Washington Commanders may get a(nother) name change
NFL owners unanimously approve sale of the Commanders, Magic Johnson addresses team name, saying “everything is on the table.”
The Washington Commanders are never far from eyebrow-raising news, and after the NFL owners voted unanimously to approve the sale of the team to the Josh Harris partnership, the team raised eyebrows once again.
Not scandal or fines, such as the $60 million fine levied on outgoing former owner Dan Snyder after the NFL investigation. But a different scandal, one that the team had thought long ago laid to rest.
The team’s name.
When the franchise dumped the old Redskins moniker, it seemed as if a page had turned. After two seasons as the Washington Football Team, they adopted the nickname “Commanders.” A poll of DC residents found that 49% either disliked or hated the new name, with only 41% expressing approval. Not everyone’s cup of tea, to be sure, but at least the Commanders could start afresh.
But one prominent member of the new ownership group, basketball legend Magic Johnson spoke to NBC’s Today show and said that the new name may just be a placeholder.
“We will see where we are with the name.” said Johnson, “We’re going spend this year understanding what we have in place. And then I’m sure that that’ll come up. The Commanders, the name of the team, will come up eventually. But right now we got enough work to do that will keep us busy.”
It seems that one impetus for the reconsideration is the May 2023 denial of trademark registration by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, presumably due to the pre-existing trademark for the Army vs Air Force football game, known as the “Commanders Classic”.
Either way, the new ownership will follow the old dictum of first going along before getting along. Any changes would likely be after the 2024 season, but who knows? We could see yet another name for the team.