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In what amounts to a side effect of the media’s embrace of the Black Lives Matter political movement in a presidential election year, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder finally caved to the social justice rage mob and announced last week that he will change the NFL team’s name.
On Thursday, ten days after that announcement, the team rolled out its new name to replace the name in place for 87 years: Washington Football Team.
That’s it.
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
No pomp and circumstance there, just a plain moniker — which does match the plain product Snyder has been putting on the field of late.
The team announced the move on its website, which remains for now: Redskins.com.
The color scheme will not change, according ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“It will still use burgundy and gold. The Redskins logo on the helmet will be replaced by the player’s number in gold,” he tweeted.
Washington will not have any change to its color scheme. It will still use burgundy and gold. The Redskins logo on the helmet will be replaced by the player’s number in gold. The Washington Football Team will debut its home uniforms in week 1 against the Eagles. pic.twitter.com/8DpC6b0Tyj
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 23, 2020
The left has long been after Snyder to change the team name, claiming Redskins was racist, though many Native Americans were proud of how they were portrayed by the team. The owner had vowed he would “never” change the name, but with the media’s success in establishing a suspect narrative of racially-motivated police brutality and inequality being rampant in America, the walls were collapsing around Snyder.
While only temporary, the new name is lame nonetheless.
Executive vice president and chief marketing officer Terry Bateman said the team wants to include fans, business partners and alumni in the process and that takes time, the liberal sports network ESPN reported.
“You’re doing a rebranding process that correctly takes 12 to 18 months,” Bateman explained. “If you want to do it right, you have to take a deep breath, take a step back and go through the process. We want to do it right, we want something thoughtful and inclusive and smart and bring a lot of points of views into this and come out the other side with something everyone is proud of and can rally behind.
“It feels organic and natural to do this. I love the look of what we’ve done. It’s really strong. I like the logo and the uniforms and the colors,” he added. “It’s a tremendous amount of work to go through this. The new will go up and the old will go down.”
The new name did not go over too well in the real world.
Former Washington quarterback Mark Rypien, a Super Bowl champion, slammed the move in a tweet — the Washington Post reported that the account was indeed his.
Why not change the established date to 2020? I never played a down for the Washington Football Team, but I did play with dignity, honor and pride for the Three Time World Champion Washington Redskins.
— Mark Rypien (@mark_rypien) July 23, 2020
Of all the responses, the most ominous came from former Dallas Cowboy Dez Bryant, who suggested the lame name means the team is not expecting the league to play this year.
Who you play for? The Washington football team.. naw that ain’t it 😂
For some reason that alone makes me feel it won’t be a football season.. I’m sad seriously
— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) July 23, 2020
As some players are beginning to report, to include QBs, there are still critical issues being ironed out by the league and the NFL player’s association.
There was also a theory put forth that Snyder knew the team was going to be hit with sexual misconduct allegations, which occurred last week, and used the name change as a ploy to escape harsher criticism.
“The team formerly known as the Washington Redskins decided they can’t come up with a name for their team, therefore they are going to be known — and this is not a joke — as the Washington Football Team. This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard.”—@ClayTravis pic.twitter.com/JouM7pk3Hi
— OutKick (@Outkick) July 24, 2020
Speaking of theories, there’s this doozy offered by Ben Domenech, co-founder of The Federalist.
"Washington Football Team" is such a troll move by Dan Snyder because nearly every fan will still call them the Redskins and buy up all the old already made product.
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) July 23, 2020
The NBA’s social justice king, Lebron James, simply ridiculed the team, all of which proves there’s no satiating the left.
Just waking back up from my pregame nap to see about The Washington Football team??? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Is that real?? No way! Oh man they had a thorough intense long board meeting about that one huh. 🥴🤦🏾♂️
— LeBron James (@KingJames) July 23, 2020
Here’s a sampling of other responses from Twitter:
The NFL has become a Seinfeld joke. It’s a team “about nothing.” https://t.co/oPZozC1vfc
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 23, 2020
@JasonAndDeb I like it, The Washington Football Team is almost as generic as Rob Lowe at a football game wearing an NFL hat. He was always a big fan of….NFL. maybe he could be their spokesperson. pic.twitter.com/AyJQPrztat
— Zach from NB (@ZachfromNB) July 24, 2020
“Washington Football Team” is exactly what I would expect in 2020.
— Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) July 23, 2020
I was inspired by the bravery of the Redskins changing their name to Washington Football Team that I have decided to change my name to Firstname Lastname
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 23, 2020
Just going to put this out there that I am not suicidal & Hillary Clinton is a wonderful woman who is not at all a sociopath
— Ashley StClair 🇺🇸 (@stclairashley) July 24, 2020
Ah yes. The Washington Football Team. pic.twitter.com/Alv8PDG2R0
— America is musty 2021 (@DragonflyJonez) July 23, 2020
If you’d said 6 months ago on July 23rd the Redskins would be called the Washington Football Team, baseball would have opening day with fake fans, GOP Convention would be cancelled for 2nd time & masks would be mandated even in Texas, I’d have thought we’d been invaded by Russia.
— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) July 23, 2020
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