ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders are putting in the work and getting ready for their first preseason game, but before that, a special guest arrived at their training camp to cheer them on.
On Wednesday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore showed wearing a Commanders Chase Young jersey, who is a native Marylander, at the last training camp open to the public before their game against the Cleveland Browns. The teams will go head to head on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Though this will be the first game for the Commanders season, this will not be the Browns' first. The matchup comes on the heels of the Browns winning 21-16 against the New York Jets on Thursday.
Commanders players are receiving a boost of confidence before they kickoff their first game as the Maryland governor arrived Wednesday morning - brightly smiling and shaking hands with those in attendance hoping to catch a closeup look at the football stars.
Gov. Moore's appearance comes as the battle for a new stadium deal may be driving into the red zone. On the first day of open practice, which is held in Ashburn, Virginia, the state's governor Glenn Youngkin was on hand to meet with fans. He also stated that he was excited about the new ownership and era, but that's not all.
Gov. Youngkin also made his pitch for the future of the team to be placed in the same state as the training camp -- Virginia.
"I've said many times, Virginia should be the best place to live, work, raise a family, and it should be the best place to have a professional football team," the governor said.
But Gov. Moore showed up not afraid of a little competition as he continues to sternly stick to his belief that the new stadium should be built in the state the current one is in right now -- Maryland.
"I tell you when you are watching the energy that's happening right here around this team and you are watching the energy we are seeing around the state of Maryland -- it's a perfect marriage," Gov. Moore said. "The Commanders are an incredibly important and vital part of not just our economy, but part of our culture. And so we know this is going to be a championship team going forward and it's exciting about the new vision that the new ownership has that's coming onboard and I think it really does correlate and correspond well with how we are thinking about things in the state of Maryland."
He also told WUSA9's Sharla McBride that he has had several conversations with the new ownership group. He is very optimistic that they can get a new deal done in the state of Maryland.