Commanders Co-owner Addresses Potential Name Change: Issue Is 'On the Side for Now'

The Washington Commanders are here to stay, for now.

Co-owner Marjorie Harris told reporters Wednesday there are no plans to launch another major rebrand after having adopted the Commanders moniker ahead of the 2022 NFL season, saying the issue is "on the side for now":

The comments come after the Washington Post's Nicki Jhabvala and Emily Guskin highlighted the results of a poll among local sports fans showing 54 percent of the respondents "either dislike or hate the name."

Per Jhabvala and Guskin, "only 16 percent of Commanders fans think the team should keep the name, while most say they would like the team to change to a different name."

Ditching the former name that was used from 1933-2020, accompanying the franchise's entire run in Washington, D.C, was always going to be a contentious decision among some within the fanbase.

Choosing "Commanders" as the new nickname may not have helped matters. It's pretty generic and evokes little about the franchise's history or the surrounding area. Matt Price, a fan cited by Jhabvala and Guskin, went so far as to label it "pretentious and pompous."

In addition, the franchise might have accidentally stumbled onto something when it pivoted to "Washington Football Team" on an interim basis. That was at least something unique within the NFL landscape.

Washington Football Team actually received more votes than Commanders when fans were asked what they'd prefer to call the team.

Alas, a name change so soon is probably unrealistic given what was spent by the previous ownership regime and how much it would cost to undertake the same effort.

It's also a problem that could solve itself. The longer Washington remains the Commanders the more it will begin to stick, and at the end of the day, fans will probably care a lot less about the nickname if the team starts to win again.