Washington Football Team Makes Decision on Allowing Native American Headdresses, Face Paint at Home Stadium

The Washington Football team continues to get away from its old nickname. On Wednesday, the organization announced its policies and protocols for the 2021 season and has banned fans from wearing Native American headdresses or face paint to games at FedEx Field. Washington didn't have any fans attend games in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and during the summer of last year, the team dropped its controversial name as part of a rebranding process.

"We are excited to welcome everyone back wearing their Burgundy & Gold," the team wrote in a press release. However, Native American-inspired ceremonial headdresses or face paint may no longer be worn into the stadium." According to ESPN, Washington will hold a practice at FedEx Field on Friday, and 20,000 people are expected to show up. Washington will have two preseason home games on Aug. 20 and Aug. 28 before having their home against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 5.

The next question is when will Washington will unveil its new nickname and logo? Washington will go by Washington Football Team in 2021 and will have a new name by next season. Some of the submissions that got from fans include Monarchs, Presidents, Wild Hogs, Riders, Capital City Football Club, Redwolves, Aviators, Wayfarers, Ambassadors, Griffin, and Warriors, just to name a few.

"We're getting thousands and thousands of submissions," Marcus Stephenson, vice president, digital marketing and programming for the Washington Football Team, said exclusively to PopCulture.com in August. "It's anything and everything. We wanted to keep it an open book like that because we want to be able to showcase some of the submissions the fans have been sending in as a proof point of the inclusive nature of this process. Some have been amazing ideas. As we start to move forward throughout the season beginning in the fall, we wanted to make sure we had an ongoing dialogue with our fans. This destination really allows us to do that on an everyday basis."

Washington fans are ready to support their team after having a successful 2020 season. Despite only having a 7-9 record, Washington reached the playoffs are winning the NFC East. They lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the playoffs, but it looks like the team is headed in the right direction under coach Ron Rivera after leading the team to postseason play for the first time since 2015.