The Washington Redskins Era is Officially Over, but They May Have a Problem

This morning, the Washington Redskins officially announced they will be retiring the Redskins nickname and logo.

The Washington NFL team has officially “retired” its nickname and logo. https://t.co/RDGRmp3zcV

— ESPN (@espn) July 13, 2020

If you have been paying attention, this should come as no surprise. Washington and its majority owner Daniel Snyder has been pressured on numerous occasions to change the name. He has never budged, but after threats from FedEX, Nike and more, it became in Snyder’s best interest to change the outdated moniker.

Dan Snyder changed the name of his NFL team not because of sudden racial awareness or altruism. He did it because of money when FedEx, Nike, Pepsi and Bank of America all threatened to pull their sponsorship.https://t.co/wjq85TFhXL

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 13, 2020

Whatever your thoughts are on whether the name was offensive or not, my take is that the notion that a nickname may be offensive at all should remove it from any potential consideration. I know that ‘Reskins’ has been Washington’s name forever, but if even one person found that offensive they should have moved on from it long ago.

Either way, it the Redskins are officially out the door after 87 years. So what will the new name be? In the teams most recent press release, they stated that Snyder and head coach Ron Rivera are working closely together on finding a new name and logo.

Now official: pic.twitter.com/N4Ouq9yXil

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 13, 2020

Although it may sound easy in re-naming the team, Washington may have an issue on their hands. There are “trademark squatters” that have filed trademarks for some of the reported names under Snyder’s consideration.

The problem with the @Redskins approach is that they’ve telegraphed their name change to cash in on some good PR.

This has allowed others a huge head start to file trademarks on the most logical names. Per @WallachLegal, here’s an example of the names one squatter has cornered. https://t.co/7LyysLi5i4 pic.twitter.com/lVigQJfcVi

— Sports Law Lust🎙 (@SportsLawLust) July 13, 2020

In the end it will most likely just cost Washington money, but holy crap is that annoying. Still, smart on the squatter for being ahead of the curve. He is about to make some dollar dollar bills y’all.

via GIPHY

I think the most important names that this person trademarked has to be the Red Wolves, Redtails, and Warriors. Those all seem like logical replacements based on public reaction across social media. But whatever the name ends up being, I’m glad that it is the end of the Redskins era. It was time for change and thankfully that change is coming.

-Jarrod Ribaudo (@Jribs53)