New Washington NFL team name might have leaked [UPDATED]

It appears that the new name for the Washington NFL franchise has leaked, and we like where this is headed. 

We knew it was coming, but it appears a Washington name change might be closer to the goal line than we thought.

After announcing last week that it’s transparently racist team name was going to be replaced, Washington’s new name might have leaked. Praise be to the FOIA and copyrights being public information.

Nothing is official, and this could be a false flag or simply one of many potential copyrights, but it’s a tremendous start.

The Washington Sentinals, it has a nice ring to it.

UPDATE: For the time being, the team is going to be officially called the Washington Football Team.

Of course, anything that’s not overtly racist is an improvement over what Washington was using as a team name before so the bar is very low.

Rather than look at this as something being taken away from them — which, the irony of a racial slur about Native Americans being taken away against the will of white fans is rich — this should be exciting. One of the most interesting things a team can do outside of roster or personnel changes is to alter its look. Uniform changes are always met with excitement as it represents something new on a familiar thing.

The football team isn’t relocating from Washington, the franchise is still playing in the NFL and hasn’t been relegated to an independent league, and the names and faces are all still in town. Uniform changes happen all the time — we had as many as six this offseason alone — but how many times does a team get to totally rebrand itself? Who among us hasn’t found one of the most rewarding parts of the Madden video game experience being in ‘Franchise Mode’ and creating a new team?

That’s what’s happening in real life, and aside from it being the right — albeit long overdue — thing to do, it’s an exciting experience of a fan base. Anyone trying to argue otherwise needs to lighten up and relax.