The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Los Angeles Chargers 25-10 in a game where their offense struggled significantly.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a poor performance, throwing two interceptions and recording a season-low passer rating.
The Steelers’ offense was held to 221 total yards and converted only two of eleven third downs.

INGLEWOOD, CA — A direct Mike Tomlin accurately summarized the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 10 performance during his postgame press conference.

“We stunk it up tonight,” Tomlin said. “We’ll be back.”

The Steelers had a large contingent of fans as black and yellow filled SoFi Stadium. Yet, Steelers fans witnessed a Pittsburgh team that left its offense back in western Pennsylvania.

The Los Angeles Chargers (7-3) trounced the Steelers (5-4), 25-10, in a game that had Pittsburgh fans exiting the stadium midway through the fourth quarter.

Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers offense struggled mightily the entire contest. Rodgers had a few errant throws, he was intercepted twice — one came after a drop — and he was sacked three times. They had just three points and 85 total yards in the first half. The Steelers didn’t convert a third down until the fourth quarter. Pittsburgh had three turnovers, finished a pitiful 2-11 on third downs and were contained to 221 total yards in the loss.

“Our energy, and it starts with me, it wasn’t as great on offense. We were just kind of struggling a little bit,” Rodgers said. “We had so many three-and-outs. We hurt ourselves with a couple penalties and I didn’t play good at all. I have to play better.”

Props to Rodgers for conceding he didn’t play well — because he didn’t. He completed 16-of-31 passes for 161 yards, to go with a garbage time touchdown and two interceptions. It was Rodgers’ second worst passing yardage output of the year and his 50.6 passer rating was a season low.

Pittsburgh’s loss squandered all the momentum and good vibes from an upset victory over the Indianapolis Colts just a week ago.

“You’re not gonna win football games not converting on third down and losing the turnover battle,” Tomlin explained. “We were certainly loose with the ball in several instances and didn’t convert enough third downs, and so that’s the end result.”

What’s perhaps more concerning than the Steelers’ offensive no-show, is now the surging Baltimore Ravens (4-5) are only one game behind Pittsburgh in the loss column. The Steelers and Ravens meet in Week 14 and again in the regular-season finale in what’s shaping up to be a wide-open division. Even the current Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals (3-6) are still in the hunt for the AFC North title.

The Steelers came into Week 10 with the NFL’s 28th ranked offense, 30th ranked rushing attack and 21st in pass yards per contest. It’s a lethargic offense that doesn’t have a legitimate wide receiver threat outside DK Metcalf. An effective defensive plan for Metcalf and tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith — they combined for seven catches and 72 yards Sunday night — will pretty much neutralize the Steelers on offense, as the Chargers demonstrated.  

Pittsburgh has to figure out ways to be more versatile and explosive on offense in a hurry.

Though, it’s not time to panic in the Steel City. Aided by a 4-1 start, the Steelers are still first in the AFC North and have four division games remaining on the schedule.

“We have to bounce back. We have a division opponent next week, we’re 5-4 (and) we’re ahead by a game in the division,” Rodgers said. “We have to play better on offense for sure.”

The Steelers do control their own destiny. But Pittsburgh’s offensive woes and Sunday night’s performance opened the door wide open in the AFC North.

“Too much up and down and not enough Steelers football,” Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. “No excuse for it. We need to play better.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon on X @TheTylerDragon.

Only three weeks remain in college football’s regular season. But while that might not seem like much, in this sport three weeks can be an eternity.

The weather might feel cooler, but emotions are only heating up. So with a whole lot of matters yet to be determined on the field, there’s still room for overreaction even at this late stage of the campaign.

In our top five overreactions of Week 11, we’ll delve into a so-called Heisman moment in Happy Valley, an act of chicanery that still has folks buzzing, and the plight of a couple of entire conferences.

Fernando Mendoza just won the Heisman

Well, he almost certainly earned a trip to New York for the ceremony with that game-saving drive at Penn State, and he’d better give a shoutout to Omar Cooper Jr. in his acceptance speech if he does win the stiff-arm statue.

Let’s be clear on a couple of points, though. There shouldn’t be any such thing as a Heisman moment. Of course there are highlights and memorable plays central to any winning player’s season. But the award is supposed to be based on the candidate’s overall body of work during the year. With so many meaningful games to come, including the conference championship games that voters will also consider before submitting ballots, the trophy is not a done deal just yet.

Mendoza is undoubtedly at the head of the pack, and he’s delivered with the game on the line before. But it is also fair to point out that a couple of mistakes on his part contributed to his team needing that miraculous finish in order to stay undefeated. Hold those ballots until all the datapoints are in.

Southern California’s fake punt was the greatest trick play or heinous ethical violation

OK, in all honesty only the most die-hard Trojans’ fans are posing the first half of that dichotomy. But while our couching of the case against the trickery might be a bit over the top – this is Overreaction HQ, after all –, there was a rebuke from the Big Ten office.

To refresh everyone’s memory, USC lined up in punt formation on fourth-and-6 when its game with Northwestern was still tied at 7-7. But instead of the Trojans’ regular punter, a backup quarterback wearing the same number took the snap and completed a 10-yard pass for a first down. There are often multiple players with the same number on college rosters, but participants playing the same position cannot wear the same number during a game.

It can be argued that the letter of the rule was not violated since the pregame roster indicated both players as being assigned the number in question. But they shouldn’t have been allowed to do so, according to the Big Ten.

The ACC could miss the playoff

Strictly speaking, no conference champion is guaranteed a berth in the 12-team playoff. The format stipulates that the field will consist of the five highest-ranked conference champs with seven at-large teams. It was a bad weekend for the ACC’s highest-rated teams, but could the eventual winner really be just the sixth best qualifier and get left out altogether? It’s unlikely, but such a nightmare scenario is at least conceivable.

First and foremost, it’s worth remembering that no teams from outside the so-called power conferences appeared in the playoff committee’s initial top 25 last week, so it’s improbable representatives from two other leagues would overtake the ACC champ. Unless – a team with four losses already somehow wins the ACC, and yes, there is one that could do exactly that.

None of Duke’s three out-of-conference defeats are especially egregious, as Illinois, Tulane and Connecticut are all bowl-eligible. And, with just one league setback, the Blue Devils are still very much in the mix to play for the conference crown. Should they win it, and, say, Tulane – with a head-to-head victory over Duke remember – wins the American, and James Madison claims the Sun Belt title with a 12-1 overall mark?

There are a lot of ifs there, and it is worth pointing out that JMU’s lone loss came at the hands of Louisville, which might dissuade the committee from elevating the Dukes ahead of the ACC champ regardless. Furthermore, Hawaii might have removed another possible complication by beating San Diego State in the wee hours, leaving the Mountain West with no one-loss candidates. So there’s no need to panic at ACC headquarters yet, but these next three weeks are going to be a wild ride.

The Big 12 is still getting only one bid

Is the ACC’s loss the Big 12’s gain? Well, not necessarily. The committee clearly had a more favorable impression of the conference than it did at this time last season. But since Brigham Young wasn’t able to keep its game at Texas Tech competitive, the Cougars are likely to take a tumble in the next set of rankings. There might still be room for the Red Raiders and another conference member, but it might take some help.

Ironically, it might be an ACC member that provides that assistance. If Pittsburgh upends Notre Dame next week, handing the Fighting Irish a third loss in the process with one marquee wins to speak of, that might open up another at-large spot. Of course, there would be other candidates from the SEC and Big Ten trying to fill that potential opening as well, and, well, the Irish might not provide such an opening anyway. Which leads to the final consideration this week …

All Notre Dame has to do is get to 10-2 and it’s in

That’s probably the case given the initial rankings, though it would help if the past and future opponents of the Fighting Irish win some more games as well. Would a third loss be fatal? Perhaps not definitively so with other teams in the general vicinity also likely to take additional ‘L’s, but they’d be well advised not to tempt the fates.

The Pittsburgh game Saturday looms as the toughest assignment for Marcus Freeman’s team. Syracuse and Stanford to finish should be walkover, meaning we will know a lot more in this space next week.

There was a time not so long ago when they threatened to do just this. Their own playoff, their own world. 

And now it’s happening in the SEC. It’s just called the regular season. 

“None of that stuff matters,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said when asked about the College Football Playoff, and the Sooners’ potential spot in it. “All we’re really about is the next one.”

Because the only thing that matters now is the unofficial SEC playoff, the grand idea floated a few years ago by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and the presidents of the most powerful conference in college sports. You know, just in case non-stop bickering about — take your pick — the SEC, conference expansion, CFP playoff expansion and anything else blamed on the SEC became counterproductive to solutions the sport faced.

Or at least what the SEC thought were problems it faced. 

Well here we are, and that very threat of a playoff is playing out before our eyes, week after week, big game after big game, since the middle of October. 

Up next this weekend: No. 10 Texas at No. 5 Georgia, and No. 11 Oklahoma at No. 4 Alabama. And that’s just the beginning. 

Texas plays Georgia and Texas A&M before the month is complete, and Oklahoma plays Alabama, Missouri and LSU. And if you see Missouri and think you’ve got to be kidding, look closer.

The Tigers lost by three to Alabama and by seven to Vanderbilt, before finally submitting last weekend to Texas A&M while playing a third-string quarterback ― because the first two sustained season-ending injuries. 

And speaking of Vanderbilt, the Commodores aren’t out of this thing yet. Wins over Kentucky and Tennessee — which lost to Georgia by three and Oklahoma by six — brings a rare season to the brink of the unthinkable.

Every week is a new adventure, a reshuffling of the board and another path to the CFP for nine teams since the middle of October. 

Tennessee fell off the pace in late October with an ugly loss to Alabama. Missouri dropped out last weekend after stepping in front of the rolling wrecking ball that is Texas A&M.

Think about this: We’ve reached the third weekend of games in November, and the SEC still has seven teams battling for the CFP by playing its own win or walk tournament.     

The games are big, the television numbers are bigger. Imagine how much better the viewership would be if ESPN and YouTube stopped bickering over billions that each will, one way or the other, eventually get from the consumer. 

Just how intense have these games become? Georgia, the king of the SEC of late, has been in fourth quarter games much of the conference season. 

Beat Tennessee in overtime, lost to Alabama by three, beat Auburn (with the help of SEC officials) by a deceiving 10, came from behind to beat Ole Miss and Florida, and finally got a breather in a rout of Mississippi State. 

“It felt different,” said Georgia coach Kirby Smart, after the Dawgs weren’t sweating out a fourth quarter for the first time since a win over Kentucky on Oct 4. “I mean, I had to find something to bitch about.”

Say what you want about the audacity of the SEC to even consider its own playoff, but the argument made by Sankey and the SEC presidents in 2022 — an argument that many in the league still believe — is undeniable now. An all-SEC tournament is a bigger television draw, a bigger potential revenue generator, than any other postseason — with the exception of the current CFP. 

Which is what this exercise is all about, anyway. 

Texas A&M is 6-0 in the SEC for the first time in school history, and just finished off three straight road wins with back-to-back routs of LSU and Missouri. 

Texas climbed back into November with four straight wins, two in overtime and three one-possession games. 

Oklahoma has split four games since mid-October, and will finish a brutal five-game run this weekend at Tuscaloosa. It’s survive and advance for everyone. 

A playoff within the playoff, and one that could produce at least five selections to the CFP. One SEC team, more than likely, with three losses.

“For nine games, we’ve lived up to it,” said Texas A&M coach Mike Elko. “And we got to go finish.”

Their own playoff, their own world. 

Playing out whether they planned it or not.

When do the next College Football Playoff rankings come out?

7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 11 on ESPN.

Public service announcement: For fantasy football leagues that start their playoffs in Week 15, you have four weeks left.

That means four more weeks to set your team up to succeed when it matters most. What that looks like depends on your record.

If you’re sitting pretty at 9-1 or 8-2, you’re likely already in the playoffs. Don’t sit idle, though. You can still improve by targeting players with premium matchups in Weeks 15-17.

If you’re fighting for a playoff spot at 6-4, 5-5, or even 4-6, it’s time to focus on players with great short-term matchups to help you get there.

This Week 11 trade targets article highlights both types of players, along with a few buy-low and sell-high options.

Fantasy football players to buy in Week 11

RB Jaylen Warren, Pittsburgh Steelers

Warren is coming off three straight games with fewer than 70 rushing yards, which should lower his trade cost.

So why trade for him? Well, the Steelers have the second-best schedule for running backs from Weeks 11-14, with matchups against Cincinnati, Chicago, Buffalo and Baltimore.

RB Quinshon Judkins, Cleveland Browns

Judkins has been outstanding this season and will likely not be cheap, but if you need wins now, he is worth acquiring.

The Browns’ immediate schedule isn’t quite as favorable as Pittsburgh’s, but matchups against Baltimore, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Tennessee rank as the fourth-best over the next four weeks.

One additional benefit: if you make the playoffs, Judkins faces a neutral strength of schedule, while the Steelers have a negative matchup strength for running backs.

WRs A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles passing game has been inconsistent and frustrating, but here’s a fun fact: Smith is averaging the fifth-most points per game among wide receivers since Week 5, and Brown ranks 12th.

Many managers remember the inconsistencies, making this a prime time to pounce. Their schedule over the next three weeks ranks second-best, with Week 14 against the Chargers being the only tough matchup. The playoff schedule is also favorable, facing the Raiders, Commanders and Bills, which ranks eighth-best.

WR Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings

Week 10 was frustrating for Jefferson managers. He finished with four receptions for 47 yards despite seeing 12 targets. Some of those were difficult deep throws, and a few scoring opportunities went unconverted. More often than not, Jefferson makes those plays.

The Vikings have one of the better schedules for receivers for the rest of the season. Weeks 11-14 include matchups against the Bears, Packers, Seahawks and Commanders, ranking seventh-best. During the playoffs, they face the Cowboys, Giants and Lions, the second-best schedule.

If Jefferson is out of reach, Jordan Addison serves as a strong complementary option.

Fantasy football players to sell in Week 11

RB D’Andre Swift, Chicago Bears

Now is an ideal time to sell Swift. He returned from injury in Week 10 and saw his highest snap share since Week 4. He rushed 13 times for 80 yards and added five receptions for 18 yards, performing well enough to keep his value high.

Kyle Monangai, after a huge Week 9 performance, will likely remain involved enough to limit Swift’s upside. The schedule also works against him, ranking 26th toughest in Weeks 11-14 and 31st toughest in Weeks 15-17, making it the hardest remaining schedule in the league.

TE Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys

Ferguson’s main upside comes from the Cowboys’ struggling defense, which means the team will likely need to pass often to stay competitive. This translates into plenty of targets for Ferguson, making him appealing to managers.

However, over the next three weeks, Dallas has the toughest schedule for tight ends. Many waiver options are available in most leagues who can easily replace Ferguson’s production. The fantasy playoff schedule is neutral, but with the Chargers right in the middle, it’s a reason to avoid relying on him long term and to consider trading him now.

RB Breece Hall, New York Jets

Hall had a solid game in Week 10 against the Browns and now has two strong performances in a row, scoring three touchdowns — his only scores of the season. It is the perfect time to sell while you can.

The Jets offense is too unreliable to trust, with Justin Fields throwing for less than 100 yards in four of eight games. Hall’s production was a major reason Fields managed 54 passing yards on Sunday. He turned a screen pass into a 42-yard gain, accounting for the bulk of the passing offense.

The upcoming schedule does not make selling him any easier. Over the next four weeks, the Jets have the ninth-best schedule for running backs, but it starts with a tough matchup against the Patriots. After that, it could be difficult to move him for value.

There are a few reasons to be cautious. First, his big day came mostly from two long touchdown runs of 69 and 55 yards. It is great that he has that ability, but those plays are hard to count on consistently. Second, Terrell Jennings was injured in the second quarter, which temporarily increased Henderson’s workload. Third, once Rhamondre Stevenson returns, possibly in Week 11, the backfield split will likely return to a similar pattern as before.

RB TreyVeon Henderson, New England Patriots

This is the only suggestion that does not rely on the upcoming schedule.

Henderson had his breakout game this past week. Hopefully he was in your lineup because it could easily be his best performance of the season by a wide margin.

Everyone would love for coach Mike Vrabel to see this game and decide it is finally time to hand Henderson the keys, but that is unlikely to happen.

Several underdog teams, including the Jets and Saints, secured victories in Week 10 of the NFL season.
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor broke the franchise record for most rushing touchdowns and had a standout performance in Berlin.
The NFL world mourned the passing of former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland.

The 32 things we learned from Week 10 of the 2025 NFL season:

1. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” If you didn’t think you’d be learning (or getting a refresher on) Biblical quotes in this week’s installment, that one is from the fifth verse of Chapter 5 of the Gospel of Matthew. Worth wondering if several of the NFL’s meeker teams read it prior to Sunday’s action.

2. The number of consecutive games won by the New York Jets, who started the 2025 season with an 0-7 record that rendered them the final team to break into the win column.

3. The NYJ prevailed Sunday despite being without arguably their two best defensive players, CB Sauce Gardner and DT Quinnen Williams, who definitely are no longer their best defensive players after they were stunningly exported ahead of the league’s Nov. 4 trade deadline.

4. The number of sacks collected Sunday against the Cleveland Browns by Jets DE Will McDonald IV, who established a new career high, tied the franchise single-game record and staked a claim as Gang Green’s current preeminent defender.

5. RB Breece Hall, whom the Jets ultimately decided not to trade, scored the only offensive touchdown in his team’s 27-20 triumph, taking a screen pass 42 yards to the end zone. New York’s other touchdowns remarkably occurred via both a kickoff and punt return – the first time in franchise history that had happened in the same game.

6. The number of Jets players who caught a pass Sunday … none of them gaining more than 5 yards, save Hall. Yep, there’s a reason this roster is about to get overhauled yet again. But, hey, they beat Cleveland … and might have hurt themselves long term in the draft order, but that’s a 2026 problem.

7. The New Orleans Saints also won their second game of the season, stunning the Carolina Panthers 17-7 in Charlotte. Tyler Shough became the first Saints rookie quarterback credited with a win since Dave Wilson in 1981 − when Archie Manning was still the face of the franchise.

8. Who needs WR Rashid Shaheed, a player New Orleans moved ahead of the trade deadline? However they wisely kept WR Chris Olave (62-yard TD catch) and CB Alontae Taylor (INT), who both had key performances Sunday.

9. Seems like perhaps the Panthers, though they didn’t actually lose any ground in the NFC South despite the loss, should focus more on their offense and less on touchdown celebrations.

10. The Miami Dolphins snapped a seven-game losing streak to the perennial AFC East champion Buffalo Bills with a 30-13 upset in South Florida. Good for embattled Fins coach Mike McDaniel, who moved to 1-0 since the team moved on from apparently more embattled GM Chris Grier. The Dolphins are now 3-7.

11. Miami RB De’Von Achane eclipsed 200 yards from scrimmage for the second time in his career, putting 225 (and two TDs) on Buffalo’s porous run defense.

12. Who needs OLB Jaelan Phillips, a player Miami moved ahead of the trade deadline – though Grier was apparently reluctant to do just that?

13. The number of penalties the Minnesota Vikings had (for 102 yards) in their defeat, which also included three turnovers.

14. The Baltimore Ravens, who prevailed in the Twin Cities for their third consecutive win, were only too glad to capitalize on those mistakes as they continue to capitalize with far healthier roster at their disposal.

15. Like the Ravens, the two-time-defending AFC South Houston Texans improved to 4-5 and served a fresh reminder that they’re still in the thick of the playoff race. Houston scored 26 points in the fourth quarter to stun the Jacksonville Jaguars 36-29.

16. Unlike the Texans, the Jags, who have now lost three of four, made a big pre-deadline acquisition … but got all of 41 receiving yards (still a team high Sunday) out of WR Jakobi Meyers.

17. Are the Seattle Seahawks the best team in the league? Pretty impressive when you can win by 22 points on a day when QB Sam Darnold’s MVP credentials take a hit with a season-high three turnovers and season-low 12 pass attempts.

18. The normally explosive Shaheed had just one catch for 3 yards in his Seattle debut, though he did gain 20 yards on two rush attempts and handled three kickoffs.

19. We should know more about the Seahawks a week from now, when they visit the Los Angeles Rams – with whom they’re tied atop the NFC West with matching 7-2 records.

20. However Rams QB Matthew Stafford is pretty clearly ahead of Darnold and the rest of the MVP field after another sterling performance, which included four TD passes, Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.

21. Sunday, Stafford became the first player in league history with at least four TD passes but no interceptions in three consecutive games.

22.Indianapolis Colts RB Jonathan Taylor also kept his name squarely in the MVP debate – which is effectively a quarterback award – with another huge game Sunday in the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Berlin. (And it didn’t hurt that Colts QB Daniel Jones turned the ball over two more times.) Taylor rushed for 244 yards yards and three TDs – one an 83-yarder that was the league’s longest of the season, another the game-clincher in overtime.

23. Taylor overtook Hall of Famer Edgerrin James for the most rushing TDs (66) in franchise history. He also became the fourth player in NFL annals with at least three TDs in five games during a single season – all-time greats LaDainian Tomlinson, Marshall Faulk and Chuck Foreman being the others.

24. And yet Taylor has a dogfight on his hands to be the Offenisve Player of the Year with Seattle WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who has a shot to be the league’s first 2,000-yard receiver. He now has a league-high 1,041 through nine games.

25. As for new Colts CB Sauce Gardner? Really good player. But probably not worth two first-round picks and probably not the missing piece in what Indy hopes is a Super Bowl recipe.

26. The New England Patriots beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28-23, prevailing in the (Tom) “Brady Bowl.”

27. The Pats, who already beat the struggling Bills earlier this season, also opened up a 1½-game lead in the AFC East while keeping pace with the Colts and Denver Broncos atop the conference standings.

28. If the season ended today (it doesn’t), the Colts and Seahawks would be the No. 1 playoff seeds. However the Philadelphia Eagles will overtake Seattle by winning Monday night in Green Bay.

29. In his Soldier Field debut for the Bears, DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson had the first multi-sack game of his seven-year NFL career. The second one forced the New York Giants to punt and gave Chicago possession on what would be its game-winning touchdown drive in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

30.President Trump, who apparently wants the Washington Commanders’ new stadium named after him, appeared in the FOX broadcast booth at Northwest Stadium on Sunday with Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma. “I’d love to have your job someday,” said Trump. (How about now?)

31. RIP to Marshawn Kneeland and condolences to his family and Dallas Cowboys teammates after the 24-year-old defensive end apparently died by suicide.

31a. But a salute to Colts OT Braden Smith, who’s had his own mental health struggles but is now trying to affect change with the way the league deals with mental health. His agent detailed some of Smith’s laudable ideas to Pro Football Talk.

32. Finally, RIP to former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. The Hall of Famer’s 17 years running the league were hardly perfect, yet he also pushed it to new heights in terms of its earning power and footprint in the country’s sporting landscape. “Tags” died Sunday at the age of 84.

The protracted chorus of boos, the middle fingers — this could be your future, too, Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris.

Harris got a glimpse of the albatross he’ll saddle himself, and his team, with if he gives in to President Donald Trump’s latest vanity ploy. Name the new Commanders stadium after Trump, as he reportedly wants, and Harris can kiss goodbye all the goodwill he’s generated since buying the team.

A president who unleashes goon squads on U.S. citizens, who gives foreign governments money while asking the Supreme Court to allow him to keep withholding food from the poor and elderly, who takes a wrecking ball to the White House and the Constitution is a leader whose name should be consigned to the dust bin of history, not plastered across a stadium.

“We’re doing great,” Trump said in an interview with FOX during the third quarter of the Commanders’ loss to the Detroit Lions.

“People have spirit,” he added. “Our stock market hit an all-time high. Prices are coming down — we inherited a mess — prices are coming way down. And I’ll tell you, our country has over 17 trillion being invested in it, which is a record. So we’re doing great.”

The stock market aside, nothing Trump said is true. Many, many people in this country are hurting and they’re angry, and Harris should not be naïve enough to think he and his team will be spared their wrath should he pay Trump fealty he does not deserve. Put Trump’s name on the new stadium, and the Commanders will return to the pariah status they had under previous owner Dan Snyder.

It would cost Harris a boatload of money, too, given a naming-rights deal for a new stadium in Washington, D.C., would fetch at least nine figures.

Commanders once a pariah

The Commanders were once one of the NFL’s marquee teams. But they became a national embarrassment under Snyder, who clung to a racist nickname, sexually harassed an employee and fostered a toxic, misogynistic workplace.

Sponsors fled, the Commanders might as well have been on a milk carton for as little as they were on national TV, and Snyder couldn’t get lawmakers in the District of Columbia, Virginia OR Maryland to work with him on a stadium deal.

Under Harris, Washington’s fortunes have been reversed. Literally and figuratively. Not only did the Commanders make the postseason last year for only the second time since 2015, they got their first playoff win since the 2005 season.

Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels had the top-selling jersey in all of sports in January and finished with the fourth-highest selling jersey in the NFL last season. The Commanders are on national TV eight times this year, a sharp increase from the two appearances that were common in recent seasons. In August, Forbes valued the franchise at $7.6 billion, $1.5 billion more than Harris paid for the team in 2023.

And in December, Congress passed a bill that gave Harris and the Commanders the land around RFK Stadium so they can finally build a new stadium. Then-President Joe Biden, not Trump, signed the deal into law in January.

Trump’s hold weakening

To jeopardize all that progress to placate a deeply unpopular president would be both foolish and self-destructive. If the Democratic landslides in Tuesday’s elections — besides their wins in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia, Democrats flipped offices in Georgia and Mississippi. Mississippi! — isn’t enough of a cautionary tale for the Commanders owner, Trump’s reception Sunday should make Harris steer a wide berth.

The sight of Trump on the Jumbotron drew jeers. When he was given the spotlight to swear in new military members, the chorus of boos was deafening. Rather than saluting our fearless leader, fans gave him the bird.

Put Trump’s name on the new Commanders stadium, and Harris can look forward to a similar future for his team. What should be a shining symbol of the Commanders’ renaissance will be considered junk real estate. A team that’s been one of the NFL’s feel-good stories will again be considered morally bankrupt.

If Harris capitulates, he won’t just be giving away a stadium name. He’ll be selling out his team, its reputation and its integrity. And it will be a blight from which the Commanders will never recover.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.