“When Doug Williams won the Super Bowl, that started my fandom with the Redskins,” Boyd explained.
As a young African American man, watching Williams’ squash prejudiced stereotypes and overcome adversity on his way to making history was particularly inspiring. Shortly after, the Boyd family moved to Alexandria, Virginia, for his father’s work. Boyd’s fandom blossomed, but for nearly two decades, going to games wasn’t a part of his life. At that point where his priorities were, the in-person gameday experience was cost prohibitive. Then, in 2011, came a turning point.
“I actually went on a trip through a work party to Dallas to see us play at the new stadium, and I immediately fell in love with going games on the road,” Boyd said.
He was hooked. So hooked, in fact, that he started organizing his own trips.
“And then in 2012 I decided, ‘I’m going to do this on my own,’ and I put a trip together that started off with seven people, and then 2013 that seven people grew to 90,” Boyd said. “One of the young ladies on the trip, she says, ‘You know, I’m not going to call you Stephen. I see you how you rally all of us together to go on this trip. Your new name is going to be Rally Captain.’ I didn’t pay much attention to it, but it stuck.”