This item isn’t about whether the Commanders should or shouldn’t have changed their name. It’s not about whether they should or shouldn’t change it back.
It’s simply an effort to assess whether the foundation is being laid to do it, at some point. And the Commanders currently seem to be inching toward a possible embrace of the name they abandoned five years ago.
Frankly, they’ve seemed to moving in that direction from the moment Josh Harris bought the team, nearly two years ago. In the aftermath of the closing of the deal, Harris used the former name, multiple times. Limited partner Magic Johnson tweeted it.
At the time, the team said a change back to the old name isn’t being considered.
In May 2024, coach Dan Quinn made waves by wearing a T-shirt with the old logo to a press conference. Although the team had “no organizational comment” on the matter, it felt like a trial balloon.
What’s happening now feels like more than a trial balloon.
In the aftermath of the name change, the team generally has avoided the posting on social media of images containing the team’s former logo. The unveiling of the “Super Bowl era” uniforms came with a video of highlights from those teams — with the former logo prominently unavoidable.
“History doesn’t fade,” the quote accompanying the video says. “It fuels the future.”
In this case, the partial embrace of history will naturally fuel speculation and/or fascination regarding whether a change is coming. Especially since the new uniforms — which look exactly like the Super Bowl-era uniforms but for the “W” in place of the abandoned logo — arrived only days after President Trump made his strongest statement yet regarding his belief that the former name should be the current name of the team.
How much of a nudge will it take from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, if the Commanders eventually ask the Commander-in-Chief to push the D.C. Council to approve the new stadium? If, in the end, the President conditions the exercise of his influence on the team changing its name, will Harris do it?
He may want to do it. The quid pro quo may give Harris all the cover he needs to return to the pre-existing status quo.
That’s the best outcome for anyone, isn’t it? There’s something we want to do. Something we’ve said we aren’t going to do. And then, someone comes along who wants us to do the thing we said we aren’t going to do. Something we actually want to do.
Again, this isn’t about whether the Commanders should or shouldn’t have changed their name. It isn’t about whether they should or shouldn’t change it back.
It’s an effort to assess whether the foundation is being laid to do it. Based on recent events, it sure seems like it is.
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