The Washington Football Team, which has been searching for a new name since abandoning the antiquated Redskins moniker it used for more than 85 years, announced Monday that it will not be renamed the Warriors. Team president Jason Wright said that name also hit too close to home for Native Americans.
“One might look at this name as a natural, and even harmless transition considering that it does not necessarily or specifically carry a negative connotation,” Wright wrote in a statement titled Moving Forward. “But as we learned through our research and engagement with various groups, ‘context matters’ and that makes it a ‘slippery slope.’”
The name the Warriors, which is already in use by a professional basketball team, had been making the rounds as a popular suggestion on social media. According to Wright, the ball club has spent the past nine months reviewing the “unique opportunity to reevaluate” their organization “in terms of who we are today and what path we want to take into our future.”
That unique opportunity was brought about in part after FedEx, a major investor and namesake of the stadium where the club plays, suggested it was time for a change in a July 2020 open letter to the club. Pressure from the public had been mounting for years for the team to choose a less insensitive title.
“It’s no secret why we began this journey of finding a new brand identity,” Wright acknowledged. “It centered around our old name and its use of Native American imagery and racialized language.”
Wright conceded in his statement that not all Washington football fans have been pleased about recent changes, but said that moving forward was “the right thing to do.”
He gave no indication to which other names were under consideration. The team won its division in the 2020-2021 season, despite a losing record of seven wins and nine losses. They narrowly edged out the Giants, who finished second with a dismal record of six wins and 10 losses.
