Seth Udinski, FISM News
Washington Football Team president Jason Wright made a statement this past week affirming that the NFL franchise from the nation’s capitol could permanently keep “Football Team” as its official name. Since its inception in 1932 until the end of the 2019 season, the team was known as the Washington Redskins. However, in the midst of the racial riots of 2020 following the death of George Floyd, the franchise abandoned its former name due to the racially insensitive undertones associated with it.
Following the removal of the “Redskins” name and logo, the team began searching for a new name for the 2020 season and generated several classy replacements, including “Warriors.” Instead, the franchise oddly chose the rather boring and redundant moniker of “Football Team.” Many assumed this would be a temporary replacement until a real team name was chosen. Apparently, there is a significant contingent in Washington, D.C. that legitimately wants its professional football team to be known as, yes, the “Football Team.”
In an interview with ESPN, Wright said,
There are a set of folks that have warmed to the Washington Football Team….It feels like that isn’t jettisoning all the things we have been in the past, whereas something that’s completely new might feel that way. It’s important for a substantial part of our fan base to feel that this is a continuation of something versus a complete reset, something brand new.
It would seem the franchise already “jettisoned all the things” from the past when it changed its name the first time. The original name change most likely came not out of true regret and sorrow, but because the franchise caved to a radically liberal professional sports media machine which would have allowed for nothing else. Currently, there is no timeline on an official announcement of a permanent name.
Apparently, the name change was a success in the 2020 season, as the Washington Football Team won the NFC Eastern division title. The feat, however, is much less impressive considering the quality of the rest of the division. The Washington Football Team, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Eagles finished the 2020 season with a paltry combined record of 23-40-1 to go down as one of the worst single-season divisions in NFL history.