The Washington Commanders entered the professional football ranks as the Boston Braves for the 1932 season. A year later they changed their name to the Redskins. This stuck for 86 seasons. Washington briefly renamed their franchise ahead of the NFL 2020 season to Washington Football Team before finally changing it to Washington Commanders in 2022.
The team moved South to Washington DC in 1937 and achieved instant success. They claimed the NFL Championship by beating the Chicago Bears. However, just 3 seasons down the line, they got walloped in the championship game by the same opponent.
The 73-0 humbling remains professional football's most one-sided result. The Washington Redskins, as they were known, kept winning before an alarming collapse in the mid-1940s.
They remained away from the Playoffs for 26 seasons. After 24 seasons of no Playoffs, the franchise roped in Green Bay Packers legend Vincent Lombardi to help the side turn things around.
Lombardi had helped the Wisconsin-based franchise to back-to-back Super Bowl wins. The Washington Football Team came into the 2020 NFL season with the second-worst record in the 2019 NFL season. They won just three games and earned the second overall draft pick. They managed to turn things around in a massive way with a berth that took them to a wild-card playoff game in the 2020 season.
The franchise drafted prospect Chase Young along with hiring coach Ron Rivera to help turn things around. Despite the name change, the team has retained its uniform colors of Burgundy and Gold.
In a stacked NFL East division alongside the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles, the newly renamed Washington Commanders will have its work cut out.
Advertising executive Daniel Snyder serves as principal owner of the Washington Commanders. He purchased the team for $800 million ahead of the 1999 NFL season, where they finished atop the NFC East.
The Washington Commanders boasts of five League Championship wins, including three wins in the Super Bowl era. All three Super Bowl wins came in a 10-year span between 1982 to 1991.
In this spell, they attempted to join a select few teams to have retained the trophy. However, they came up short in the 1983 Super Bowl and had to be content with being NFC Champions. They claimed the NFC title on five occasions and have won their respective division on 14 occasions.
Washington Commanders has featured 25 times in the playoffs with their latest postseason appearance coming for the 2020 NFL season.
Three players have clinched the NFL regular season MVP in the Burgundy-Gold jersey. These are Larry Brown (1972), Mark Moseley (1982), and Joe Theismann (1983).
The Washington franchise has had multiple logos in their tenure as an NFL team. Under their previous name, the team had a variety of logos.
Most of the designs depicted a native American within a circle. However, after the logo and name controversy that prompted the team to change its name, the franchise opted to take time before rebranding themselves in earnest. As a result, they opted to rename themselves the Washington Commanders in 2022.
Despite a number of name changes and logo alterations, the franchise has stuck to their original Burgundy-Gold theme with the capital letter 'W' signifying the capital, Washington.
The Washington Commanders steered clear of disaster in 2020 when they almost lost some massive name sponsors due to the name-change controversy. Owner Daniel Snyder ignored the initial cries to have the Redskins name changed leading to the potential loss of Nike, FedEx, and PepsiCo. Nike is the official apparel supplier of the NFL and PepsiCo, the team beverage and snack partner.
The biggest hit would have potentially been from FedEx which is the naming sponsor of the team’s home stadium. FedEx threatened to end its naming rights deal for the stadium after the upcoming season which would have prematurely ended the $205 million deal scheduled to run through the 2025 season.
Quarterbacks | #4 Taylor Heinicke #14 Sam Howell #11 Carson Wentz |
Running Backs | #38 Reggie Bonnafon #24 Antonio Gibson #23 J.D. McKissic #32 Jaret Patterson #8 Brian Robinson #41 Jonathan Williams |
Wide Receivers | #2 Dyami Brown #18 Matt Cole #1 Jahan Dotson #86 Alex Erickson #83 Kyric McGowan #17 Terry McLaurin #19 Marken Michel #15 Dax Milne #10 Curtis Samuel #89 Cam Sims |
Tight Ends | #87 John Bates #40 Kendall Blanton #46 Jake Hausmann #45 Curtis Hodges #88 Armani Rogers #82 Logan Thomas #85 Cole Turner |
Offensive Linemen | #60 Keith Ismael #73 Chase Roullier #61 Jon Toth #64 Willie Beavers #74 Nolan Laufenberg #63 Wes Martin #68 Andrew Norwell #75 Chris Paul #71 Wes Schweitzer #53 Trai Turner #62 Alex Akingbulu #77 Saahdiq Charles #76 Sam Cosmi #72 Charles Leno Jr. #78 Cornelius Lucas #67 Aaron Monteiro |
Defensive Linemen | #56 Will Bradley-King #97 Efe Obada #91 Jacub Panasiuk #96 James Smith-Williams #90 Montez Sweat #58 Shaka Toney #95 Casey Toohill #92 Daniel Wise #93 Jonathan Allen #64 David Bada #62 Tyler Clark #79 Justin Hamilton #98 Phidarian Mathis #94 Daron Payne |
Linebackers | #52 Jamin Davis #46 Milo Eifler #45 De'Jon Harris #55 Cole Holcomb #47 Khaleke Hudson #51 David Mayo #41 Tre Walker |
Defensive Backs | #26 Corn Elder #29 Kendall Fuller #34 Christian Holmes #3 William Jackson III #36 Danny Johnson #37 DeJuan Neal #25 Benjamin St-Juste #38 Josh Drayden #16 Steven Parker #35 Percy Butler #31 Kamren Curl #22 Darrick Forrest #48 Farrod Gardner #20 Bobby McCain #39 Jeremy Reaves |
Special Team | #6 Joey Slye #54 Camaron Cheeseman #5 Tress Way |
Owner Dan and Tanya Snyder created the Washington Football Charitable Foundation in 2000 and have given more than $29 M to the community. They provide support and services to nearly 178, 000 individuals (mostly children) with a focus on education, health, and wellness. Additionally, the FITT (frequency, Intensity, Time & Type)- is a youth health and wellness initiative.
Moreover, the Loads of Love campaign installed washers and dryers in schools that serve students who lack access to clean clothes. Not to mention, the READ campaign makes an effort to make reading more fun in elementary school. The program centers around an in-school learning tool with monthly prompts for students to analyze books of their choice and much more.
Founded | 1932 |
Owner | Daniel Snyder |
CEO | Tanya Snyder |
Head Coach | Ron Rivera |
General Manager | Martin Mayhew |
Stadium | FedEx Field |
Location | Landover, Maryland |
Championships | League championships (5) NFL Championships (pre-1970 AFL-NFL merger) (2) 1937, 1942 Super Bowl championships (3) 1982 (XVII), 1987 (XXII), 1991 (XXVI) Conference championships (5) NFC: 1972, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1991 Division championships (15) NFL Eastern: 1936, 1937, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1945 NFC East: 1972, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015, 2020 |
Official Website | Washington Commanders- www.commanders.com |