The new name for Washington Football Team has reportedly been revealed. NBC Washington revealed video footage from a flight over FedEx Field, which captured a view of the team’s in-stadium store. And inside, there was a sign that said “Washington Commanders,” which likely means Commanders is the team’s new nickname. An official announcement will be made on the TODAY show Wednesday morning.
This news comes shortly after a person on social media discovered that the domain name Commaders.com has been transferred to MarkMonitor which is the company the NFL uses to handle most of its domain names for its teams and brands. “There’s two reasons you acquire a name. One is you acquire it for pure speculation, and you hold onto it. And two is you acquire it because you want to use it,” technology expert Shawn DuBravac told TV station Fox 5 DC. “And typically when you acquire it and you want to use it, you’re going to move it to where you’re going to deploy it.”
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Last month Washington team president Jason Wright announced the new name and logo will be unveiled on Feb. 2. Fans have shared their thoughts on what the new name should be, and two of the most popular names were Wolves and RedWolves. However, Wright explained why those names can’t be used.
“Early on we understood Wolves — or some variation of it — was one of our fan favorites,” Wright said. “As I’ve said all along, we take feedback from our fans seriously, and because of your interest in this name, we put Wolves on a list of options to explore fully. Once we began looking into Wolves, however, we became aware of a notable challenge: trademarks held by other teams would limit our ability to make the name our own. And without Wolves, variations like RedWolves wouldn’t have been viable either for these and other reasons.”
Washington dropped the “Redskins” name in 2020 and was called the Washington Football team for the last two seasons. The new name comes at a special time as the team will be playing in its 90th season in 2022. Washington is one of the more successful franchises in the NFL, winning five championships including three Super Bowls.
