The Washington football team recently released new merchandise which can be purchased from the official team website. But that is not the subject of this story. The focus is on possible breadcrumbs Washington may have left behind in regards to their future team nickname.
A rational person will look at the “evidence” below and say that the text style chosen for each shirt is meant to relate to the design of the temporary “W” logo, which involves serifs at the top of each “arm” of the letter. which points to the left, giving an effect of the letter (and the entire “Washington” wordmark) forward. It’s also possible that while these designs are unique to Washington now, they may become available to other teams in the coming weeks. We’re 99% sure that one of those two things is going on here.
But let’s have fun and talk about the remaining 1% as we go through the new merchandise and see what we can find. When starting this Rabbit Hole, keep in mind that the team, if they think of their fans, would be creating team merchandise that could be worn beyond this year when the team unveils their new official nickname. .
If the “W” logo the team is temporarily using, which appears on several of their new shirt designs and which you can see at the bottom right of the image below, indicates the intended direction of the new nickname, we could conclude that Washington strongly plans to call itself the “warriors”. The Warriors’ nickname would have been on the table this summer, before the team decided to wait a year before unveiling a new nickname.
Washington Team Store
However, note the style of the text “Washington” on the shirt above. See how the white dotted lines start near the bottom of the “W” and rise as they move toward the “N”? It is almost as if this part of the text “takes off” like an airplane from a runway. The dotted lines (more prominent as the text moves to the right) also evoke the trails you see coming out of the back of an airplane in the sky.
Why is this important? It’s possible that this style of flying text means the team is considering the nickname ‘Redtails,’ which CBS Sports NFL writer Jared Dubin says is’ a nod to the planes flown by the Tuskegee Airmen, a squadron of all-black fighters. and the bomber pilots who fought in World War II and were the first black military aviators in the United States armed forces. Three of the first five aviators admitted were from Washington, which gives the Redtails a specific connection to the city. ”
Washington Team Store
Taking the theme of flight further, note the swoosh lines that cross the name “Washington” in our second design above. Could this be another indication that the team is considering incorporating flight, similarly, into the future nickname? The sharp yellow line that starts under the “W” and goes up through the “A” also seems to give off the mood of going up on a sharp plane.
Of course, this style of font might just be a coincidence. But how much fun would that be? Plus, given the popularity surrounding the Redtails moniker, it certainly could be a foreshadowing of what lies ahead.
Going with the theft theme, the “Redhawks” moniker is another possible option, assuming Washington thinks that way. Redhawks is actually the nickname for the University of Miami in Ohio. Like Washington, Miami had to give up its old nickname before changing brands.
Washington Team Store
You see more drag-type effects built into the shirt text above, but the sharper dots that emerge from the text are more in tune with something like the flashy Los Angeles Chargers vibe. We know that name is out, but could they go for some other kind of electricity nickname off the radar like the “Washington Bolts” or “Washington Shockers”? In the end, he’s probably too close to the name of the chargers, so we can probably cross that out.
Is there a clue to choosing “WAS” for the shirt above, however? There isn’t really an apparent nickname choice that starts with these three letters, but if you think of them as WA, it could create a name like “Washington Admirals” or “Washington Arrows” or anything that starts with that letter.
What we do know is that we have at least one football season to wait before the Washington brass reveals their new nickname. Until then, we can try to keep trying to read the tea leaves. But given the complexity of this exercise, we can leave the real detective work to the professionals.
