Washington has announced its current team name will be retired and replaced with something new.
The controversy over the nickname of the Washington NFL franchise never seems too far away, as Redskins qualifies a racial slur for a lot of people. Some broadcasters and writers won’t even use Redskins in reference to the team. My philosophy, from my little corner of the internet, has been that I’ll call them the Redskins as long as it’s their official name.
Calls for a name change have consistently been met with resistance from Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. Back in 2013 Snyder told Erik Brady of USA Today the name would never be changed.
“We will never change the name of the team,” “As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it’s all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season.”
“We’ll never change the name,” he said. “It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”
Sometimes, the way to spur change is to hit someone where it hurts most–the wallet. To that end, FedEx has asked that the Redskins’ team name be changed. That’s significant since the Redskins current home is FedEx Field and CEO Fred Smith has a minority ownership stake in the team. The current site of RFK Stadium, the team’s previous home, is a possible site for a new stadium. But according to Liz Clarke of the Washington Post, a name change is a prerequisite to any discussions about the RFK site.
In late-June, AdWeek reported that 87 investment firms sent letters asking Nike, FedEx and Pepsi to stop doing business with the Redskins until the name is changed. In reaction to that Nike, the NFL’s apparel provider, has removed any sign of merchandise bearing the team name or logo.
On July 13th, Daniel Snyder and the team announced that the name would indeed be changed, meaning a new one will be picked in the near future.
Here are five possible new names for the Washington Redskins.
Washington Redskins new team name suggestions
5. Washington Generals
The Washington Generals became synonymous with the label “lovable loser”, as the regular opponent of the Harlem Globetrotters during exhibition games back in the day. Re-naming the Washington football team the Generals may carry that negative connotation initially, but it’s a solid nickname and more importantly, it can’t be interpreted as a racial slur.
The Generals have been revived on the basketball court, which could be a thing (though at one time years ago, the St. Louis Cardinals name existed separately in the NFL and MLB). But the Generals’ logo looks like a good jumping off point for a Redskins’ re-brand, substituting a football for a basketball and burgundy and gold for green as the primary color.