The Washington Football Team will unveil its new team name and logo on Feb. 2, team president Jason Wright said on Tuesday. The new name won’t be “Wolves” or “RedWolves” for trademark reasons, Wright said, ruling out two options that were popular among fans during the rebranding process.
“Early on we understood Wolves — or some variation of it — was one of our fan favorites,” Wright wrote in a letter published on WFT’s website. “As I’ve said all along, we take feedback from our fans seriously, and because of your interest in this name, we put Wolves on a list of options to explore fully.
“Once we began looking into Wolves, however, we became aware of a notable challenge: Trademarks held by other teams would limit our ability to make the name our own. And without Wolves, variations like RedWolves wouldn’t have been viable either for these and other reasons.”
The Washington Football Team has played under the WFT moniker for two seasons. Wright previously told The Athletic that he anticipated announcing the new name in 2022.
“Our journey to a new identity is a marathon, not a sprint. To get it right, we had to take every step of the process seriously, and the destination is a sum of all those parts,” Wright said in a video released by the team.
Said Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs: “I just think the heritage and the history of our team is what’s so important, and, as fans, I think we’re going to rally around that team. I’d say probably what’s more important about naming the team, it’s trying to bring everybody together. Whatever the name winds up being, we’re going to support those players and the coaching staff. That’s the one thing that we’ve got going for ourselves is the loyalty that we have for that team.”
(Photo: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)
