The Washington Football Team is springing leaks everywhere as it readies for its grand announcement on Wednesday.
More than a year and a half in the making, Washington is set to unveil its new, permanent team name Wednesday morning. That's if Twitter doesn't spoil the surprise first...
Tuesday evening, leaks sprung up all over social media claiming to provide a first look at the new Washington 'Commanders' gear being offloaded into local stores.
The organization has acknowledged that its own team store will be open to the public after its official announcement, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Wednesday. But complicating matters, there's no way to tell if the items being leaked on social media are real or counterfeits. This all hinges on whether or not you believe the team may have mistakenly blown its own surprise, in airing an unblurred version of its new name and logo on NBC Sports Washington.
For instance, the leaked merchandise features the same name and logo that previously leaked on social media, to which there is some question of its veracity. That particular leak came from a team-produced video, one version of which — promoted on the team's own social media accounts — had the name/logo blurred out. The other version, which aired on NBC Sports Washington, was unblurred, on the team-produced show 'Washington Football Today.'
There's one more feather in the cap of the theory that Washington couldn't keep a lid on its own secret. Local TV affiliate NBC 4 (WRC) had a helicopter flying over FedEx Field, the site of Wednesday's press event officially revealing the new team name, on Tuesday evening. From the helicopter footage airing live on NBC, viewers could clearly see 'Commanders' signs in the windows of the team store. As the footage aired, the lights in the team store went out.
And none of this even makes mention of that fact that franchise great Joe Theismann may have already spilled the beans on national radio.
Whether a carefully executed ruse or a blunder of epic proportions, all will be revealed tomorrow.
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