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It sounds like another change is in store for Washington’s NFL franchise, whose nickname has been changed twice already in the last three years. The new owners did just insist that the club won’t go back to that nickname used for 87 years, however.
Even though that name was a racist slur, many longtime fans want to bring it back – in part because the current nickname, Commanders, fails to resonate. The owners don’t sound keen on a hybrid using parts of the old name, as in Red Hogs or Pigskins.
When the franchise became the Washington Commanders in February 2022, head coach Ron Rivera, a former US Army brat, said he liked the new name because it had military connotations, ideal for a team in the nation’s capital............
But Mitchell Rales, the top partner in Harris’s ownership group, told a dinner crowd of 700 this month in Washington that “We’re not going to relitigate the past. We’re about the future. We’re about building the future and not having a divisive culture that we’re engaged in.”
Forget a nickname with Red or Skin in it. While they are at it, they may as well dump burgundy and gold, too. Start from scratch, like an expansion team. Washington’s NFL franchise has some lustrous history, but the last 25 years or so have memorable for the wrong reasons.
Think sleek, powerful, modern and fast. This team needs a complete reboot.
I like something like Force, because there are a lot of ways to interpret the word: air force, ground force, unstoppable force, force to be reckoned with, forced fumbles and interceptions. It would help if the team, by whatever name, win more often than they lose...........
District Hogs and Slingers: will Washington’s NFL team change its name again?
The nickname ‘Commanders’ is unpopular with fans. Maybe a complete reboot will wash away the stench of the Dan Snyder erawww.theguardian.com
HTTH