On Tuesday, Joe Theismann, the former quarterback who helped the team win one of its three Super Bowl titles, teased another contender. In an interview with CBS Sports Radio, Theismann said he thought the Commanders was a name “that is going to be hopefully one people talk about moving forward.” Footage from the local NBC affiliate’s helicopter camera Tuesday night showed a banner that said “Commanders” inside the team’s stadium.
Whatever the name, the process has been unusual. Teams are sometimes renamed or rebranded when they move to different cities or are sold to new owners. The Rams kept their name and colors but changed their logo and uniforms when they moved to Los Angeles from St. Louis before the 2016 season. In Major League Baseball, the Marlins replaced Florida with Miami in their name when they moved to a stadium in city limits. The current Cleveland Browns are a reactivated version of the team after Art Modell moved his version to Baltimore and it became the Ravens.
The Washington Football Team, though, has taken on a new identity under duress. The team’s owner, Daniel Snyder, resisted calls for years from fans, sponsors and Native American groups to drop the previous franchise name, which had long been considered a racial slur of Native Americans. Snyder also fended off legal challenges aimed at stripping the team of its trademarks.
But in July 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by the police, and a national debate that followed over the treatment of nonwhite people, Snyder relented and discarded the name “Redskins,” which had stood for 87 years.
Unlike prior calls to change the name, Snyder also faced pressure from sponsors like Nike, Pepsi and FedEx, which threatened to remove its corporate name from the team’s stadium in Maryland if no action was taken.