Tino's Jersey Reviews: Washington Football Team
Hello everyone! Welcome back to Tino’s Jersey Reviews!
I thought this series was over about a month ago when I reviewed the Los Angeles Rams’ new uniforms. However, in this surprise review we will be taking a look at a team that is starting a new era for this upcoming season and beyond ... Let’s review the Washington Football Team.
First thoughts:
There is a lot to unpack here. If you are unaware of the situation, I will explain it to you in detail: The football team based out of Washington has committed to changing its name and is now officially called the Washington Football Team as the franchise searches for a new permanent name. Good, you are all caught up now.
Certainly fans of this team are hoping for some amazing new uniforms and a fresh new name to get ready for the 2020 season, right? To those fans: I’m sorry.
For the reasoning behind the name change and rebrand, the Washington Football Team released a statement on their official website saying, “The decision to use ‘Washington Football Team’ for this season allows the franchise the ability to undertake an in-depth branding process to properly include player, alumni, fan, community and sponsor input. To date, we have been pleased to see so many people putting forward their vision of what the new name and design should be on their social media channels and we look forward to including their feedback as this process progresses.”
But, with that being said, a 61-year-old Washington fan named Philip Martin McCauley holds trademarks for names such as the Washington Pigskins, Washington Monuments, Washington Redtails, Washington Veterans, Washington Red Wolves and Washington Warriors ... essentially all of the best potential names for the team. However, McCauley claims that he is not trying to “make a quick buck” by being a “trademark troll.”
As for the new uniforms, the team’s choices were not that shocking. The main focus for the 2020 concept was removing any references to the previous name or logo, leaving the jersey, pants and helmet looking like a middle school football team.
If you zoom in enough, you can see “Washington” printed across the chest area. They get some bonus points for that, considering the Los Angeles Chargers didn’t even make that choice with their new threads.
The other noticeable change is the helmet. Since Washington is no longer using a team logo for this season, the area where the logo used to has been replaced with each player’s number. Unfortunately, the number is not outlined in either black or white: It is simply a gold number. I think when you are wearing a uniform with so little on it to represent yourself and the team, the number should definitely be more defined. Washington now joins the Chargers in being the only two NFL teams with numbers featured prominently on their helmets for this year.
The team’s color scheme is exactly the same as what it was prior to this point, which will help to identify who they are when they’re playing against other teams. It may sound silly, but when the only difference is the removal of logos or names and the colors remain the exact same, you know what team it is without having to know their old or new name.
Now onto the fun part of the review, I’d say. I like to call this segment: Speculation!
Players, coaches, owners, and even fans are preparing to watch and play the 2020 NFL season in what could be a second wave or a heightened risk of health and safety. As of right now, players are stating they want to play under the right protocol by NFL ownership. Well, to ensure players safety thus far they have cancelled all preseason games! That is a good start, but what about during the season.
Here is what I think will happen: As of right now, if there is an NFL season, it will be shortened. I do not know by how much, but they will not go 17 weeks of playing football under the current plan (no plan) for player safety.
Second, there will not be any fans in the stands. If there are, it will be a limited amount and require distancing. I can see the stadium sponsors taking advantage of the lack of fans to promote themselves more throughout games. We may see banners of sponsor logos in the empty seats like how the MLB has done thus far.
Third, unless things drastically change, we will see many players possibly opt out of playing this season. They will lose whatever is on their contract for this year but big-name players like Seattle Seahawks quarterback, Russell Wilson have already voiced his concerns.
I say this information during this review to inform you, but to also bring it back to the Washington Football Team. Do they know something we don’t about this season? I doubt it, but why such a small change to rebrand? They could easily buy a name from Mr. McCauley and come out with new merchandise in order to help revenue they will lose from a lack of fans this year.
If the NFL doesn’t have a season at all, Washington is in the prime position to have an epic rebrand by the time they do play again. They will also be capitalizing on releasing merchandise during the off period. Why do they feel content with using such a plain and boring placeholder name for this season? Is it all because this season won’t count if too many players test positive for COVID-19?
If I were to pick a team name for Washington that was mentioned earlier, I would have to go with the Washington Warriors. I like this name because I feel like it pays respect to their history and they can utilize the letter “W” as a new logo or helmet sticker. We have actually seen something like this in their uniforms from the 1970s, when they had the letter “R” on their helmets to represent their old name.
As for the colors, I would not go super crazy in changing them. Yes, you want to sell jerseys and shirts to fans of the new look but you also do not want to lose any old fans who want to continue to wear or represent the Washington items they already have. Maybe the change could be to switch the two primary colors, so the gold would become the home jersey and white would stay the away jersey, making the dark red an alternate or just a color for the pants.
I liked how they kept it simple. I also appreciate the helmet numbers rather than just a blank helmet, but keep in mind they took away much more than they added.
Tino’s Rating: 4.6
Washington does not have the worst score – that still goes to the Indianapolis Colts, who got a 2.1. In the end, the Washington Football Team has a ton of potential here.
I would like to see them listen to what the fans want and move toward a new era with that feedback in mind. Not everyone can be happy, but if they listen to the fans it will be a good start.
Washington got a lower score than the Cleveland Browns as well because they could have done things to make their uniform look nicer while also letting everyone know it is a “placeholder” year for them. I would have loved to see a “WF” for Washington Football on the helmet or on the side of the jerseys.
Like I said, as of right now the uniforms look like a middle school football team. Let’s just hope for their sake that the Washington Football Team doesn’t play like one this year.
Photos Courtesy of the Washington Football Team
