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Washington Redskins nickname suggestions with impending name change

By Wesley Coburn

LANDOVER, MD - DECEMBER 15: A Washington Redskins helmet is seen on the field before the game between the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles at FedExField on December 15, 2019 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MD - DECEMBER 15: A Washington Redskins helmet is seen on the field before the game between the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles at FedExField on December 15, 2019 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /
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The livestock guardian dog “Hugh”, race Pyrenean mountain dog, sits in a meadow and watches out for a sheep flock in Schwaebisch-Hall-Hessental, southern Germany, on October 30, 2017. . / AFP PHOTO / dpa / Christoph Schmidt / Germany OUT (Photo credit should read CHRISTOPH SCHMIDT/DPA/AFP via Getty Images)
The livestock guardian dog “Hugh”, race Pyrenean mountain dog, sits in a meadow and watches out for a sheep flock in Schwaebisch-Hall-Hessental, southern Germany, on October 30, 2017. . / AFP PHOTO / dpa / Christoph Schmidt / Germany OUT (Photo credit should read CHRISTOPH SCHMIDT/DPA/AFP via Getty Images) /

The list of Washington Redskins nickname suggestions moves on to the next entry with…

Guardians

Why it works: 

Aside from the Wizards and Mystics in basketball, the Washington DC pro sports teams all vaguely refer to idealistic roles or concepts, which is sort of understandable given that its the seat of American political power.

Baseball had two sets of Senators and currently the reigning World Series champion Nationals. Soccer has DC United and the Spirit. Hockey has the Capitals. Arena football had the Commandos and the Valor. In the eSports world, the Overwatch League has the Justice. And even the Wizards and Mystics could be seen as an allusion along this line, if PR could be considered magic.

The Bullets moniker was rejected for not falling into this theme, and while that was problematic enough, Redskins is much worse. To the general public, the name ‘Guardians” would imply that there were decent people in government and would thus fall in with the rest of the Washington teams.

A fantastic logo for a team known as the “Guardians” would be a livestock guardian dog breed, particularly a Great Pyrenees, which can look just as majestic as an eagle when they want to. Plus, if they adopted the rest of the area teams’ red and navy blue color scheme, that would really pop on the white fur of a Pyr.

Why it doesn’t work: 

“Washington Guardians” sounds more like a team name for soccer football than American football. And it’s, well….boring, besides not being very sonically scintillating. And sure, it could be shortened to “Guards,” but that hardly rolls off the tongue any easier.

Also, the nickname was previously used by the New York Guardians of the 2020 XFL, so they might still hold the rights to the name, and it would also be copying the concept of the 2020 XFL’s DC Defenders.

Finally, it could be confused with Marvel’s antiheroic team of space-dwellers, the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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