The New York Football Giants are facing off against the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins, now the Commanders, in a pivotal Sunday evening game that will be crucial to deciding which team advances to the NFL playoffs and which breaks its fans hearts, all while demonstrating the unifying power of the games we play.

If the Giants win at the nation’s capital, “their chances to make the playoffs jump to 85 percent, while Washington would fall to 34 percent,” according to FiveThirtyEight projections, as reported by NorthJersey.com. “If Washington wins, the Commanders’ chances of reaching the playoffs jump to 89 percent and the Giants would fall to 25 percent.”

If teams tie as they did earlier this year — influenced, I suppose, by all those World Cup “sister kissers” — Big Blue’s chances fall to 38 percent and the Commanders to 63 percent. So, a win is the surest way to ensure Gotham returns to the postseason for the first time since 2016, the New York Jets having been shut out since 2010.

It hasn’t been an easy couple of years for New York City, with skyrocketing crime, pandemic lockdowns, businesses closing, and citizens fleeing for greener pastures. Sports, however, have the power to erase all those troubles, and give fans something to cheer about as one.

All the things used to divide us — race, gender, religion — fade away if we let them, obscured behind the jerseys we wear. It’s the American ideal played out in stadiums across the nation and the world, with international games exporting sportsmanship to London, Mexico City, and Berlin. 

This is something I’ve experienced, in my case at the London Giants-Rams game in 2016 and for two decades at “the Schoen Bowl,” the game to which the Democratic pollster Doug Schoen invites a few friends each autumn. We are a group of diverse opinions; Mr. Schoen having worked for President Clinton and another member having been offered a White House job by President Trump. 

On that Sunday, though, we all bleed blue, united in a way that counterprograms the red meat served up by cable news channels and politicians. It’s one of my favorite days of the year, the chance for intelligent conversation with Mr. Schoen, who looks at the world of politics with a coach’s keen eye to Xs and Os. 

Although the 2022 Schoen Bowl disappointed last week at Met Life Stadium in the Meadowlands, devolving into a 48 to 22 drubbing at the hands of the rival Philadelphia Eagles, even here camaraderie was in ample supply, with all but one visiting fan magnanimous in victory. 

“You know,” a man sitting near us said, “we were told that all Giants fans are assholes, but you guys are cool.” I mentioned that people say the same about them. “Oh, we are,” he said, “but if you’re nice to us, we’re nice back.” If only the world of politics operated the same way. 

The group later broke into a chant, “We’re from Philly. No one likes us. … No one likes us; we don’t care.” I imagined how various candidates might fare if they embraced such blunt honesty rather than trying to fake likability. 

The legendary coach Vince Lombardi, for whom the NFL’s championship trophy is named, might have been describing the ideal of political campaigns when he described the joys of honest competition. “There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head-to-head combat,” he said. 

“I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour — his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear — is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious.” 

The game will be in the hands of the players after Sunday’s kickoff at Washington, and fans on both sides will be shouting, praying, hoping for something to cheer. Win or lose, though, we’ll be reminded of the unifying power of sharing with friends and strangers something we love, be it a game or America itself.