Washington’s NFL Team Will Call Itself Washington Football Team — For Now (Report)

Washington’s NFL Team Will Call Itself Washington Football Team — For Now (Report)

The Wrap

Published

Washington’s NFL franchise has a new name: The Washington Football Team.

At least, that’s what the club will call itself while it searches for a permanent team name, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.



Effective immediately, Washington will call itself the “Washington Football Team”, pending adoption of a new name, sources tell ESPN.

This is not a final renaming and rebranding for team; this is the name it wants to use until pending adoption of a new name in the future. pic.twitter.com/sBs0Uo0ICm

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 23, 2020



*Also Read:* Washington Redskins to Change Team Name

The team announced on July 12 it would retire the “Redskins” name, which it had used since 1937. Criticism over the team’s name has stretched as far back as the 1960s.

The term “Redskin” is considered by many to be a racial slur that disparages Native Americans.

The team formally began the renaming process on July 3, following a request from its largest corporate sponsor, FedEx, whose name adorns its stadium. FedEx added that if the team did not change its name, it would remove its signage from the stadium after this coming season, according to the Washington Post. Along with FedEx, a group of investors worth more than $600 billion wrote letters to Nike and PepsiCo to encourage them to pressure the team to change its name. Nike removed all “Redskins” merchandise from its online store.

Criticism of the team’s now-former nickname had swelled for years; the franchise and its owner Daniel Snyder have resisted changing the name however up until this point. In the middle of the 2013 season, Bob Costas said the name was both an insult and a slur during halftime of the team’s “Sunday Night Football” game against the Dallas Cowboys. That following season, multiple TV broadcasters and reporters who covered the NFL stopped using the name. In the last few years, however, the outcry over the team’s name had receded from public view.

That outcry returned in a big way over the last few months, following the protests against systemic racism that were sparked by the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The incident and the nationwide movement that has followed has forced a re-examination of cultural sensitivities.

Washington’s NFL team becomes the second D.C.-based franchise to change its moniker. The NBA’s Bullets became the Wizards in 1997 over concerns the name was tone deaf given the high crime rate, particularly from gun violence, in the nation’s capital in 1990s.

*Related stories from TheWrap:*

Inflight Entertainment Company Global Eagle Files for Bankruptcy With $1 Billion-Plus in Debt

NFL to Play Black National Anthem Before Week 1 Games, May Put Victim Names of Police Brutality on Jerseys

Zachary Levi to Star as NFL QB Kurt Warner in Biopic 'American Underdog'

Full Article