Josh Harris, speaking before the Washington Commanders preseason finale on Sunday night from Commanders Field, reiterated that changing the team's name is not a priority for the new ownership group at this time and said the franchise's former name – the Redskins – "can't come back."
"We've been very clear, we can't, for obvious reasons, the old name can't come back," the Commanders' principal owner said. "But, right now, we're focused on things that unify the team around our football team. And unify the city around our football team. And the first objective is, we gotta start winning football games.
"And we need everyone supporting the team and not things that might drive people apart. Secondly, obviously, we're trying to find a new home. And again, unifying the city around that is important.
"And the name is one of those things that [inspires] a lot of opinions, but I mean I can't say, I'm certainly not forgotten about it. Like I said, I grew up here. And so, I understand it. We're gonna start to do things that bring us back to our heritage, honoring our past. You saw the gold pants, those are easy things to do."
Harris added that they organization is "doing research" and "thinking about" the way the name Commanders is received, "but right now, we're prioritizing the things that we've talked about and that's kinda the rationale for it."
While Kevin Sheehan acknowledges that Harris' answer on the old name was "not acceptable" to most Washington football fans, "when he says that there are obvious reasons on why the name can't come back, I do think that those obvious reasons are obvious to him and they are obvious to certain people in the media, perhaps the media at large, and those reasons would be essentially: they paid $6 billion for the team and they're not going to enter int oa situation where they bring back the controversy associated with the name."
Sheehan added, "I don't think the league or the league's major sponsors would either allow it or would be accepting of it."
"He could do a better job of explaining what those obvious reasons are for the people that it's not so obvious for," Sheehan continued, "but, what I've said to you guys before, this discussion [about the name or rebrand] isn't going to become specific until there is a direction and a path to a stadium, hopefully, in Washington D.C."
And, that could be a few months away from things becoming clear on the stadium as the 2024 election could impact that.