EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Antonio Hamilton Sr. had a feeling this might happen. Or maybe he hoped he could manifest it. His wife, Tiara, graduated cum laude from his alma mater, South Carolina State, on Thursday with a degree in family and consumer sciences, an accomplishment she started years prior and set out to finish amid multiple moves and the arrival of children.
Hamilton attended her commencement ceremony in Orangeburg, S.C., then hopped on a late flight back to the D.C. area to rejoin the Washington Commanders. Then he watched his Bulldogs earn a four-overtime win over Prairie View A&M in the Celebration Bowl, effectively the national championship for historically Black colleges and universities.
And then Sunday happened.
“I had a sense he’d be ready,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. “… We started with him on the practice squad, but there were plays on special teams … that I pointed out in the team meetings like, ‘This guy wants to be here.’ … He was somebody (who) might be playing ‘R5’ (the fifth player in alignment on kicks) last week, but if we asked him to play outside at corner, he’d take care of that too.”
That, he did.
Hamilton, 32, was tabbed to start his first NFL game in two years because of a rib injury to cornerback Jonathan Jones. A 10-year undrafted veteran whose career has been mostly prove-it opportunities on one-year deals, Hamilton proved plenty with two plays in coverage that all but saved Washington’s 29-21 win over the New York Giants on Sunday.
With 20 seconds left in the third quarter and Washington leading 22-14, Hamilton punched the ball out of receiver Darius Slayton’s grasp in the end zone on a deep pass from quarterback Jaxson Dart. The Giants failed to convert on the ensuing third down and missed a 51-yard field goal attempt to preserve Washington’s 8-point lead.
Then in the fourth quarter, after Washington squandered its healthy lead with two fumbles in a four-minute stretch, Hamilton again deflected a pass intended for Slayton, on a third-and-long with less than two minutes remaining.
Slayton ran an over-return route, when a receiver sells a deep crossing route, but stops and either settles in the middle of the field or returns toward the sideline. Slayton turned back out but stopped short of the sideline, giving Hamilton just enough time to jump in front and knock the ball out of Slayton’s reach.
“The quarterback honestly didn’t throw a good enough ball,” Hamilton said of Dart. “I had been challenging all night on the backside; they had been throwing the ball at me and I was like, ‘Thank you.’ Because only two things happen when you’re getting a lot of targets: You either get exposed or you get exposure. Tonight was more exposure.”
Hamilton joined the Commanders during training camp and signed to their active roster in October, serving as depth on defense and added help on special teams. But Washington’s roster has been ravaged by injuries, costing the team starters at nearly every position.
So when cornerback Jones went down with a rib injury (his second injury this season) after the team earlier lost Marshon Lattimore (ACL) and rookie Trey Amos (fractured fibula) to season-ending injuries, Hamilton took on a larger role.
He played 56 defense snaps Sunday after playing only 31 in the first 14 weeks of the season.
“When J. Jones went down in the game (against the Vikings) and they left me in there, I knew I would get an opportunity at some point to rock and roll, whether it was starting or whatever,” Hamilton said. “That’s been the thing of my career. I’ve always just needed somebody to just believe in me and give me consistent opportunities.”
The Commanders informed him of his opportunity early in the week, knowing Jones wouldn’t be healthy in time for their first of four straight divisional matchups.
And Hamilton knows this routine well, dating back to college when he was a walk-on at South Carolina State. He went undrafted in 2016, signed with the Raiders as a rookie and has since been with six other teams, including Washington, bouncing on and off rosters, practice squads and injured reserve lists.
Antonio Hamilton Sr. has bounced on and off practice squads and injured reserve lists during his career. (Evan Bernstein / Getty Images)
“Next man up” isn’t a cliche he spouts when convenient; it’s the crux of his career. In some ways, he’s grown accustomed to one-year deals; he’s played on them since his rookie contract with the then-Oakland Raiders.
But being accustomed to it has hardly made it easy.
‘Truthfully, it’s one of the hardest things to do in this league because you got the starters, you got the people that they pay to make plays, but they’re expecting the same thing out of you,” he said. “It doesn’t matter about you being a backup. When they put you in the game, they expect you to cover and have that same level of standard of play.”
Hamilton provided more than perhaps most were expecting after Washington had dropped eight consecutive games, many of which were attributable to the defense. Missed tackles, missed assignments, blown coverages, big play after big play after big play allowed — the Commanders have been a mess for much of the season, often at a baffling level.
Their shutout loss on the road against the Vikings last week was the lowest of lows, a defeat Quinn described as “baffling” and “unacceptable” in all three phases.
Washington’s win over the Giants was still sloppy, and it was on the verge of ending disastrously. Without Hamilton, it probably would have. But after the start of his week, with his wife’s graduation and his college team’s big win, he knew there was room for a third celebration.
“It’s been a blessing,” he said. “I knew the only thing we needed was a win.”
