The Washington Football Team — formerly known as the Washington Redskins — will be announcing their team’s new name on February 2.
The team initially changed its name prior to the 2020 season after years of pressure from Native American organizations to move away from the team’s nickname of more than 80 years. The announcement was made on social media, paying tribute to the past in a video.
The wait is almost over
Mark your calendars: 2.2.22 pic.twitter.com/6Ofhfya5sA
— Washington Football Team (@WashingtonNFL) January 4, 2022
Co-CEO Tanya Snyder told ESPN’s Adam Schefter in September that the team was down to eight final names. The names were the Armada, Presidents, Brigade, Commanders, Redhawks, Defenders, RedWolves, and the Football Team.
On Tuesday, Washington Team President Jason Wright announced that RedWolves — a fan favorite — would no longer be considered as the team’s new name due to trademark issues.
“Early on we understood Wolves — or some variation of it — was one of our fan favorites,” Wright said in a statement on the team’s website. “As I’ve said all along, we take feedback from our fans seriously, and because of your interest in this name, we put Wolves on a list of options to explore fully. Once we began looking into Wolves, however, we became aware of a notable challenge: trademarks held by other teams would limit our ability to make the name our own. And without Wolves, variations like RedWolves wouldn’t have been viable either for these and other reasons.”
In a separate video, former Redskins great and current senior advisor Doug Williams reacted to the new uniforms, without giving away the entire look.
“It’s a clean uniform,” Williams said. “I believe in clean uniforms. You just got the number and the uniform stripes around the shoulders, and that’s it. That’s going to be a good-looking uniform.”
First look at the new threads 👀
🤝 @Vistaprint pic.twitter.com/udpnXtdoSv
— Washington Football Team (@WashingtonNFL) January 4, 2022
In July, the Cleveland MLB franchise changed their name from the Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Guardians.
“We are excited to usher in the next era of the deep history of baseball in Cleveland,” owner Paul Dolan said in a statement. “Cleveland has and always will be the most important part of our identity. Therefore, we wanted a name that strongly represents the pride, resiliency and loyalty of Clevelanders.”
“‘Guardians’ reflects those attributes that define us while drawing on the iconic Guardians of Traffic just outside the ballpark on the Hope Memorial Bridge. It brings to life the pride Clevelanders take in our city and the way we fight together for all who choose to be part of the Cleveland baseball family. While ‘Indians’ will always be a part of our history, our new name will help unify our fans and city as we are all Cleveland Guardians.”
Citing concerns over offending members of Native American and indigenous peoples, the team announced in December 2020 that they’d be choosing a new name.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].