I have to admit that in my years of writing about sports I have come across a plethora of terrible team names. From The Lord Jeffs to the FL Fart and on down to the Fighting Artichokes, there is no shortage of weird, unusual, and sometimes unlikable team names.
However, all of these pale in comparison to how I feel about the Washington Football Team. First of all, the term “football team” suggests they are a soccer team to those who are not already familiar.
Secondly, from a writing standpoint, it is impossible to refer to them as simply “The Football Team” because that sounds ridiculous.
As does WFT. It is as much of a WTF name as it looks like. It reads as if I was using a template to write with and forgot to fill in one of the team names. Long story short, I hate the name of this team and cannot wait for them to pick a suitable alternative that wasn’t conceived by a seven-year-old soccer fan.
So, imagine my shock when the former Redskins announced that they have a new name and will announce it on the 2nd of February. On that date, the NFL team from Washington will reveal the new name, logo, and uniforms according to the team. We also know that two names are officially out of the running. The Wolves and the RedWolves have been deemed worse than Washington Football Team and will not be chosen. So, with weeks to go before we get the announcement, it’s time to play bookmaker.
WynnBET Sportsbook doesn’t have odds for this prop bet as of this writing. However, we can use the information floating out in the ether to make some informed odds. Here is how it would go if I was behind the desk.
Commanders +200
The Commanders, as well as all the other names to follow, were taken from a tweet that stated there were a list of eight names that Washington was considering. One was the WFT while the RedWolves was another. The Commanders name was on that list, but I didn’t think they would go that route personally. That all changed today when Washington released some teaser images from their new jerseys. While the colors remain the same and there are no logos visible, there are symbols that lead me to believe that the Commanders might be their choice. If you look at the pictures posted to Twitter, you can see that there are several gold stars along the collar of the jerseys. Stars are symbols that are often used in the military and could give us a clue as to the name chosen.
On top of the official posts, the domain name “WashingtonCommanders” was created just a half-hour before the press release in July that announced the original name change from the Redskins.
RedHogs +300
While this name doesn’t mean much to the casual NFL fan, to die-hard Washington fans it envokes the memories of the 80s and 90s. The term RedHogs refers to the Washington offensive line during that time that won three Super Bowl rings with Joe Gibbs at the helm. While this would be a nice tribute, the name itself is pretty awful and I can only imagine what kind of David Cronenberg creation would be their mascot.
Defenders +800
This, again, has a lot to do with what the uniforms look like. With the star pattern, they envoke ideas of the military. Maybe Washington doesn’t want to specifically honor Commanders or Generals, but rather the work that the entire armed forces do to defend the USA. Therefore, a more general term can be used but still refer to the military.
As he previously stated, Rivera believes that the most important criteria for the new name is that it both respects Native American culture and is a tribute to the military.
