In what should not be a surprise to anyone, the Washington Redskins announced they will change both their name and their logo.
I knew this decision was inevitable when they first announced they would undergo a thorough review of the team’s name. You don’t announce you are going to review something unless you already decided to do something. It would be like if your wife told you she was going to undergo a thorough review of your marriage. If she were to say that, you should go ahead and pack up your things. You should prepare yourself to get locked out of your own home and your joint bank accounts emptied. If she tells you that, she most likely already decided to replace you with some guy she works with.
Here is the press release announcing the decision:
What will the new name and logo be?
The team formally known as the Redskins has not decided on a name yet. Sure. I take that to mean they have a name and logo they want to use, but someone or something else already owns the rights to it. If true, that would rule out the Washington Warriors. Owner Dan Snider already has the rights to that name. He secured it when he thought he was going to get an Arena Football League (AFL) team. The AFL folded, but Snyder still owns the name.
Whatever the new name and logo are, I only hope it doesn’t have anything to do with a minority group or anything to do with anyone’s ethnic heritage. If they go that route, it’s only a matter of time before they have to do this whole thing over again.
I liked the idea of calling the team the Warriors. If that cannot happen, my second choice would be the Washington Senators. The city already had a baseball team with that name. The best thing about renaming the team the Senators is nobody can ever say the team’s name disparages or belittles a group of people. It may, but no one would care! Congress gets some of the lowest approval ratings in political polls. People hate U.S. Senators. The team can disparage and belittle the name all it wants and nobody will mount a boycott or refuse to stock Washington Senators merchandise in their stores.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of the Washington Senators.