NFL 2023 Changes

[HOOVER]

To add to my post above, I believe the best solution to all is to rename the team the "Washington Warriors".

 

And yes, they should go back to Native American imagery.  

They should represent Native American culture in a positive light.

 

They should offer Native American benefits, or even minority ownership.  

They should use their stage to highlight Native American history and teach it to today's generation and beyond, in a respectful manner.

This can help heal the wounds on both sides: those of Native American ancestry who were hurt by the logo or name, and those who loved it because it was just their team, and therefore miss it.   They can even salvage some things from their past, like the '65-69 uniforms, as a Throwback alternate.

"Representation" is such a buzz word used by some today;  this is a way that it could be used for good.  Put original Americans on the national stage, where they belong.

[HOOVER]

And, if "Warriors" is too violent or offensive still, they've already got some wording in-house that would also work very well:

 

https://www.commanders.com/team/history/

[aawagner011]

I never had an issue with the Commanders name. My issue is with the horrible inconsistencies across all three uniforms.

 

Some teams can get away with having differences from uniform to uniform. The Giants have a different road design with historical precedent. The Cardinals just unveiled a new set that makes an intentional choice to have a different home design that has some historical precedent. I can understand those.

 

Washington told us they are incapable of narrowing it down to one or two styles and instead just threw everything at the wall and everything stuck. That’s why they look like designs from three different teams.

 

There is no reason to have two uniforms with a stencil pattern and one without. Ditto for one uniform to have gradient numbers. Why does the home have classic stripes while the away have basically the same but slightly different with a gradient application set against a colored sleeve? Why does the white set almost completely omit yellow? I don’t like how the helmet stripe doesn’t match the sleeve stripes. The black is so needless. This is the least cohesive set in the league.

 

I can appreciate an intentional decision to make part of the uniform unique. But this is just a cluster. Everything feels like they couldn’t decide so they just chose all options available. They should use the home jersey as the base to work with and create road and alternates based off that.

 

[GFB]

Commanders has never clicked with me... It has always felt like the dollar store version of the ideal Generals, or the diet alternative to Admirals or Colonels. The brand currently feels.... empty and void of any kind of imagery or symbolism for fans to latch onto.

 

Are they asking their fans to dress up and cosplay as American soliders coming into the game, the way Raiders and Lions and Bears and Eagles fans do? To their credit, the mass majority of red-blooded NFL fans have more common sense than that when it comes to stealing valor or making light of the troops. 

 

If any of the above is actually true, it's is a funny twist of fate in my mind; because at the time of the unveiling, my gut reaction to the Commanders moniker was that the team was using the American armed forces as a human PR shield in an attempt to quiet the loudest parts of the"They'll always be the 'skins to me, no matter what cancel culture has to say"  fanbase... because who is going to speak out against honoring our bravest men and women?

 

[McCall]

4 hours ago, aawagner011 said:

 

"We can dance if we want to..."

[HOOVER]

2 hours ago, GFB said:

Commanders has never clicked with me... It has always felt like the dollar store version of the ideal Generals, or the diet alternative to Admirals or Colonels. The brand currently feels.... empty and void of any kind of imagery or symbolism for fans to latch onto.

 

Are they asking their fans to dress up and cosplay as American soliders coming into the game, the way Raiders and Lions and Bears and Eagles fans do? To their credit, the mass majority of red-blooded NFL fans have more common sense than that when it comes to stealing valor or making light of the troops. 

 

If any of the above is actually true, it's is a funny twist of fate in my mind; because at the time of the unveiling, my gut reaction to the Commanders moniker was that the team was using the American armed forces as a human PR shield in an attempt to quiet the loudest parts of the"They'll always be the 'skins to me, no matter what cancel culture has to say"  fanbase... because who is going to speak out against honoring our bravest men and women?

 

“Commanders” is weak, indeed very generic.  There’s also no mascot, no imagery, and the colors don’t align at all.  
 

Maybe if the Patriots and Texans weren’t a thing and they could’ve used Navy/Red/Grey/White, or even changed to Olive Green & Tan, and used some actual military figure imagery or mascot, it’d work, but as it stands, it’s very stupid.  
 

 

[gosioux76]

15 hours ago, GFB said:

Commanders has never clicked with me... It has always felt like the dollar store version of the ideal Generals, or the diet alternative to Admirals or Colonels. The brand currently feels.... empty and void of any kind of imagery or symbolism for fans to latch onto.

 

Are they asking their fans to dress up and cosplay as American soliders coming into the game, the way Raiders and Lions and Bears and Eagles fans do? To their credit, the mass majority of red-blooded NFL fans have more common sense than that when it comes to stealing valor or making light of the troops. 

 

If any of the above is actually true, it's is a funny twist of fate in my mind; because at the time of the unveiling, my gut reaction to the Commanders moniker was that the team was using the American armed forces as a human PR shield in an attempt to quiet the loudest parts of the"They'll always be the 'skins to me, no matter what cancel culture has to say"  fanbase... because who is going to speak out against honoring our bravest men and women?

 

 

I agree that the Commanders name alone doesn't really stir much emotion. But I have to imagine we'd think much differently about it had they designed uniforms that weren't so abysmal. I've said this on here before, but I really thought the Kraken name was terrible, but seeing it paired with such fantastic logos and uniforms changed the way I feel about it.

 

In that sense, the Commanders name itself is probably salvageable.  The right visual branding could make it work. 

[JustABallCoach]

I like the name Commanders, but they should have at least had a Commander secondary logo. And the uniforms of course are a mess. 

[MJWalker45]

19 hours ago, WSU151 said:

 

The NFL thought they got it right last year.  The name’s not going anywhere IMO. Maybe the jerseys get updated. 

 

19 hours ago, Carolingian Steamroller said:

If the Commanders rebrand, it would come close to the record for shortest lived NFL identity after the Dallas Texas which existed for just one season in between being the New York Yanks (who last two seasons) and the Baltimore Colts.

Just changing logos and uniforms should be enough. 

[DCarp1231]

Ah :censored:, here we go again.

[walkerws]

They could have made a SGT Rock type logo that was a neutral skin tone or just gray and you have a serviceable commander. Also, Colonels are known as full birds so you could have stylized that rank inside a star, add the evidently compulsory DC flag and build off that for a better look. The stencil W is meh, so you could restore the WFT W and no-one would notice.  my 2 cents. 

[Kiltman]

Letting the new owners rebrand to one of the fan favorites (after they pay the nominal fee Snyder was too cheap for) seems like an easy win for new ownership.

 

But yeah just redoing the branding around it and getting new uniforms is enough. Which with the sale speeds up the process of that getting done.

[tBBP]

I still think "Warthogs" was the way to go.

 

I don't remember who, but someone somewhere concocted a visual identity that blended imagery of the plane with enough of the animal that one could feel inclined to go either way with it and at any rate emotionally connect more than with "Commanders" (which still doesn't even roll off the tongue right when said after "Washington"). 

[8BW14]

I don’t like the Commanders name, but I highly doubt it’s going anywhere. I’ll always stump for Redwolves or WFT. Going back to the classic uniforms with a white/gold stripe and new, better W on the helmet would be good enough for me at this point

[SportsFan12]

 

Titans using the Columbia blue bottoms for several of these. Hope that's a good sign.

[DCarp1231]

Really love this graphic for the Commanders 2023 schedule-

[MJWalker45]

21 hours ago, HOOVER said:

To add to my post above, I believe the best solution to all is to rename the team the "Washington Warriors". And yes, they should go back to Native American imagery.  

I think that ship has sailed and they don't need to go back.  The only way for it to work is to get approval from Native American groups and they would still look at Warriors as a way of placing them in a box. 

1 hour ago, 8BW14 said:

I don’t like the Commanders name, but I highly doubt it’s going anywhere. I’ll always stump for Redwolves or WFT. Going back to the classic uniforms with a white/gold stripe and new, better W on the helmet would be good enough for me at this point

 

2 hours ago, walkerws said:

They could have made a SGT Rock type logo that was a neutral skin tone or just gray and you have a serviceable commander. Also, Colonels are known as full birds so you could have stylized that rank inside a star, add the evidently compulsory DC flag and build off that for a better look. The stencil W is meh, so you could restore the WFT W and no-one would notice.  my 2 cents. 

You mean COL Rock? 

1 hour ago, 8BW14 said:

I don’t like the Commanders name, but I highly doubt it’s going anywhere. I’ll always stump for Redwolves or WFT. Going back to the classic uniforms with a white/gold stripe and new, better W on the helmet would be good enough for me at this point

Redwolves or 32's would be a great way to move forward. With 32's you just need the colors to stay burgundy and gold, and your mascot choices are endless. 

An updated version of something like this, and a W on his chest would be a great start. 

[walkerws]

1 minute ago, MJWalker45 said:

I think that ship has sailed and they don't need to go back.  The only way for it to work is to get approval from Native American groups and they would still look at Warriors as a way of placing them in a box. 

 

You mean COL Rock? 

Redwolves or 32's would be a great way to move forward. With 32's you just need the colors to stay burgundy and gold, and your mascot choices are endless. 

An updated version of something like this, and a W on his chest would be a great start. 

The numerical names only make sense to me if you are the Sixers. That's their whole identity from the jump.  I assume the 36ers in Australia are the same way but I don't have that cultural knowledge. 

[MJWalker45]

3 minutes ago, walkerws said:

The numerical names only make sense to me if you are the Sixers. That's their whole identity from the jump.  I assume the 36ers in Australia are the same way but I don't have that cultural knowledge. 

That's liike saying a new baseball team can't be called the Blue Sox. 32 is the year they moved to DC, so that's what you go with. IT flows smoother than 76ers and 36ers as well. 

[JustABallCoach]

1 hour ago, Pigskin12 said:

 

Titans using the Columbia blue bottoms for several of these. Hope that's a good sign.

Hard to tell the Texans to not use light blue if you never use it.