Dan Snyder Seems to Trying Very Hard To Avoid Name Leaks

Daniel Marc Snyder (born November 23, 1964) is an American businessman who is the majority owner of the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). Snyder bought the Redskins from Jack Kent Cooke’s estate in 1999. He is also the founder of Snyder Communications.

Subtle name leaks

A new Washington Redskins name is coming. By the sounds of it, the franchise is aiming to roll out the full new name and branding in time for the 2020 season, which is less than two months away.

That is an incredibly quick turnaround. However, once the team announced that it was ditching its long-controversial nickname, it would be hard to put that cork back in the bottle. There have been suggestions that the team could use something like the “Washington Football Club” to give themselves more time, but the expectation remains that the new name itself is fast approaching.

“One person familiar with the discussions between the franchise and the league said the preference is for Washington to have its new name by the start of training camp July 28,”. “’ They have to do it soon because of the uniforms,’ that person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations.”, reports said.

“Wow,” said Lea Chu, group director of naming at global branding firm Siegel+Gale.

Chu and fellow group director Aaron Hall help big companies do exactly what Washington is scrambling to achieve: They recast organizations with new names, looks and approaches. And while Chu and Hall have worked quickly on corporate naming projects, neither has moved as fast as Washington’s NFL team apparently is trying to go.

Three names stand out as distinct possibilities. Warriors, Redtails, and Red Wolves all have various levels of support among fans and current and former players. There are some concerns that Warriors wouldn’t fully separate the team from the racist Washington Redskins name. Redtail is a nod to the Tuskegee Airmen, which adds a military element that head coach Ron Rivera, one of the members of owner Dan Snyder’s close circle on name issues, supports. Red Wolves is just a pretty cool unique name that would still retain the classic franchise color scheme.

While many people familiar with the process have said they hope the new name is in place before Washington’s regular-season opener Sept. 13, there is a sense the team and NFL are shooting for something much faster than that. One person familiar with the discussions between the franchise and the league said the preference is for Washington to have its new name by the start of training camp July 28.

“They have to do it soon because of the uniforms,” that person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations.

This means team owner Daniel Snyder has two weeks to complete a process that most corporations take a minimum of two months to finish.

Wherever things are going, Snyder is keeping it close to the vest. Carpenter reports that the team working on the rebrand is keeping things airtight to avoid leaks until a decision is made. If the timeline laid out above is accurate, that could be any day

In that earlier Rivera interview, he would not reveal the name options. He did say that it “would be awesome” if a change could come in time for the season, pretty clearly showing that that’s where the effort currently lies.

Rivera said in the July 4 interview that he wanted to speak to both Native American groups and the military to be sure the new name honored both, but it is unclear whether the team has done so.

“It’s important to have a story of how many voices have been included,” Hall said, adding that it is essential to be able to tell the public how the team came up with the replacement name “so you don’t say, ‘Here is our new name, because we had to change it.’ ”

When Snyder is ready to reveal the new name, Chu and Hall said the team needs to plan the unveiling carefully, advising against an emailed news release and Twitter post as the team did in announcing its name retirement Monday. They instead suggested a release ceremony for the new name and logo — with Snyder, who has been out of the country for much of the past three months, speaking at the event.

Mostly, though, they cautioned against rushing into a decision. Both said there is nothing wrong with holding off on an announcement, perhaps saying the team will be called the “Washington Football Club” on a temporary basis, as one person with knowledge of the situation suggested as a possibility Monday. The most important thing, Chu and Hall said, is that the team gets this process right.

“The worst thing,” Chu said, “would be that you have to change it again.”

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