In the studio, he muttered “Commanders” over and over, hoping to find a punchy, catchy phrase to complete the hook. But nothing seemed quite right. Eventually, for reasons that still mystify him, he blurted out: “Left hand up! Who are we? The Commanders!”
Later, at home in Capitol Heights, he played the demo for his wife, Chaquita. She asked why he had said “left hand up.” After all, most people are right-handed.
“I don’t know,” Woody said, for the first of many times.
Early on, Woody and his nephew, Wayne Sellers, a 25-year-old security guard who sings in the third verse, promoted the song on their personal social media profiles. Slowly, it gained a wider audience, and it was mostly mocked. But throughout the fall, the sentiment shifted. Clips from the music video they made went viral. Talk-show hosts praised the tune for audiences in the hundreds of thousands. The Wizards’ DJ spun it at Capital One Arena. A company created “Left Hand Up” T-shirts for $28 each. Quarterback Taylor Heinicke put his left hand up during an interview. Before a game this month, the Sellerses tailgated at FedEx Field, and many of the fans streaming by had visceral reactions to the song, shooting their left hands into the air or racing over to take selfies.
The reception has stunned the Sellerses. Normally, Woody’s posts on YouTube get about 100 views. The video for “Commanders Song” recently crossed 107,000.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Woody said. “Where we at right now, I had no idea. … This is, like, so amazing. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
During the meteoric rise, the Sellerses said, their dream was for the team they have loved their whole lives to play their song at FedEx Field. Recently, the Commanders invited them to perform it at their next home game, Nov. 27 against Atlanta.
The Sellerses will be there. Wayne plans to take the day off from his seasonal job as a concourse security guard at FedEx Field.
‘We done crossed over’
The Sellerses represent a significant portion of the Commanders’ fan base that has survived the past 20 years: the Black community in the area. Their track taps into the nostalgia that has sustained many fans, but it’s more than a requiem. It provides intergenerational connective tissue for a franchise that has told fans again and again that, despite its new name, it’s not an expansion team.
The anthem never mentions embattled team owner Daniel Snyder, and its sole agenda is, as Woody sings, to “tell you something about some good fans.” The result is the first popular piece of grass-roots Commanders culture.
The rappers bridge the rich heritage and complicated present with symbolic verses. Woody raps with an end-rhyme, crowd-engaging style popular in the glory days he references of the Hogs, John Riggins, Doug Williams and Joe Gibbs. Wayne is all modern, breathy autotune, and though he name-checks the great hopes of his childhood, Santana Moss and Albert Haynesworth, the longing for success in his time is palpable in the lines: “You know what I want: Super Bowl on my mind. We got three rings, but I think we need nine.”
“I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Yeah, that’s what I wanted it to do,’ ” Woody said, laughing. “It’s just because that’s my time, that’s my era. I can remember the Super Bowl where [Williams threw for four touchdowns].” He trailed off, lost in the memory of watching the game with his…
Read More: ‘Commanders Song’ is a viral anthem for a newly optimistic fan base
