It didn't take long for Washington Commanders principal owner Josh Harris to get the question at his press conference following the 2024 season: What plans does the organization have as far as changing the name and rebranding?
Harris' answer to the question – which was in fact the first one of his press conference – indicated a name change is unlikely, but he did not close the door on redesigns of the uniform and branding that pay homage to the look of the franchise from the past.
"In this building the name Commanders means something," he said Monday. "It's about players who love football, are great at football, hit hard, are mentally tough, great teammates. It's really meaningful that the name is growing in meaning.
"But as far as rebranding and bringing our past, which obviously I grew up with and all of the Super Bowl championships and our future together, you're going to see us head back towards honoring our past and bringing it together with our future."
Harris was later asked a follow-up question if it is safe to say the name Commanders is staying: "Yes. And we're actually, I think it's now being embraced by our team, by our culture, by our coaching staff. And so, we're going with that."
For Kevin Sheehan, this is "pretty clear" that the success on the field this year has "diminished significantly, if not taken completely off the table, a name change."
Sheehan also pointed out that in both answers, the owner focused on the people inside the building in Ashburn and their desires rather than the fanbase and what they may want.
"I think they understand what the [fans'] desire is," Sheehan said. "And, again, I think it's very complicated and they had this success and they had great success and they are more likely than not going to try to do something with the branding, the uniforms, the old logo, whatever that means, however that manifests itself, as a bit of... for now the path of least resistance.
"As a way to appease some of the demand for significant change, but it doesn't require a massive overhaul and undertaking that I'm sure would be incredibly costly, as well.
"We've known forever that Redskins wasn't going to return and we know today... [almost] exactly three years to the day after we got this travesty of a name and associated brand on 2/2/2022. It ain't going anywhere, not the name anyway. We'll see on some of the other things."
Sheehan is disappointed as he would have loved to hear something different from Harris, but wasn't expecting to hear something that different. But this was at least an emphatic answer from Harris, and on that point, it was significant.
While the old name isn't coming back, Sheehan does believe that there will be changes to the brand so that uniforms and other aspects are something that "resembles" the team that "we all grew up with and rooted for."
Hit the audio player above for Sheehan's complete thoughts on the press conference, including Harris' comments about a new stadium and the RFK Stadium site on the audio player above.
And listen to the Commanders owner's complete press conference on the audio player below: