of hope in this promise, but what no one expected was that he would develop such playing capacity that the team breaks the mold. In the conference semifinal, the Commanders played this Saturday against the Detroit Lions, the best in that conference (NFC). You had to rub your eyes, even pinch yourself, to certify that, really, two of the worst teams in recent history were facing each other in such a decisive match. Whoever won was just one game away from reaching the Super Bowl, the championship final that will be played on February 9. All the wise men and bettors in Las Vegas considered the Lions the winners, who in the total league count had been the best along with the Kansas City Chiefs in the other division (AFC). Their season had been brilliant and almost everyone was seeing a Super Bowl between the Chiefs and the Lions. Well, maybe not. Daniels’ mastery was shown everywhere, he passed the ball as well as ran with it, breaking down the Detroit defense.

As Barry Svrluga wrote in The Washington Post “there is no silence quieter than that of a stadium when the home team is the favorite and is defeated.” What was going to be a carnival mutated into a university library in the last week of exams.

Daniels is already the prodigy everyone wants to see, the Lamine Yamal of American football.