Barrel Oak Winery and Brewery in Delaplane is launching a Washington Commanders-themed beer “to celebrate a new era of football in the DMV area.”

The “Hail to the Harris” Hazy New England India Pale Ale – a nod to new Commanders owner Josh Harris – will be featured Sunday, week 1 of the NFL season. The Commanders host the Arizona Cardinals at 1 p.m., and the brewery is having a watch party from noon to 4 p.m.

“The Washington Commanders have come under new ownership, and we want to celebrate with you! Josh Harris marks the start of a new era for the team, and we could not be more excited,” Barrel Oak states on its website.

Harris, a D.C.-area native, took over ownership from much-maligned owner Dan Snyder earlier this summer. News of the sale  around the region.

In April, before the transaction was official, Old Ox Brewery in Loudoun County  India Pale Ale.

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“It’s what it’s all about, being able to be a blessing and give back to your community in some way, shape or facet and just see their smiles,” Brissett told Â鶹ąŮÍř.

The event was the kickoff of the “Start the Cycle” bike ride in his new city. The aim is to connect youth with local police officers who patrol their neighborhoods.

“Where I’m from, when you see a police officer, it’s for something bad. So just trying to shine a light and bring them in, in a good way,” Brissett said.

Brissett said he wants to get the kids “out so that they can see the police and so that a lot of police will see a lot of familiar faces.”

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Brissett began the rides in his hometown of Riviera Beach, Florida. Then, he brought the event to Indianapolis, Indiana, when he played for the Colts.

“The start of the NFL season is just around the corner, and we’re honored to host our hometown QB, Jacoby Brissett, for a great event that unites our young residents with local law enforcement, in the spirit of fun and football,” said Thennie Freeman, the acting director of D.C.’s Department of Parks and Recreation, in a statement.

Brissett and D.C. police officers led the kids on a five-mile bike ride across the Frederick Douglass Bridge to the Anacostia Recreation Center and back.

Shawn Townsend rode the five miles with his son.

“It’s a great way to meet folks in the community. And obviously, as a Commander, we want to get to know (Brissett). So it’s just a great way to bring the community together,” he told Â鶹ąŮÍř.

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Pro football teams all have official beer sponsors, but the Washington Commanders team now also has an official cognac and Champagne — and a rapper to thank for it.

The Commanders have signed a multiyear partnership with Sire Spirits, owned by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Sire Spirits’ Branson cognac is now the official cognac of the Commanders. Le Chemin Du Roi, also a Sire Spirits product, is the official Champagne of the team.

Jackson’s nonprofit foundation, , will also work with the Washington Commanders Charitable Foundation to support community programs across the D.C. area.

Starting this season, a club-level lounge will be named the Branson Lounge & Gallery, and a second club-level bar on the 50-yard line will be called 50 Yard Branson Bar.

“The change in ownership of the Commanders represents an exciting opportunity for this team, and we are proud to partner with owners that share our vision and dedication to give back to the community,” Jackson said. “I am very much looking forward to embracing the DMV community, attending games as soon as I complete my Final Lap international tour, and bringing my award-winning cognac and Champagne to fans throughout the region.”

Jackson’s brand has multiyear partnerships with several professional sports teams, including the Houston Rockets, Houston Texans, Houston Astros, Indiana Pacers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings.

Jackson is a Houston resident, in 2021.

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Kirby Smith was also sentenced in the Eastern District of Virginia to two years of supervised release, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s inspector general’s office.

Smith must pay over $174,000 in restitution to WMATA.

The scheme involved several people — including Kirby, another former WMATA employee and Brian Carpenter, who played cornerback for the Washington Football Team in the 1980s.

Carpenter, who also pleaded guilty to his role as the essential ringleader, concocted a plan to charge Metro credit cards for cleaning products that were never delivered.

At the time, Carpenter was running a janitorial cleaning-supply business called the Flintstone Group in Leesburg.

According to court documents, Kirby said he was looking to “make some money on the side” during a summer 2013 meeting, at which Carpenter was also present.

Kirby received $10,000 for his role but was directly involved in the theft of almost $175,000 in the scheme, which ran between 2013 and 2015.

Overall, Carpenter’s fraudulent operation led to more than $300,000 lifted from Metro.

Carpenter himself pleaded guilty over the summer to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing in December.

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Though their lease runs until 2027, the organization has been negotiating with local governments about a new site in recent years, and Maryland said this week that discussions about using land the state wants to acquire in Oxon Cove are finished.

That seems to leave D.C. as the only government willing to roll out the red carpet for the team, and that still hasn’t changed.

“The best site in the region for the team is right there at the RFK campus,” said John Falcicchio, chief of staff for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

“There’s no one in the city who thinks we should just leave that land as 190 acres of undeveloped asphalt parking lot. Really, the biggest question is what we do with it. The first step, though, is getting the land,” Falcicchio said.

Serious negotiations with the team can’t, and won’t, begin until that’s settled, he added.

Right now, the land is marked for sports and recreation under the terms of the existing lease with the federal government. The city would like to receive the land outright and, barring that, extend the lease and expand the options for the site with a vision of mixed-use development happening there, too.

“We can have a mixed-use development there that would be vibrant,” Falcicchio said, “and allow us to build housing, create jobs with office, retail and even a hotel.”

Ward 6 Councilman Charles Allen said the District should be in charged of that land. RFK sits in Ward 6, and residents want to see the fields of asphalt replaced by something more useful and more aesthetically pleasing.

But, countering, Allen said, “The RFK site continues to be a very wrong choice for an NFL stadium.”

“There’s so much more we can do with that space, where we could add new housing, new jobs, new commercial activity. We can have parks and green spaces that connect our city to the river,” he added. “There’s so much of a different, and frankly better, vision than using it for a massive NFL stadium that’s going to get used a handful of days a year.”

The Bowser administration repeatedly said that everything starts with knowing the future of the land. “Everything else is secondary to that first conversation,” Falcicchio said. “All that will help dictate what uses can go at the stadium.”

But, Falcicchio added that if the team does relocate to the city, “the most important thing for us is for the team to understand that they would be paying for the stadium. The District will have to make improvements to that site, but the stadium itself will have to be paid for by the team, and that’s something we won’t budge on.”

Allen said even that’s too much for him and those who live in the neighborhood.

“I think that’s the wrong site,” Allen said, adding that he didn’t see what was wrong with the team’s current site. An NFL stadium wouldn’t work at RFK, he said, and that he’d fight every effort to put it there.

“We know the myth they’re trying to sell everybody is that their lease is going to end and they can’t play there past 2027,” Allen said. “That’s now been blown up, and everyone knows they can stay there actually. They could rebuild a stadium at that site. Perhaps a large, suburban space is the right idea for a stadium that’s only used a couple of times a year.”

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Manusky, 50, replaces Joe Barry, who was let go after just two seasons for Washington.

The Dallas, Pennsylvania, native has been a defensive coordinator for seven seasons: in 2007 with San Francisco, in 2011 with San Diego and with Indianapolis in 2012. Manusky also played 12 seasons in the NFL — and was a Redskin from 1988 to 1990.

Washington will have pick number 17 in the upcoming NFL Draft. Their primary needs will be on the defensive line and at the safety and linebacker positions.

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Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe visited the White House Thursday, a day after he met with congressional leaders including Speaker Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — and came away with some seemingly unlikely allies.

“We were overjoyed with the congressional leadership yesterday. It was a love fest,” McAuliffe said, singling out praise for Ryan, a Republican.

He said he was happy that under Ryan’s leadership that Congress was able to provide transportation funding and address sequestration.

McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chair and close friend to Bill and Hillary Clinton, spoke Thursday at the National Press Club where he and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert gave the annual State of the States address as the vice chair and chair of the National Governors Association.

Federal spending has allowed Virginia to move forward on transportation projects and get out from under sequestration cuts that hit the state’s military installations, McAuliffe said.

“We were vulnerable. Now Congress has acted. (Sequestration’s) pushed off for two years. Transportation is funded for five years,” McAuliffe said. “You can’t decide to build a road if you don’t know you’re going to have permanent, sustainable financing.”

But the bipartisan success stories do not extend to the Virginia Capitol, as McAuliffe continues his push to discuss the expansion of Medicaid, something Republican state lawmakers have consistently opposed because of long-term cost concerns.

“You have to get together in a room. You have to negotiate,” McAuliffe said. “I can’t negotiate myself if I’m the only one sitting at the table.”

With reports out that the , the governor also weighed in afterward on the possibility that a new stadium could land in Virginia. Although he’s made overtures to the team in the past, he believes no location has been selected and long negotiations are ahead for whichever area wishes to make a pitch.

“I think the Redskins are looking at where they want to do it. I think that could go anywhere honestly,” he said.

McAuliffe was more confident about the team’s short-term future: “The Redskins are going to beat Green Bay.”

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The full Federal Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling in a separate case filed by Simon Tam, a man who has been trying for years to get his band name, “The Slants,” trademarked.

He says the band of Asian-Americans aims to take back Asian stereotypes.

While the Federal Circuit agrees with the Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board that the name is disparaging, that the legal provision allowing the government to reject trademarks that are disparaging to a substantial composite of the group referenced violates the First Amendment.

The court finds that the restriction is an impermissible government influence on freedom of speech. While the court says Tam would be free to use the name even without the federal trademark protection, he is less likely to use it.

This reverses a 1981 decision by the Federal Circuit that found that rejecting a trademark did not block any freedom of expression. That decision was cited by the judge who, earlier this year, upheld the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s rejection of the Redskins’ trademark.

The Washington football team’s appeal is proceeding in a different appeals court, so that court would not necessarily be bound by the federal circuit’s decision.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond is expected to hear that case next year. If the Fourth Circuit finds that the provision is constitutional, the differing opinions between the two appeals courts would increase the likelihood that the Supreme Court would hear one or both of the cases.

Tam’s case now returns to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which will have to approve the trademark if there are no other provisions that bar it from being registered.

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Members of the Redskins’ defensive line showed up to throw out several  ‘first’ pitches before the game with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The D-Line threw out all 7 of today’s first pitches:

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals)

It may be an unusual sight, but it’s not the first time Redskins players have publicly gotten behind the Nats.

Last week, the defensive line showed up to Landover wearing customized red Nationals jerseys with their respective numbers — and nicknames — on the back.

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September is a confluence of sporting seasons — the Capitals begin preseason play Monday while the Mystics are still alive in the WNBA Playoffs. The Nationals have 13 games remaining in their regular season and the Redskins have just begun their campaign.

So if you did a double take when you saw Nats uniforms at Fed Ex Field — it’s more than warranted.

On Sunday, the Redskins defensive line showed up to Landover wearing customized red Nationals jerseys with their respective numbers on the back … along with nicknames.

Terrance Knighton’s naturally read “Pot Roast” while Chris Baker’s read “Swaggy.” Jason Hatcher’s back sported the nickname “Hatch,” while Kedric Golston’s read “Big Ked.” Stephen Paea is “Bravo” because he allegedly has similar hair to the Cartoon Network’s “Johnny Bravo.”

A little from the defensive line in the locker room post . Two W’s for D.C. today.

— Washington Redskins (@Redskins)

After sporting a curly W on their shirt, the line helped the on the field by holding the Rams to 2 for 12 on third down.

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