Washington Adopts 'Washington Football Team' Name For 2020 Season

WASHINGTON, DC — The Washington NFL franchise, formerly known as the Washington Redskins, is officially changing its name to the Washington Football Team, at least for the 2020 season. The team announced the decision to go with Washington Football Team as its new name on Thursday, more than a week after it said it would no longer be known as the Redskins.

The Washington franchise had been under growing pressure from its corporate sponsors to stop using Redskins, a name that many people believe is a slur toward Native Americans.

“For updated brand clarity and consistency purposes, we will call ourselves the 'Washington Football Team' pending adoption of a new name,” the team said Thursday in a news release. “We encourage fans, media and all other parties to use 'Washington Football Team' immediately. The Redskins name and logo will officially be retired by the start of the 2020 season.”

"To date, we have been pleased to see so many people putting forward their vision of what the new name and design should be on their social media channels and we look forward to including their feedback as this process progresses," the team said.

While "Football Team" is not used by American football clubs, many soccer teams in Europe and the United States use "Football Club" or FC as their name, with perhaps the best known being FC Barcelona. The Washington NFL franchise did not offer any indication that it is considering adopting Washington Football Team, or Washington FT, as its permanent name.

Washington said it will begin "the process of retiring all Redskins branding from team properties whether it be FedExField, Redskins Park, other physical and digital spaces" starting Friday and over the next 50 days.

The team also plans to debut its Washington Football Team home uniforms in its week 1 game against the Eagles and away uniforms in week 2 against the Arizona Cardinals.

Fans will be able to purchase Washington Football Team merchandise from Fanatics and NFL Shop in the coming days, the team said.

The decision to change the team name comes after owner Dan Snyder famously said in 2013 that he would never change the team name, when asked about protests and lawsuits against the nickname.

"We'll never change the name," Snyder told USA Today in 2013. "It's that simple. NEVER — you can use caps."

For decades, Native Americans and others criticized the team for using what they deemed a racial slur for its nickname. Everything changed when George Floyd died in late May under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Protests against Floyd's death spread from Minneapolis across the country, with demonstrators calling for racial justice.

That anger carried over to other parts of American society, with the public calling for a reckoning with the atrocities committed against Native Americans and the profiting by sports teams off Native Americans and their imagery.

The decision to go with Washington Football Team as its name comes as the franchise is embroiled in a scandal over allegations by 15 former female employees of the team that they were sexually harassed during their time with the team.

The allegations fall into two categories: unwelcome overtures or comments of a sexual nature, and exhortations to wear revealing clothing and flirt with clients to close sales deals, according to the Washington Post, which broke the story.

Allegations were made against several former male employees, including Larry Michael, the club's former longtime radio voice and head of the team's media and content operations. Michael retired from the team a day before the Washington Post published its article on July 16.

On Tuesday, Washington announced that it had hired NBC Sports Washington anchor and reporter Julie Donaldson to replace Michael as senior vice president of media and content.

Donaldson tweeted Thursday that the name change process "will be a thorough, thoughtful, and inclusive process. Something to be proud of for the next years!"