Can a New Name Help The Washington Commanders?

Prior  to being the Washington Commanders, they were the Washington Redskins for over 80 years. Due to the world events during 2020 including more awareness and pressure for social justice reform the Washington Redskins deemed it the right time to change the team mascot. 

Pressure has been building as far back as the 1992 Super Bowl in Minneapolis. In the 30 years since, anger over the name and imagery has grown exponentially with more sensitivity to race since the murder of George Floyd which occured in Minneapolis. The owner of the Redskins had said that he would “NEVER” change the team’s name.

 Fast forward to 2020 where pressure from sponsors and internal owner struggle lead to the eventually changing of the name to the Washington Football Team. This name was used as a placeholder for a new name to be chosen in the future. They were mocked for the name change, some saying “They have no name” or “Imagine playing for a team with no name.” Then people started getting comfortable with the name saying “Hail to the Football Team” or “Go Team!”

 Prior to the 2021 season the president of the Football Team Jason Wright said that they were a lot closer to finding a name and released a list of potential candidates such as the “Armada”, “Defenders”, “Brigade”, “Redhogs”, “Redtails”, “Red Wolves” and the “Commanders”.  On January 4th the team reported they would be announcing the new team name on 2.2.22  It would be the third name change in team history. 

With the announcement of THE COMMANDERS, there was significant backlash, with some saying how “they better Command some wins” or making word play out of the new names such as “Commindies” and the “Commandos.”  No matter what name was chosen  there was going to be backlash and mockery. A team name is only as good as the franchise it represents. Let’s hope the Commanders have a new winning strategy to move into a new era for the team.