You think you saw what happened after Jayden Daniels dislocated his elbow last Sunday, and it was troubling. The Washington Commanders quarterback was on the turf, writhing in pain, and his teammates seemed to simply ignore him.
Most simply walked off the field.
And it seemed to send the message that they didn't care.
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The Commanders have gotten crushed on social media for the video of players walking away – because it was jarring compared to New York Giants or Green Bay Packers players huddling around teammates when they went down.
It suggested Daniels isn't beloved or even respected by teammates.
"I'm glad you brought that up because it's just the opposite in fact," coach Dan Quinn said Wednesday. "These guys were absolutely gutted."
Quinn said the timing of the injury happening on the final play of the first half and signaling the start of halftime played a major role in the walk-off.
"When the half was over, the referees even came and said they can't delay the half and we can't stay on the field," Quinn said. "And they were like, ‘No, I'm staying.’ So it's just the opposite in fact.
"They were gutted, they love this guy, and so halftime was hard. It was emotional in that space."
The perception of the Washington walk-off may have come from television. The live broadcast went to a commercial at halftime.
And ESPN's highlights showed Daniels collapsing to the ground as players walked by him, then cut to him leaving on the cart.
But all that missed what happened in the stadium. Multiple players, led by backup quarterback Marcus Mariota, indeed came onto the field as trainers attended to Daniels and eventually called for the cart to take him away.
Some of them even returned from the locker room to do it.
"It’s bull—- what people are saying," left tackle Brandon Coleman told reporters. "Jay’s our guy and he’s been our guy. There’s no malice behind it."
The narrative that the Commanders abandoned their quarterback is actually an excellent study on how social media wields the power to shape opinion, that opinion reaches legacy media, and then can reach into an NFL team's facility.
Even when the narrative is basically fake news.
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"We all care for our quarterback," offensive lineman Josh Conerly said. "You can’t go off a simple 10-second clip."
Mariota takes over for Daniels at quarterback now while the starter and the team continue to figure out what to do about his injury, with options including season-ending surgery.
There's nothing positive about the situation for the team.
But Quinn made it clear ahead of time that Mariota is respected and he is confident in the new quarterback.
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"I think the nice part with Marcus, man, he does have a real command on things that we need," Quinn said. "There's a specific way, like in each game, that you have to go about it and what it takes to win. We hit that with the team today.
"But with Marcus, he's one that's really in control, has good vision of it, what it is, where to go. You can hear that type of communication with him. So I think, number one, him running the system gives everybody a calmness about them knowing that he’ll take care of it."
