The NFL’s recently renamed Washington Football Team has donned its new uniforms for the first time.
The team’s new helmets debuted at practices, featuring a logo-less helmet. The previous Native American was retired earlier this year along with the team’s offensive name.
The new uniforms maintain the team’s old color scheme, but the helmets not have the players’ number on the sides, similar to those helmets worn by the University of Alabama.
so fresh and so clean clean pic.twitter.com/GrhuUxJVe5
— Washington Football Team (@WashingtonNFL) August 13, 2020
The pressure for Washington to change its team name increased following the death of George Floyd in May. Dozens of investment firms and shareholders asked Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to terminate their business relationships with the team due to the controversial name — a racist slur stemming from bounties paid to white settlers in exchange for the skins of Native American adults and children as proof of their murders. FedEx issued a July 2 statement, saying they would remove their signage from FedExField unless the name was changed.
Washington had said that its generic name is only temporary and that the team will undertake a full rebranding effort in the future.
