Washington Commanders

The Washington Football Team are a National Football League (NFL) team based in Landover, Maryland. They are members of the National Football Conference (NFC) East Division, and owned by Dan and Tanya Snyder as of 2022.

With Congress standing by to spend unlimited funds to prop it up with taxpayer dollars, the owners' asking price for a possible sale of the team in 2022 is $7 billion.^[1] Reportedly two possible bids for the team are by a group led by Jeff Bezos and Jay-Z, and by the Fenway Sports Group (formerly the New England Sports Venture).

History and League Success[edit]

The team started in 1932 as the Boston Braves, changed to the Boston Redskins the following year, then relocated to the District in 1937.

The team has won three Super Bowls (1982, 1987, and 1991), all under the leadership of head coach Joe Gibbs. They also won two NFL championships prior to the AFL-NFL merger (1937 -- its first year in the District -- and 1942).

Name Change[edit]

The former team name (the Washington Redskins) has long been a source of controversy, being considered an ethnic slur against Native Americans (so much so that a Federal agency voted to cancel six trademarks owned by the franchise, a decision later rendered moot by a Supreme Court ruling in a similar case involving an Asian-American rock band called "The Slants" -- another ethnic slur -- which was ruled to be private speech and thus protected by the First Amendment).

However, current team owner Daniel Snyder -- though considered one of the worst owners in sports for his overall mismanagement of the franchise -- long resisted any calls to change the name. But Snyder also desired to relocate the franchise -- which moved outside of the District to the Maryland suburbs in 1997 -- back into the District's boundaries (and to get the District to pay for a new stadium with taxpayer money), yet was told repeatedly that the District would never consider doing so as long as the team remained the Redskins. Finally, in July 2020 (following pressure from the media, the District, and corporate liberals associated with the Antifa and BLM rioters), Snyder gave in and announced the team would be changing its name, though a new mascot had not yet been decided on.^[2] They changed their name to the "Washington Football Team" for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, before announcing the "Commanders" name shortly thereafter.

NFC East Rivals[edit]

• Dallas Cowboys (the Cowboys-Washington rivalry is considered among the tops in the NFL)
• New York Giants
• Philadelphia Eagles

External links[edit]

• Team site
• Washington Redskins

References[edit]