USAT: Washington Wire audio clip

USAT: Washington Wire

Feb 4, 2022

Washington Commanders team president Jason Wright made his initial appearance on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” (The Team 980 AM) Thursday. - Sheehan launched the interview expressing empathy to Wright, stating he recognized a new name was quite the challenge and Wright is new to the franchise and its history. He then asked Wright how Wright felt the unveiling transpired. - Wright was also empathetic to fans who have been diehard Redskins fans all of their lives. “This is a grieving process for so many of our hardcore fans who have been with the team for some time.” - Wright was correct in stating it “was never going to be a super triumphant moment.” There were naturally going to be fans who loved “Commanders” and there were going to be some who preferred another name such as “Red Hogs,” and of course some still desiring the historical “Redskins” name. - Wright expressed “Commanders” was settled on about four months ago. When Sheehan inquired regarding the key decision-makers, Wright kindly refused to name names, or single out who might have been the chief influential person(s). - Wright also preferred to not be disclosing who the final three candidates were for the new name. When Sheehan pressed a bit, Wright responded, “Our goal is for people to be familiar and engaged with this name…The best thing we can do is focus on the ‘why’ we picked this (name).” - Sheehan expressed an understanding of why Wright might not want to disclose the three names but speaking for the fans (of which he has been one for about 50 years) he also understood why the majority of fans would like to know what were the actual three finalists. - Wright revealed that one of the names they explored closely was “DC Football Club” but upon further investigation, they discovered there was a soccer team called the “Detroit City Football Club” whose colors were actually burgundy and gold. - Sheehan asked directly concerning “Redwolves” and Wright conveyed legal analysts were quick to say it would be problematic on a number of fronts. - Sheehan was most direct expressing, “What bothered me more than anything else” (me as well, Kevin) when he stated, You guys got the championship seasons wrong, are you going to fix it?” - Wright attempted to convey it was actually correct, and it is “the usual nomenclature” in how the NFL officially records its champions. However, that is simply false. - Wright is correct that the Super Bowl itself is played in the following calendar year. Yet, Sheehan did an admirable job reminding Wright that Washington head coach Ron Rivera played for the ’85 Bears, not the ’86 Bears and that the city just celebrated last week the 30-year anniversary of the ’91 Redskins not the ’92 Redskins. - I’ve been a fan for 50 years and I have ALWAYS seen it stated by the NFL that the ’72 Redskins won the NFC, the ’82, ’87 and ’91 Redskins were the NFL Super Bowl Champions. - Both Sheehan and Wright are to be commended on a fine interview, good job, guys. - There was much more but space does not permit me to go further here. -   -   - - - - - - - - - - - - Email - - - - - Sign up - - - - - - - - Like this article? - Sign up for the Washington Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning - - - - An error has occured - - - Please re-enter your email address. - - - - - - Thanks for signing up! - - - You'll now receive the top Washington Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

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