Washington Football Team To Reveal New Name Feb. 2, Rules Out RedWolves

WASHINGTON, DC — The Washington Football Team is in the “homestretch” of its rebranding campaign, with plans to announce the team's new name and logo on Feb. 2, the team said Tuesday.

The announcement in February will complete a rebranding that began in 2020, amid mounting pressure from team sponsors, local officials, and Native American activists and advocacy groups who had urged the NFL to force the team to remove the Redskins name.

In Tuesday's announcement, the Washington Football Team said Redwolves — a fan favorite for a new name since the team got rid of the Redskins name in 2020 — will not be the team's new name. But the team has vowed that burgundy and gold would remain the team colors.

“One of the most awesome and powerful aspects of this process has been getting to hear and understand your preferences directly, and we know that many of you loved one or both of these names,” Washington Football Team President Jason Wright said in a statement Tuesday.

READ ALSO: Washington Adopts 'Washington Football Team' Name For 2020 Season

When the team began looking into Wolves or Redwolves as its new team name, it became aware that trademarks held by other teams would limit our ability to make the name its own. “And without Wolves, variations like RedWolves wouldn't have been viable either for these and other reasons,” Wright said.

“The prospect of years of litigation wasn't something that we wanted you, our fans, to have to bear as you begin to embrace a new brand,” he said.

Wright said it would have been impossible to pick a new name that all of the team’s fans could identify with as their first pick. But the team’s pick for its new name “aligns with our values, carries forth our rich history, represents the region and, most importantly, is inspired and informed by you, our fans.”

"We are confident that this identity is one that our team and our fans across D.C., Maryland, Virginia and beyond can rally behind for another 90 years and more as we continue to cheer on the Burgundy & Gold in this next chapter," Wright added.

The team has gone through a miserable stretch since Daniel Snyder bought the team from the estate of former owner Jack Kent Cooke in 1999. A 25-year span from the late 1960s to the early 1990s was the heyday of the franchise when Edward Bennett Williams, followed by Jack Kent Cooke, served as majority owners of the team.

The team appeared in five Super Bowls during this period, winning three of them under legendary coach Joe Gibbs.

With Snyder as owner for the past 22 years, the team has made the playoffs only five times and has never made it past the divisional playoff game.

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