The Washington Football Team will operate under the same bromidic moniker in 2021, but it is expected to have a new name by 2022.
On Tuesday, the team launched a website called WashingtonJourney.com (h/t Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk), wherein fans can submit their ideas for a new team name, their reasons for choosing that name and their proposed logo/uniform. As of the time of this writing, some of the “featured submissions” include the Washington Rhinos, the Washington Justice and the Washington Redtails.
Of course, owner Dan Snyder decided to change the name in July following years of pressure to do so, but there was not enough time to choose something other than the placeholder “Washington Football Team” for the 2020 campaign. The change came not long after investment firms worth about $620 billion asked Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to end their relationships with the team, so while Snyder’s decision was probably not motivated by the former name’s racial overtones, those pushing for a change got what they wanted just the same.
The website will take fans through the name-change process, and the organization says it will run everything it hears through research before narrowing down its choices and reaching the best decision. Florio suggests that if WFT should win the Super Bowl next year, there may be a push to keep the Washington Football Team nickname, but presuming that doesn’t happen, the ever-dangerous WFT acronym will be a thing of the past by 2022.
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