Ex-Redskins WR Rod Gardner, wife Leticia finish third on CBS' Amazing Race 36

If the Commanders do as well this season as one of their former wideouts did on the Amazing Race, they’re guaranteed an upgrade.

Rod Gardner, who was a first-round pick in 2001 and played four of his six NFL seasons in DC, and his wife Leticia finished third in the just-aired 36 ^th season of CBS’ The Amazing Race, which aired its finale on Wednesday night.

The Gardners’ family and friends (and CBS viewers) had to wait 18 months to officially see how they did, as this season was actually the 35 ^th taped, back in October-November 2022 – but, due to the WGA strike last year, CBS chose to air the 36 ^th taped season as the official Season 35 last fall, as it was easier to edit those episodes into 90-minute blocks (accommodating a Survivor-Amazing Race night on Wednesdays) than re-edit the Gardners’ season episodes from one hour (the previous Race standard) to 90 minutes.

CBS did that anyway for the spring, though, meaning viewers got 15 hours of Rod over 10 episodes.

The Gardners were one of the top teams throughout the race, winning three of the first 10 legs (including the 10th just before the finale) and never finishing lower than fifth – but it was, perhaps fittingly, the city of Philadelphia, the final destination city, that was their undoing.

Midway through the leg, after teams had to do a mascot obstacle course at Lincoln Financial Field (where Rod had seven catches in two career games), they had to memorize and recite the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence – which Rod struggled with, jocularly blaming his bad memory on his football career – and then put together a replica of the first American flag with the original 13 colonies placed as stripes in order of their ratification of the Constitution, a task Leticia found difficult to complete.

By the time they moved on to the final challenge, a 3D puzzle of the Liberty Bell, both of the teams ahead of them had moved toward the finish line, so the Gardners finished third.

Still, the Gardners, who met in 2009 after Rod’s career ended, did better than 10 other teams in the race and more than 300 over the history of the show, and walked away with $10,000 for finishing third as well as trips to Portugal and Italy as prizes for winning legs of the race.