Washington Football Team changing their name after 90 years due to controversy

Despite football being a part of everyday life today, its roots extend deep into American history, especially so for the Washington Football Team.

Kevin Zhu, Senior Staff Writer
September 24, 2021

The Washington Football Team’s new name is yet to be decided, but has been narrowed to three finalists as of September 2021.  Controversy regarding the team’s former name arose as early as the 1900s, as people realized the racist connotations behind it. Protests against the term “Redskins” brought a wave of awareness to its racism. The primary sponsors of the Washington DC team realized the underlying issue of racism, and FedEx, which possesses the naming rights, requested a change. 

“[The former name] is extremely inappropriate and unprofessional”, says Anthony Cardenas (‘24).  

Daniel Snyder, who purchased the team at the turn of the 21st century, said in an infamous interview that, “We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”

“[Daniel Synder] should have changed it a long time ago. It’s extremely offensive.” says Anthony Chen (‘24).

However, due to political forces and economic pressure from sponsors, the President of the team, Jason Wright,  finally gave in and set out in the process of deciding a new name for the Washington Football Team.

“It’ll affect [Snyder’s] career in the future for sure. If he ever decides to keep being in the football league industry. People won’t accept this”, says Cardenas.

While the name is redacted, the temporary name for the team is simply “Washington Football Team”, which came into effect in the 2020 season. 

“It seems plain, but it’s a lot better than the old name, Redskins”, says Chen.

The new team name is being decided through a huge sample of submissions, nearly 40,000 in size, and as of now has been narrowed down to a mystery three among a final 8 contenders. Some fans feel as if there is a large disparity in how fitting the names are for a football team. 

A screenshot from the official WFT Twitter with their final 8 names.

“Redhogs and Redwolves seem a bit off to me. It’s the ‘Red’ part. Sounds a bit too much like the old one”, says Cardenas.

As of now, three of these final eight have been picked by Washington’s organization, but are unknown to the public as of now. Everyone has differing opinions on the new names.

“I think the ‘Presidents’ sound pretty cool. It gives them an outstanding image, instead of a racist one”, says Cardenas.