Washington Commanders to debut new NFL identity

[CATLogo1]

2 hours ago, Scrumptious Ham said:

It doesn't matter because it's Commanders, but the 3 stars could fit any name. Its a DC thing. 

Honestly, it feels like a huge swing and a miss by the Washington NFL team to apparently pick "Commanders" as its new permanent club name. We'll all have to wait until February 2 for the official reveal, as well as the accompanying explanation from Washington as to why they picked the name "Commanders", but it's disappointing that they couldn't resolve enough trademark issues with all relevant teams (such as Arkansas State University) that used the name "Red Wolves". Also, I'm preparing to be disappointed by the logo & uniform design reveal on February 2. I definitely feel like Washington's classic uniform design (the uniforms they wear now) are clean and timeless.

[tBBP]

3 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

Oilers to Titans & Browns to Ravens

 

Not to open this can up again but *technically* the Ravens were an expansion franchise when they set up shop in '96.

 

Now, back to the Commanders thing (if indeed that's what the new name will be, and I'm convinced now it is): someone else explained the possible connection on a previous page so I'll reiterate: George Washington, namesake of Washington DC, was commanding officer--or, said another way, commander--of the Continental Army. As for the three stars thing, yes it's from DC's flag (itself based on Washington's family coat of arms). It's not exactly common for a three-star to be a commanding officer of a line formation (it can happen though), but that to the side, the ranking officer of any unit regardless of size is referred to as the "commanding officer", or "commander" informally (as in "company commander"). So there's that.

[Cujo]

29 minutes ago, tBBP said:

Not to open this can up again but *using WWE rules, where you can rewrite history to make people feel better about about an awkward situation* the Ravens were an expansion franchise when they set up shop in '96

 

Fixed.

 

Jim Brown, Bernie Kosar, Ray Lewis, Lamar Jackson all played for the exact same franchise.

[Moseph]

1 hour ago, CATLogo1 said:

Honestly, it feels like a huge swing and a miss by the Washington NFL team to apparently pick "Commanders" as its new permanent club name. We'll all have to wait until February 2 for the official reveal, as well as the accompanying explanation from Washington as to why they picked the name "Commanders", but it's disappointing that they couldn't resolve enough trademark issues with all relevant teams (such as Arkansas State University) that used the name "Red Wolves". Also, I'm preparing to be disappointed by the logo & uniform design reveal on February 2. I definitely feel like Washington's classic uniform design (the uniforms they wear now) are clean and timeless.

I don't agree with you on the name Red Wolves, I don't understand all the hype and it seems like a pop warner team to me. 

 

I do agree about the uniforms though, it will be a travesty to lose them. Its one of the top looks in the league and is just as wrong as modernizing a team like the Packers, Bears, or Raiders. Hopefully they'll bring the current uniforms back in the five years when they'll be eligible to change this mistake, which conveniently is when they should have a new stadium.

[Bill0813]

 

[ManillaToad]

49 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

Fixed.

 

Jim Brown, Bernie Kosar, Ray Lewis, Lamar Jackson all played for the exact same franchise.

 

Complete fanfiction. Every party involved agrees the Ravens were not the Browns.

[Cujo]

2 minutes ago, ManillaToad said:

Complete fanfiction. Every party involved agrees the Ravens were not the Browns.

 

So Vinny Testaverde and the entire 1995 Browns roster/staff/front office/ownership were TRADED to the Baltimore Ravens expansion team in 1996. That makes all the sense in the world! Now using that faux logic, explain to me how the Tennessee Titans and Houston Oilers continue to be the same franchise with the same lineage

[ManillaToad]

10 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

So Vinny Testaverde and the entire 1995 Browns roster/staff/front office/ownership were TRADED to the Baltimore Ravens expansion team in 1996. That makes all the sense in the world! Now using that faux logic, explain to me how the Tennessee Titans and Houston Oilers continue to be the same franchise with the same lineage

 

No trade was possible, because the team they played for was no longer in operation. The NFL, Ravens, and former Browns personnel all agreed to assign that personnel to the new Baltimore franchise. Situations like this happened all the time in the early 20th century in American sports. Just because it happened in our lifetimes doesn't mean it's different.

The Titans legally own the history, branding, and records of the Houston Oilers. The Ravens do not in any way say they were the Browns, and they own nothing in relation to Cleveland.

[AstroCreep]

11 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

So Vinny Testaverde and the entire 1995 Browns roster/staff/front office/ownership were TRADED to the Baltimore Ravens expansion team in 1996. That makes all the sense in the world! Now using that faux logic, explain to me how the Tennessee Titans and Houston Oilers continue to be the same franchise with the same lineage

Titans still own the name and history of the Oilers. The Browns name and history was agreed to stay in Cleveland. 

[4_tattoos]

Now that I think about it, I'm surprised Jack Kent Cooke never owned/bought any rights to "The Hogs" name. I remember seeing people wearing Hogs shirts when I was young. Seems like that money could've gone to the team instead of random local vendors. By the time Dan Snyder came in all the original Hogs were out of the league, but some fans still wore pig snouts and other hog related stuff to games (saw a guy on tv during the WFT/NYG game earlier wearing a hardhat with a snout attached to it). Probably wouldn't have made since for Snyder to have bought the rights to that name earlier in his ownership. Simply having that name trademarked for merchandise sakes, could have probably made the last 2 years gone by easier.

[CATLogo1]

5 minutes ago, ManillaToad said:

 

No trade was possible, because the team they played for was no longer in operation. The NFL, Ravens, and former Browns personnel all agreed to assign that personnel to the new Baltimore franchise. Situations like this happened all the time in the early 20th century in American sports. Just because it happened in our lifetimes doesn't mean it's different.

The Titans legally own the history, branding, and records of the Houston Oilers. The Ravens do not in any way say they were the Browns, and they own nothing in relation to Cleveland.

Exactly.  Officially speaking, the Baltimore Ravens were founded as an expansion franchise that began play in the 1996 NFL season. Meanwhile. the Cleveland Browns' history was temporarily suspended from 1996 through 1998, with the club rejoining the NFL prior to the start of the 1999 NFL season.  This is all factual information, according to the 2021 Official NFL Record & Fact Book:
2021_NFL_Record_and_Fact_Book.pdf

[_RH_]

41 minutes ago, Bill0813 said:

 

Every time I see this logo (and I hope it's going away soon) I think it's ownerships' reaction to the name change...

 

Society: Please change the name of the Washington football team

Snyder: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Cujo]

17 minutes ago, CATLogo1 said:

Exactly.  Officially speaking, the Baltimore Ravens were founded as an expansion franchise that began play in the 1996 NFL season. Meanwhile. the Cleveland Browns' history was temporarily suspended from 1996 through 1998, with the club rejoining the NFL prior to the start of the 1999 NFL season.  This is all factual information, according to the 2021 Official NFL Record & Fact Book:
2021_NFL_Record_and_Fact_Book.pdf

 

Now show me a records book that was drawn up 1996 or 1997. The Ravens will have the same records and same lineage as the Cleveland Browns. Everything, at the time, carried over to Baltimore. It wasn't until the '99 Expansion Browns were announced that the NFL decided to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.

[sky1324]

6 minutes ago, Cujo said:

 

Now show me a records book that was drawn up 1996 or 1997. The Ravens will have the same records and same lineage as the Cleveland Browns. Everything, at the time, carried over to Baltimore. It wasn't until the '99 Expansion Browns were announced that the NFL decided to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.

This is not true. As part of the agreement between the city of Cleveland and the NFL, the name, logo, colors, history, awards, and archives of the Cleveland Browns remained in Cleveland and never moved to Baltimore. Art Modell is sometimes considered to have moved the organization, but not the franchise. The Baltimore Ravens have always been the 31st NFL franchise and the Browns were always "deactivated" from 1996-98.

[Cujo]

14 minutes ago, QCS said:

This is not true. As part of the agreement between the city of Cleveland and the NFL, the name, logo, colors, history, awards, and archives of the Cleveland Browns remained in Cleveland and never moved to Baltimore. Art Modell is sometimes considered to have moved the organization, but not the franchise. The Baltimore Ravens have always been the 31st NFL franchise and the Browns were always "deactivated" from 1996-98.

 

When I was a young pup, I would bust out the sports section of the Sunday newspaper (yes, the newspaper) each week. Underneath every game preview (done up by the Associated Press, so they would know if there was some pause on records or lineage) they'd list all-time vs records for each upcoming match-up. When the Ravens were playing whoever, (for example) they were listed as 20-14 all-time vs whatever team they were about to play -- not 0-0, as an expansion team would have been listed.

 

Yes, we know in 1996 Art Modell and the city of Cleveland came to an agreement to leave the nickname "Browns" in Cleveland, but records were 100% transferred to Baltimore at that time.

[chakfu]

2 hours ago, Cujo said:

 

Fixed.

 

Jim Brown, Bernie Kosar, Ray Lewis, Lamar Jackson all played for the exact same franchise.

 

How did they manage to rewrite history before it happened? Sounds more like an unusual history unfolding in real time.

[Pharos04]

We are all aware that the Cleveland Deal has been a disaster for record books between “official” history and “actual” history.

the team that played in Cleveland one year was in Baltimore the next. Records were in a state of flux until the NFL figured it out. Newspapers not aware of the nuances would have just treated it as every other move that had happened prior because the Deal was so bizarre and unusual.

The franchise and history stayed; the staff and team and everything else moved.

 

Can we please not Clevejack this?

[Cujo]

16 minutes ago, Pharos04 said:

We are all aware that the Cleveland Deal has been a disaster for record books between “official” history and “actual” history.

the team that played in Cleveland one year was in Baltimore the next. Records were in a state of flux until the NFL figured it out. Newspapers not aware of the nuances would have just treated it as every other move that had happened prior because the Deal was so bizarre and unusual.

The franchise and history stayed; the staff and team and everything else moved.

 

The closest thing to the Browns/Ravens relocation is the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL.

 

Like the 1996-98 Baltimore Browns, the Jets' records, history, lineage continued in Phoenix. When the New Jets came along, were the city of Winnepeg and new Jets franchise able to pry the old Jets records back from the Coyotes, 'fake' like the team just went on a decade-long hiatus, and say the Coyotes were just expansion?

[BBTV]

On 1/4/2022 at 8:43 PM, BBTV said:

 

It can be real quick.  There's no thread that's safe from a good old fashioned Clevejacking.  Even Browns threads have somehow been Clevejacked!

 

I told ya!

[Cujo]

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

On 1/4/2022 at 6:43 PM, BBTV said:

It can be real quick.  There's no thread that's safe from a good old fashioned Clevejacking.  Even Browns threads have somehow been Clevejacked!

I told ya!

 

As author and founder of the term CLEVEJACKED, I feel I deserve immunity from any ridicule or backlash which stems from a proper Chris Creamer Sports Logo Community message board Clevejacking.