Tom Friend tells Chris Russell the Commanders owners are committed to embracing their history

Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal joined Chris Russell Thursday to discuss the NBA’s new media rights mega-deal, but as a DC guy, he had to also weigh in on some Commanders and Wizards!

He’s in Vegas to see Bronny James in the Summer League, but he’s gonna look at the Wizards, too…and as much as this year’s class is exciting, it might already be all about next summer?

“I’m excited to see how Alex Sarr looks and Bub and the whole crew there,” Friend said. “It’ll be interesting, and look, you gotta get lucky in this league, and it's all gonna boil down the next year's lottery, the whole future. Cooper Flagg lit it up against team USA and he’s got the It Factor, like Caitlin Clark, so he’s the great hope. It’ll be interesting to see what he does for the league next year.”

Now onto the Commanders, Chris asked him about RG3’s comments about bringing back the old logo after the gold pants have been re-introduced…and when it comes to bringing back history, Friend’s biggest takeaway is how ‘absurd’ it is that one Senator was trying to hold up the RFK land bill BECAUSE of that logo, but in the opposite way as five years ago.

“It’s so ironic, so unbelievable, because it was so long you needed to get rid of the name to get what you wanted to DC, and now there's this whole faction that you have to bring the logo back. It’s absurd,” Friend said.
“I’m a native Washingtonian, I covered the team for the Post in the eighties, and that franchise is in my DNA, so I hated to see the name change,” Friend said. “I might be a bit different than you, but in my mind, I want only burgundy and gold in the uniform and the helmet; to get the logo back, I’d prefer it, but I think that ship sailed, so I don't think it's likely. As long as they stay within the same colors they've always had – fans root for the uniform in my opinion; the players come and go, but that uniform is what makes the connection. I would like to see the logo back but I just don't see it being realistic.”

So if the Commanders said they can’t bring back the name or the logo but ‘we're gonna do everything to get the stadium at RFK,’ is that enough for Friend? For sure, given some possible inside info he shared:

“Yeah, I mean, RFK is sacred ground; it’s their number one goal and what they wanna do, and I’ve been told that they've been out to Dodger Stadium to see what they did to bring back the Brooklyn past,” Friend said. “A few years ago, there was no connection to the whole history in Brooklyn, but they have changed the entire stadium around to kind of make it a Brooklyn field, too, by going to find all the stuff that came with the Dodgers from Ebbets Field. Janet Marie Smith, who helped build Camden Yards, dug through it all and they made the concourse into like a Dodgers museum – and I’m told that the Commanders’ group has toured that. They obviously have the connection with Magic Johnson, and they’ve been out there looking at it.”

And, what the Dodgers did is what the Commanders should do whenever the next stadium is built.

“That’s what Washington needs to do with the Redskins at the new stadium. Don’t ignore the name or X it out when you show old video, that’s gonna make the fan base puke,” Friend said. “What you have to do is embrace the past, and you should; the Steelers and Cowboys and Packers don’t change their uniforms, stick with the burgundy and gold. I just think they need to embrace the past, and I’m told from a very high source that this is not some phony act, they are going to try to embrace the past.”

Take a listen to the entire conversation starting about 12 minutes into the audio above!