Washington’s NFL team to be called ‘Washington Football Team’ in 2020 with new nickname and logo on hold

It appears Washington’s NFL team won’t have a new name or logo anytime soon.

The franchise announced Thursday that it has decided call itself the “Washington Football Team” throughout the upcoming season as it continues to finalize a replacement name and logo for “Redskins,” which will be formally retired once the games begin.

The team will keep its burgundy and gold color scheme but play with new jerseys when the season kicks off Sept. 13. The Indian head logo on the helmets will be replaced with players’ jersey numbers. 

Washington dropped its old name and logo earlier this month amid continued pressure from key sponsors and activists, who had long criticized the name as racist. The team has not publicly revealed a timeline for its formal rebranding process or when a new name might be revealed.

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“The decision to use ‘Washington Football Team’ for this season allows the franchise the ability to undertake an in-depth branding process to properly include player, alumni, fan, community, and sponsor input,” the franchise announced in a statement. 

“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.”

“Warriors,” “Red Tails” and “Red Wolves” are among the possible replacement names that have been floated by fans.

The move to formally adopt an interim name and branding signals that the process of picking a new moniker will take longer than initially planned.

New head coach Ron Rivera had told The Washington Post that he hoped a new name would be announced before the start of training camp. The process of rebranding an NFL team, however, is complex — involving the acquisition of trademarks and domain names and the production of new merchandise, among other issues. 

While several of the team’s key players expressed supporton social media for the team’s temporary look, others were perplexed. 

“Just waking back up from my pregame nap to see about The Washington Football team???” NBA star LeBron James, a fan of the rival Dallas Cowboys, wrote on Twitter. “Is that real?? No way! Oh man they had a thorough intense long board meeting about that one huh.”

Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad