The strange way Washington commanders might predict the election

A strange coincidence that began with the 1940 election suggests that the Washington Commanders’ thrilling last-minute home win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday portends a victory for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump on November 5th.

The Washington Redskins – now known as the “Commanders” – moved from Boston to Washington, DC in 1937. Just before the 2000 presidential election, a sports data company noticed a funny coincidence that soon became known as “The Redskins Rule.” “

When the Washington team won its last home game, it seemed as if the incumbent party would keep the White House, and if the team lost, the opposing party would come back to power.

That rule remained in effect between 1940 and 2000 and appeared to fall apart in 2004 after President George W. Bush won re-election after a crushing 28-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers, although Barack Obama won the 2008 election after a defeat in Washington. seems to reinforce the rule.

Steve Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau suggested that the rule may have been merged into a new set of rules, “Redskins Rule 2.0,” based on tracking the popular vote.

“Redskins Rule 2.0 specifies that if the winner of the popular vote does not win the election, the impact of the Redskins game on the subsequent presidential election will be reversed,” Hirdt said during a 2012 ESPN interview.

Under this interpretation, all presidential elections since 1940 would be consistent, with the exception of the 2012 and 2016 elections.

Under that interpretation, a Commander victory on Sunday would mean Harris, the Democratic nominee, will win the election because President Joe Biden won the popular vote and won the election.

The Bears had a two-point lead over the Commanders with 23 seconds on the clock, which led to a last-minute Hail Mary pass that appeared to be deflected by a group of players and landed safely in the hands of a single Commanders player in the end zone .

In late July, Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Harris as his successor.

Democrats who believe in this funny rule were optimistic that the Commanders would continue their strong start to the season after it was announced that rookie phenom quarterback Jayden Daniels would start after it initially looked like he would be starting at 40 last week The Carolina Panthers had to miss the :7 duel due to injury.

The Commanders had an outstanding start to the season with a 5-2 record and high-scoring performances against the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals. Only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baltimore Ravens marred the otherwise good start.

Daniels, whom the Commanders drafted with the second pick of the 2024 draft, also set a record by becoming the first player in National Football League (NFL) history to reach 1,000 passing yards and 250 rushing yards in his first five games.

The Bears also got off to a rosy start with a series of hard-fought victories. Four of Chicago’s first six games ended with a score, but Chicago came out on top against the Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars, scoring over 35 points in each game.

The Bears took quarterback Caleb Williams with the first pick of the 2024 draft, making this potentially fateful matchup a duel between two strong rookies.

Update, 10/27/24 at 7:50 PM ET: The story has been updated to include the result of the Commander game and what it means according to this trend.