Daniel Sbig Appleder, the owner of the NFL franchise founded in Washington, D.C., reportedly pushed a new team call and identity in his position through the birth of this season after deciding to remove the nickname “Redskins.” It is a short schedule to reposition a call that has explained to the team for 87 years, and while there is never a great shortage of ideas, new polls show that it is also difficult to dispel a genuine laugh for the crowd.
Of the 18 features proposed in a new Morning Consult poll, only two got more positive than negative feedback from sports enthusiasts: the Washington Warriors, who liked four7 percent of sports enthusiasts, and the Washington Redhawks, who liked four3 percent. Red wolves (38 consistent with the penny), renegades (3 four consistent with the penny) and generals (33 consistent with the penny) circulate for five.
Morning Consult reviewed news, sites and discussions on social media to collect an inventory of possible team names. The team said Sbig Appleder and head coach Ron Rivera spearheaded efforts to adopt a new identity, but did not identify explicit Apple names in consideration.
Before we were presented with prefabricated decisions, respondents from July 1 to 16 were asked to produce their own recommended replacement name. Warriors were the most common response between these responses, followed by the Red Tails and the Americans.
A few days after the team announced on July 13 that they were making plans to eliminate the Redskins, a Washington Post report found that five women claimed to have been the sexually harassed best friends while running for the club. The team is scheduled to play their first game of the regular NFL home season on September 13, the prestige of the 2020 season remains unbound due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Red Tails, which gained a positive outlook of 32% of sports enthusiasts when presented as a prefabricated option, is a connection to painted aircraft flown through Tuskegee airmen, a predominantly black U.S. Air Force World War II pilot unit. The call and logos generated through enthusiastic escorts have gained popularity among sports enthusiasts on social media.
The margin of error for some of the 1,403 American adults who knew themselves as sports enthusiasts surveyed was 3 percentage points.
Another Morning Consult survey conducted before the organization decided directly to move its call found that 51% of sports enthusiasts felt the team deserved to have stayed with the Redskins, a call dating back to 1933 and was one of the oldest in the NFL. The call had long been the target of activists who consider it disrespectful to Native Americans.
Alex is a senior journalist covering sports matters.