Albert Breer Would Be Surprised If Washington Commanders Changed Back To Their Old Name | 7/21/25

Albert Breer Would Be Surprised If Washington Commanders Changed Back To Their Old Name | 7/21/25

How much pressure are the commanders slash the NFL under with the president of the United States saying I demand that they return to their previous nickname? I I like as much as this has been talked about, Dan, I like when I’ve talked to commanders people about this over the last couple of years, I like every time I go to them, it’s like that’s not even we don’t even we haven’t even discussed that. That’s not even something that we would bring up, you know? And so like if those conversations are happening in the commander organization, they are at a very high level and they’re being kept very very quiet. Um I would be surprised just because I think it would be a reaction to what’s happening in the here and the now. And I think it would be asking for another problem to come up in five or 10 years after everything that they went through and after all that they endured over the last 20 years in the fight over that name. By going back to the name, I think you would be sort of inviting that same conversation to crop up. Now, maybe it would be okay at first, but you’d be inviting that conversation to crop back up very, very quickly. And I think there are ways that, you know, that Josh Harris and his ownership group and Adam Peters and Dan Quinn can celebrate their past, can celebrate the history of the franchise, can honor the history of the franchise without going back to that name. And I’m saying that without like presenting my own opinion on it. But I just think I just think like going back to that name might help you in certain ways today, but I think you’d be creating another long-term problem for yourself. And I just I I again like I just haven’t sensed any appetite within the organization to go there. Yeah. The only reason why it probably doesn’t go away like the Guardians, the Cleveland Guardians, they’re not going back to the Indians. I think they’ve already said they’re not, but there’s no stadium involved in this. You know, the commanders, you know, there’s a stadium involved in this. And that’s why I don’t know if the president gets involved in that, gets his hands dirty in saying, “Hey, uh I can hold up this stadium uh situation here.” And I and I and I would like on on the flip side to to kind of, you know, get behind your point a little bit. I um you know Donald Trump did that photo op with uh with Roger Goodell and Josh Harris in the Oval Office in May to announce the draft is coming to Washington in 2027. So I just kind of thought to myself that looks funny like what’s going on there? And so I started googling like you know I googled um Gadell Trump I googled Gadell Biden. I googled Gadell Obama. I googled Odell Gadell Bush. And then finally, finally, I found a picture of George W. Bush and Paul Tagaliboo in 2003 promoting the kickoff game being in Washington. They did a photo op to promote I think it was the Redskins and the Jets at the time playing in the kickoff game. So, it had been 22 years since a sitting president did a photo op with an NFL commissioner, and it was right around the time when the Pete Rose stuff was going on in baseball. And so, you know, I I think there’s some speculation that that could be tied to the Justice Department and the ESPN NFL network merger. And would Donald Trump put his thumb on the scale one way or the other? Like like it does seem like he’s trying like like like President Trump is is is trying to involve himself in sports on a bunch of different levels. And so, you know, I think that’s the one reason why you look at this and you say, you know, maybe maybe that will put some pressure on on the commanders to do something here. Um because it is such a big deal getting a new stadium built. again. Like I just I have a hard time seeing them going back, but you know, stranger things have

The MMQB senior NFL reporter Albert Breer joins the Dan Patrick Show and discusses whether or not he thinks the Washington Commanders would ever change their name back to their old name