The Washington NFL Team's New (Interim) Name!
Until they pick a new name, they shall be called.... Drumroll please....
The "Washington Football Team"!!!
Seriously, they announced this today. It's kind of catchy though. I can hear the fans now: "Let's go, FOOTBALL TEAM. My FOOTBALL TEAM is going to kill the Jets, baby! You're a Patriots fan??? Loser, I love FOOTBALL TEAM!"
Actually, this will probably save a lot of spouses embarrassment. "Who's playing today honey? Is it FOOTBALL TEAM? Oh, it is? That's neat!"
Yeah SPORT!
GO GENERIC SPORTSBALL TEAM!!!
I suggest they call themselves the Washington Natives, then both the baseball and football teams can be endearingly referred to as The Nats.
It also keeps their history somewhat intact.
Somehow I don't think this solves their issues.
The football team from my area is superior to the football team from your area.
Whatever your feelings about the former mascot, I think not choosing any name at all is the funniest possible outcome to this process.
I will say that although you could plausibly argue for or against the name change, I always thought the stupidest-assed reason for keeping the name was the ridiculous strawman argument that if you change the Redskins name to avoid offending Native Americans, are you going to rename the Eagles to avoid offending bald eagles.
Then I thought about what if actual lions with an NFL-on-the-Serengeti subscription have been watching the Detroit Lions for the past few decades; they would have a legitimate grievance against having that team named after their species.
That was their only option, any other name would offend someone..
Well I for one am offended because "football" is both body- and sphere-specific, while "team" is inherently exclusionary
EDIT and WASHINGTON? An anti-authoritarian slave owner? Don't get me started.
Gregg Easterbrook's "The Potomac River Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons" is still gold 15 years later.
Actually, this name offends me. I was once viciously kicked in the nuts and this name triggers my safe space with testicular macro-aggressions...
I'm offended by your avatar and your faux-mo bi-sexual name.
I'm offended by their complete lack of imagination.
Seriously - in the entire organization, which last year had a franchise value around $3.4 billion, they don't have anybody with the creativity of a junior copywriter?
Im offended they refer to themselves as a Football Team!
Let's all hope their final decision is the right one. E Pluribus Anus!
I logged in purely to upvote this. Well done.
Believe it or not - there is a Chief Marketing Officer for the Washington Football Team who is making high six figures (and perhaps seven) - and helped drive this highly creative, innovative concept, which is truly meant to not offend, nor certainly inspire, anyone.
Probably also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few weeks to an external marketing/ad company (with a diverse room of contributors) for advice from their high priced experts.
Incredible effort all around!!!
Dan Snyder. A great mammal.
Terrible. Should have gone with the Columbians.
Kinda feels like he's mulling selling the team. Don't know why you make an interim name official like this unless your plan is to find a buyer and let the new owner name it.
Yeah, but will anyone notice?
Washington Redskins football has been circling the drain since 1991.
Even diehard fans don't want to be reminded they have a football team anymore.
I think they could have just gotten away with changing the Logo... Still would have sold more merch. and would have defused the concern of disrespecting Native Americans.
Given the current environment and absurdity of this whole damn thing - this potato better represents "The Team" and whole NFL...
What is a “dictator” Alex
Turn those feathers into a couple potato peelers and you got yourself a logo!
ed. - meant to respond to BBIP. That comment applied to Mike’s “logo” is kinda creepy.
I'm all for changing the name, but come on.
I too am offended by the word "football".
It should be renamed "Brigands Advancing the Prolate Spheroid"
Also, if we were truly culturally sensitive, the winners of such "games" would be sacrificed to the god Kukulkan, according to Post-Classic Mayan custom.
I like it
This is some 4D chess. See, with no name, they are free to use any logo and any color scheme that fits their fancy. Break out a new jersey each week!
Oregon already trademarked that idea.
I can see the English Premier League filing suit to make them change the name to The Washington American Football team.
TWAF has a certain ring to it.
It makes sense to use it as a placeholder until a new team name is determined. However, assuming a new team name would be in place before the season, I think it's strange that they announced what the uniforms would look like already.
I saw a rumor that they were in a trademark fight with a squatter on the name "Washington Warriors." I'm speculating, but it makes me think that this announcement is a way of putting pressure on the squatter, indicating that they're willing to wait them out and choose a completely new name.
Thinking right now that the "squatter" is laughing his ass off at the stupidity and desperation around this name and move - and might be raising the price as we speak...
It could work if they leaned into a soccer team theme with what they’re going for. Their MLS team is DC United (why did they do that when DCFC was staring them in the face?), if they did Washington FT I would actually kind of like it for the novelty.
I hate Dan Synder’s team but this was also my first thought. Washington Football Club for a soccer team would be fine. Washington Football Team is close enough that it could work. And they can still have a new mascot. I might replace “Team” with something else though.
Squadron? Fellows?
Washington Football Association of Extraordinary Gentlemen?
This offends me. The name must be changed again.
Football team? Welp...the Lions would never be able to get away with it.
It’s almost like they waited 30 minutes after the Seattle Kraken announcement to put this out
This is an Abbott and Costello routine waiting to happen.
Costello: Did you hear the Washington football team is changing it's name?
Abbott: No kidding Lou. What are they called now?
Costello: The Washington Football Team.
Abbott: Yes, I know, but what are they now calling themselves?
Costello: The Washington Football Team.
Abbott: WHAT'S THEIR NEW NAME YOU SON OF A BITCH. I'LL KILL YOU. I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU.
Costello: That escalated quickly.
(Anyway, that's how it would go if I were writing the bit)
My buddy in DC tells me that there has been bootleg merch floating around the area with Washington Football Team on it already, so it's not without precedent.
My top two picks for the new name:
Washington
The Washington Burgundy
Either no name, or go the Stanford/ Harvard way.
Rob Lowe playing chess while we were playing checkers. “Go NFL”
I feel like they consulted Brady Hoke for the change
I like their statement about how they aren't going to announce the final name until it's been approved, which cracks me up because it gives the distinct impression that it might be accidentally offensive and they need to check to be sure.
"I absolutely promise you this team name is not racist and it is impossible for you to misinterpret it as such." -Dan Snyder
Ohhhh damn, now I see it. Now I see it.
These days you gotta go through 20,000 legal hoops before you can get the name right and another 20,000 focus groups to get the whole look just right. And it's still possible to screw it up. This "Football Team" thing really isn't surprising. They would've had to start last year at this time to get a name nailed down for now.
Really, I feel like anyone who wanted "Redskins" gone has no right to point and laugh. They got what they wanted. The "Football Team" could've said "OK, we'll start the process, which really does take a year, and we'll be the Redskins for one more year." But that wouldn't have been good enough.
Yeah dude, nailed it. The people on ESPN who thinks this is dumb are dumb. Better to choose something generic that fans would think is actually kinda funny to call their team "Go football team!" Then half ass some crazy name that would probably be piss poor because the good ones will take awhile to collect domain names, trademarks, etc. I mean, you're setting this up for 100 years hopefully, so do it right.
UND took several years to rename from Fighting Sioux, did they not? And had no mascot for awhile. So either Washington or Washington Football Team or similar is a good idea.