Opinion
The long and hallowed two-year history of the Washington Football Team name will soon be no more.
On February 2nd, the franchise’s new name will be announced on NBC’s Today Show, ending a journey that began at the end of 2019.
What do we know about the names? It won’t be Redwolves and it may have already leaked out that it could be the Admirals. Other official names that have been in the running for a new name have included Hogs, Armada, Brigade, Defenders, Presidents, Sentinels, and Redhawks.
Do any of these names sound better than the Washington Football Team, though? The other names come across as fairly boring with many having similar themes of either being political or military. The NFL already leans way too heavily into military themes – do we need a team changing their brand to that?
The names remind me of a football movie that couldn’t get the actual rights to the NFL so they had to create fictional names.
Washington Football Team last year was being considered to be the permanent name and as much as I get the desire to move away from it since as of right now it’s a placeholder, it’s grown on myself and others. It’s the one gridiron football team right now not using a nickname.
This isn’t like Major League Soccer in this part of the world which has gone the route of using way too many FCs or SCs instead of a nickname. There’s no oversaturation of teams without a nickname in the NFL or the Canadian Football League.
The creativity just isn’t there out of any of the finalists. A tease of the jersey also showed that the colours will pretty much remain the same, which is also disappointing. If you’re going to go the rebrand, go all in, get new colours on top of the new name and logo.
If you want to fully cut ties with the racist past of the name in Washington, go all in, 100 per cent. Do not leave any trace of the past branding when it comes to the new era. A rebrand of just the name and logo feels incredibly half-hearted.
Whatever name is chosen has to last for generations, but none of them sound like they’ll have a real impact against the names of other franchises. In a league with names that have become enduring parts of the league’s fabric like the Saints, Cowboys, 49ers, does the Washington Admirals have the potential to resonate? The Washington Presidents?
If the new names are struggling to gain more support than a placeholder name, that’s not a strong sign when you’re trying to establish a new beginning, especially when it has taken almost two full seasons to finalise this.
Branding is not an easy job by any means, but when it looks like you’ve missed the mark after all this time, don’t be surprised when the eye-rolling is heard from far and wide.
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