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Are The Washington Redskins Changing Their Name

The Washington Commanders take a new proper noun and new uniforms. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Mail service)

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Finally, it has a name.

Xviii months after dropping its longtime proper name, the Redskins, and showtime an all-encompassing search for a new one, Washington's NFL team revealed Wednesday that information technology volition be the Commanders, a tribute to Washington's armed forces ties.

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The announcement was made live on NBC'southward "Today" show and on social media and was followed with a media event at FedEx Field with owners Daniel and Tanya Snyder and team president Jason Wright. The much-predictable announcement finally closes the team'due south 87-yr chapter every bit the Redskins and marks the start of a new era — at least aesthetically, with the hope Commanders both resonates with fans and reflects the makeup of the Washington area, home to the Pentagon and bases for every branch of the armed forces.

"Today's a big twenty-four hours for our team, our fans, a twenty-four hours on which we commence on a new chapter as the Washington Commanders," Daniel Snyder said. "It'south been a long journey to go to this point. We've been grateful to anybody who's been a part of this process forth the style."

For decades, dating back to the early on 1970s, Washington received criticism and even drew protests over its name, which many deemed derogatory toward Native Americans. Snyder, who purchased the team in 1999 after growing upwards a fan of the franchise, vowed he would never change the name. But that changed in 2020, when the murder of George Floyd sparked protests worldwide and led to a national discussion virtually racial equality. The club's top sponsors, including FedEx, Pepsi Co. and Nike, vowed to pull the plug on their agreements, and elected officials in D.C. warned that the team could never return to the District unless it got a new proper noun.

Equally the pressure mounted, the team appear in July 2020 that it would retire the controversial name and adopted the Washington Football Team as a temporary moniker while it began to seek out a new identity. The Commanders proper noun had been the subject of much online speculation in recent weeks. Later on years of futility on the field and no shortage of controversy away from information technology, the squad hopes fans warm upward to a rebranded franchise with familiar colors merely a fresh outlook.

The Washington Football Team announced on Feb. 2 on NBC's "Today" that the team'southward new name will be the 'Commanders.' (Video: NBC)

Wright, who was hired a month afterwards Washington shed its old name, helped lead a search and remained the face of the initiative, appearing in promotional videos and writing messages to fans on the team'southward website.

"So many of y'all have advised me, and the folks leading this organization, on how to steward that legacy well," Wright said. "How to treat our fans with the dignity and respect they deserve, and to cultivate those bonds that y'all built with them. So I'k really grateful to all of you for that."

Proceed reading for real-time updates and reaction surrounding Wed'due south announcement.

Video: Locals sound off on the new name

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There were mixed reactions in the D.C. expanse on Feb. 2 afterwards Washington'due south NFL squad revealed that it will now be known as the Commanders. (Video: Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post, Photograph: Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

The Commanders' logo, team crest and uniforms, explained

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Washington's NFL team unveiled its new name, logo and look Wednesday, a new chapter for a franchise seeking to commemorate its rich history while likewise embracing its time to come.

Here's what you demand to know almost each element.

Main logo

The team opted for what it calls a "powerful 'Due west'" for its primary logo, the ane that will appear on helmets and will surely be the most visible aspect of the franchise's new identity.

By showcasing the "Westward," the team is emphasizing its roots in the Washington region. It plays its home games in Maryland and is headquartered in Virginia, but it saw most of its success in the District.

The angled cuts and serifs at the summit of the "W" are intended to depict progress and forward movement.

The logo gives a nod to the military with slanted stripes the team says are inspired by war machine rank insignia.

Fan's take: New name 'doesn't prove a lot of imagination'

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Sean Cissel, who grew up in Prince George's County but at present teaches in San Diego, said he grew up a die-difficult Washington fan, especially after the team won three Super Bowls by the time he was in eighth course. Simply Cissel, 42, said his fandom has waned over the years, especially since Daniel Snyder took over as owner, and he doesn't think the games are even worth his fourth dimension on Sundays.

"I tin can't even forcefulness myself to sentinel games one-half the time," Cissel said Wednesday. "Which is something I would've never anticipated ever in my life, but it's just gotten to be too much, I guess."

Washington's new name probably won't become Cissel back on his burrow more consistently; he said he would've been nigh happy if there was no name change at all, and he thinks that the Commanders name is bad, although he said he could possibly become used it.

"I don't call back the Commanders is a specially expert proper noun," Cissel said. "I don't think it shows a lot of imagination."

Cissel said he might outset tuning back in if the team starts winning games and Snyder is no longer the possessor, a sentiment he believes he shares with a lot fans. But until so, he'll keep to continue himself distanced emotionally from the team.

"Just annihilation that Snyder touches, I think, for a lot of fans similar me, is going to be automatically a loser," Cissel said.

Joe Theismann says name 'makes sense,' adds he 'had no inside information'

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Joe Theismann says he wants fans to give the new Commanders squad name a chance. And no, he insists, he did non know it — or reveal it — alee of time.

"No, I didn't," the team'southward former quarterback said in a phone interview Midweek. "That's the thing. Even though I made the comments, I had no thought. And believe me, I asked. Nobody told me. I had no within information. It's hard to be a leak when yous don't know."

Some had "credited" Theismann with revealing the choice of Commanders in a radio interview this week.

Theismann said he hopes that the public takes some fourth dimension to conform to the new name before passing judgment.

"I tell everyone to requite it a adventure and let it seep in a flake," Theismann said. "Don't just say you don't like information technology because of the newness. Information technology embodies everything the DMV is about. And the uniforms are really cool. They actually are."

The name works for him, Theismann said.

"Information technology made sense," he said. "I think it makes sense for the military machine aspects. It's about leadership, strength, vision. Those are the things that this franchise wants to be about moving forward."

Former standout running dorsum and kick returner Brian Mitchell too expressed approval.

"I'm cool with information technology," Mitchell said via text message. "I take no problem with information technology."

Members of Native American community react to name modify

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Later the Washington Commanders appear their rebrand Wednesday, ii members of the Native American community, Crystal Echo Hawk (Pawnee) and Merlin Lucero (Laguna Pueblo), shared a sense of dissatisfaction.

Echo Hawk and Lucero wait at the squad through different lenses — Echo Hawk as a longtime activist who pushed the team to change its original proper name, Lucero as a lifelong fan who has found a way to buy more than gear with the onetime logo — simply each was left wanting more.

Echo Hawk wanted an apology. She emphasized adopting a name with no Native American ties was a pregnant step, and she noted information technology's of import to call back that decades of protest and Native-led organizing helped lead to the summer of 2020, when owner Daniel Snyder was forced to acknowledge "NEVER" irresolute the name didn't really mean never.

Only she said the team still bears responsibility for the damage information technology caused Native Americans by holding onto a lexicon-defined slur for 87 years. She said the team should commit resources to helping Natives and educating people well-nigh the challenges their communities confront.

"I'm so happy that today marks a new chapter going forward, but we tin can't condone that harm, that past, that harm that really still is fresh in the heed of so many unlike Native peoples all across this state who fought for this name change," she said.

When asked how much hope she had the team would have any of those steps, she laughed.

"I think we're going to keep pushing," she said, adding, "People are going to proceed to concur them accountable."

Lucero, 49, grew up on a reservation in New Mexico and loved the squad's original mascot. The Native American profile seemed like a symbol of strength in the era of John Wayne movies, which he felt portrayed Natives in an inaccurate, cartoonish light. He lamented the team had to change the mascot, merely he liked another replacement options, including Redwolves.

"Ii years of waiting for Commanders is pretty disappointing," he said. "Man, it doesn't pop. Information technology'south not original. It'south just eh, I guess."

Fan's take: Washington's new proper noun 'doesn't bother me'

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Linda Thomas, who lives in Seattle but grew up in the District, told The Washington Mail she regularly roots for both the Seattle Seahawks and Washington's team. Thomas, 64, relocated to Washington state presently afterwards graduating from Howard Academy with a degree in chemic engineering science. Whenever she is watching the Seahawks play her hometown squad, Thomas says she'south quick to tell her friends, "Well, a team from Washington is going to win today."

Regarding the team's new name, the Commanders, Thomas said "it doesn't bother me," but she was hoping Washington would option an brute for a mascot — such as the Red Wolves or the Hogs. Thomas said she is currently rampage-watching "A Handmaid'south Tale," a bear witness on Hulu gear up in a dystopian future, and noted that there are characters in the show chosen commanders as well.

"When yous do a name alter, you really have to think about mod civilization," Thomas added.

At that place'south however a run a risk for the team to accept a four-legged mascot. President Biden's new puppy is a German shepherd named Commander, Thomas noted. But, regardless, Thomas plans to support the team through the proper name change.

Thomas remembers playing clarinet at a Washington halftime show with the McKinley Tech marching ring when the team faced the Detroit Lions in 1973. RFK was "a banging stadium," Thomas said. And she misses it fondly.

"All I can think of is great experiences there," Thomas added.

New stadium is a political football for local leaders

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The Washington Football game Team finally has a new proper name. Now volition it become a new dwelling?

Local politicians wasted little fourth dimension sharing their opinions Wednesday morning about where the Washington Commanders should play afterwards the new name and the team'southward burgundy, black and golden uniforms and helmets were unveiled.

The rebranding also represents a new era in the complicated human relationship with squad co-owner Daniel Snyder, who has openly pitted Virginia, D.C. and Maryland against each other as he seeks a new stadium bargain.

After buildup, speculation and leaks, change came swiftly

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After a lengthy buildup to the unveiling of Washington'south new nickname, the televised announcement itself was brief and subdued — and scooped by the team's own social media business relationship.

The team will henceforth be known equally the Commanders, team officials told NBC's Craig Melvin, a member of the team's "fan administrator network," in a "Today" show advent shortly after viii:15 a.g., minutes later the squad posted an proclamation on Twitter.

"Nosotros are the Commanders," senior adviser Doug Williams said in making the announcement.

There was niggling pomp or fanfare to the official reveal, perhaps because the nickname had been leaked Tuesday dark when local news helicopters flew above FedEx Field and captured footage of "Commanders" signage already staged for the Wednesday unveiling.

And over the past few weeks, speculation focused on Commanders, with one tweet going viral for pointing out the Commanders.com domain recently inverse hands. Former quarterback Joe Theismann seemed to suggest Commanders was the new name during an appearance Monday on CBS Sports Radio.

"I retrieve Commanders is a proper noun that is going to exist hopefully one that people talk almost going frontwards," he said, adding, "At that place were so many different options, only one time again, information technology's trademark infringement, it's getting approval from different people …"

Last fall, Commanders was ane of the viii names misreported to be finalists, and information technology picked up steam in early January when, in a promotional video, a mock-upward of the Commanders logo was shown on Wright's armchair.

Perspective: Washington uses the military as deodorant, and the whole thing stinks

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Upon his hiring as the 30th coach of Washington's NFL franchise, Ron Rivera said that he hadn't a problem with the team'due south racist name, which his dominate, Daniel Snyder, had already alleged he would never change. Rivera even commissioned a piece of fine art for his new digs — a copy of a portrait painted by the team'southward director of player evolution, featuring the logo of the team Rivera had just inherited. Information technology showed the contour of a bronze-skinned Native-American human of someone's creation, a logo that debuted on the team's helmets 50 years ago, just as a delegation of Native Americans met with so-franchise president Edward Bennett Williams to asking he change the squad's name from what they explained was a "derogatory racial epithet."

Simply in the summer of 2020, with the land roiling in protests against White supremacy in the wake of the police force murder of George Floyd, and the sponsor of the team's stadium, FedEx, calling on the order to drop the offensive proper noun, Rivera expressed enlightenment. Non only was it time to change the name, Rivera said, but a new one paying homage to the military would be near advisable.

The military machine? It made perfect sense to me. Merely non because Rivera was the son of a 32-year Army human being and grew up on military bases overseas and in this area earlier settling in Monterey, Calif. Nor because the dwelling house of this football game team is the seat of this state's armed forces, with the Pentagon just across the river in Virginia.

Instead, it was because the military, its patriotic pomp and circumstance, is then unassailable in so many people's optics that it could exist seen as the ultimate deodorizer for a franchise that has been rolling on one scent afterward another in recent years to mask its growing stench.

Fan's accept: 'I like the rebrand … but the team has to win'

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Jeff Jacobs, who lives in Northwest Washington, has been a fan of Washington's NFL team since he moved to the area in the 1980s for a career in public health. Jacobs, 64, was sitting in the stands at RFK Stadium when Washington quarterback Joe Theismann broke his leg after he was hit by Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants in 1985.

"You could hear it," he said. "You lot could almost hear the os break. It was but a horrific moment."

Jacobs said he supported Washington's determination to lose its old name, though he didn't love any of the culling names that accept floated around during this 18-month rebranding procedure. He wasn't even a fan of the Washington Commanders originally. Just now that the new name has been announced, Jacobs is more than excited. He says Commanders "represents a winning name," something the team needs desperately. "We're a losing team with an abysmal culture," Jacobs said. "I call up it'south a great proper name to endeavour to live upward to."

Jacobs is optimistic that Omnibus Ron Rivera is "turning it around a flake." And he's hopeful that the team will eventually move back to Washington, replacing the one-time RFK Stadium.

"We endure through watching the team lose most games," Jacobs said. "I similar the rebrand. I didn't think I would. But the team has to win. That's the lesser line."

A timeline of Washington'south name alter fence

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Wednesday'due south announcement capped an 18-month-long rebranding process and marked the culmination of the decades-long controversy that surrounded the team's old proper name. Here'southward an interactive look at how the Redskins, after years of resistance, became the Commanders:

Among Virginia officials, reaction to proper name is muted

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Early reaction in Richmond, where the General Associates is considering a pair of bills intended to lure the team to Virginia, was muted at all-time.

"The new proper noun is fine, but I also liked the other 1," said Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), who is carrying legislation that would create a football stadium authority to oversee the financing and construction of a massive retail and entertainment development anchored by an NFL stadium.

"I can learn to honey it," texted Del. Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico), head of the Legislative Black Caucus, who's been supportive of the stadium bills. "Dear the uniforms tho."

Del. Mark Keam (D-Fairfax) was with those poking fun, tweeting: "On this #GroundHogDay, Punxsutawney Phil predicts 6 more weeks of public ridicule over this new name."

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who'd given the stadium legislation a shout-out in his formal address to the General Associates terminal month, had been mum on Twitter since late Tuesday nighttime, when he'd wished Virginians a "Happy Lunar New year!" His role did non immediately respond to a request for his have on the name.

Many saw the proper name modify in the context of a potential move to Virginia.

"The Washington Commies name is plumbing fixtures given how much Virginia taxpayer money they're gonna burn on building a new garbage stadium in VA," tweeted Danny Plaugher, executive director of Virginians for High Speed Rail.

Coming to the team'due south defense was former Republican delegate David Ramadan, who equally a Loudoun Canton legislator co-founded the legislature's Redskins Pride Caucus in 2014, supporting the team'south correct to employ the proper noun after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office canceled the team's registration on grounds that it was disparaging.

"We were proud of the team then, and I am proud of the team today. I await for them to command the field," Ramadan said. "I'chiliad looking forrard to their changing their name one more than time, though — to the Commonwealth Commanders.

Maryland politicians embrace new name

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Several Maryland politicians embraced the new name primarily because it was not a racial slur.

"Information technology'due south totally fine. It's a good, potent name," said Del. Ben Barnes (D-Prince George's), who represents the county home to FedEx Field.

"I don't retrieve the names of these teams matter that much, as long every bit they're not offensive. As soon as they starting time winning, people will rally around the team," Barnes said.

The rebranding besides represents a new era in the complicated relationship with team co-possessor Daniel Snyder, who has openly pitted Virginia, D.C. and Maryland against each other as he seeks a new stadium deal.

"We look forward to the commencement of this new chapter in the squad's storied history," Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said on Twitter, directing his congratulations to team president Jason Wright.

House Majority Whip Talmadge Co-operative (D-Baltimore Urban center), who is Black and likewise of Native American descent, once introduced legislation attempting to force the squad to drib its previous name. Wed represented a twenty-four hours he never thought he'd run across, he said.

"Of form, I never thought they would change it. But times have moved frontwards," he said.

"This volition make numerous people happy, and information technology volition likewise will brand numerous people sad," he said, adding he thought that fans who grew up with the name and never saw information technology as offensive felt they have lost something of import to them.

The Commanders name, Branch said, had little bearing on whether he and many other lawmakers would now more than aggressively endeavor to keep the squad'southward stadium in Maryland.

"We have a squad that we love, which is, of course, The Ravens," he said. "I'm non looking for two teams."

Fans detect new merchandise at FedEx Field team shop

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Washington Commanders co-owner Tanya Snyder cutting the gilt ribbon outside the team store at FedEx Field on Wednesday, and she had a surprise for the fans who anxiously waited in line: Each fan in line would get one gratuitous piece of merchandise courtesy of the Snyders.

The squad had shirts, sweatshirts and hats among other items to sell, but information technology didn't have any new jerseys available yet.

As fans filed out with their shirts and hats, many seemed hopeful about the future and the direction of the team. Jesus Boada, 21, said he cares more about winning than he does about the name modify. He brought his son out to buy some merchandise before taking him to school.

"We've been waiting for this day for a long time," Boada said. "We wanted to get some jerseys. They don't accept anything. But we were excited, happy nearly it. So hopefully we have a winning team coming upwards."

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/02/02/washington-football-team-new-name/

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