In 2013, the owner of Washington’s NFL team, Dan Snyder, said the team would never change its name: “It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps,” he told a USA Today reporter. Well, as of Wednesday morning, and after 18 months of going by a placeholder, the team does have a new name: The Washington Commanders.

“It’s a name that has the weight and meaning befitting a 90-year-old franchise,” team president Jason Wright said on NBC’s TODAY show, where the team made the announcement. “It’s something that we believe embodies the values of service and leadership that really define the DMV and this community.”

It’s the team’s third moniker in four years, but it comes with its traditional colors of burgundy and gold. The jerseys display three stars, a nod to the District’s flag — also, an officer of three-star rank is a senior commander in many of the armed forces. The primary logo is a “W,” acknowledging the team’s roots, and the slanted stripes bordering the letter are inspired by the military rank insignia, the team said in a press release. Wright said the team will be working with the fans to select a mascot.

The Commanders will host a celebratory tailgate at FedExField on Thursday and will sell new gear at the team store.

LIVE: Introducing our next chapter https://t.co/SPKYwISuFc

— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) February 2, 2022

Fans across the region hope the name swap is just one of many changes the team will make, ushering in a new era for a team beleaguered by poor performances on the field and scandals off of it. Thursday, even as the team continues to celebrate its newly announced name, former WFT employees will testify before Congress as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and a toxic workplace culture. (The team’s list of controversies is long enough to induce a headache.)

The team went by a racial slur for Native Americans for 87 years, which has sparked protests outside stadiums and contentious debates for decades. Native activists lobbied Congress, filed lawsuits, and pushed Snyder to change the team name, to no avail.

The tides finally shifted in July 2020, during nationwide protests following George Floyd’s murder, when companies threatened to pull their sponsorships over the name. When FedEx — one of the team’s largest sponsors — said it would remove its branding from the stadium in Landover, Md., if the team name didn’t change, Snyder finally caved.

The team went by Washington Football Team in the interim, while fans submitted over 40,000 suggestions for a replacement name. An early fan favorite was the Red Wolves, as fans and former players liked the idea of an entire stadium howling in unison — but team president Jason Wright dispelled rumors that it was a likely choice, saying that the name presented potential trademarking issues. Red Tails, in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen, was also a popular option.

Sure, not all Native Americans are offended by the old moniker — but for some activists, the name change represents an initial step forward in a larger movement for change.

Mary Phillips, a D.C. resident and Native American who formed the group No Name Change, No Stadium (to protest the stadium’s potential move to D.C. from Maryland while under the old name), says her group is still fighting to change the names of ​​hundreds of schools across the country that continue to use the “r-word” or other Native imagery as their mascots. The National Congress of American Indians writes that the racist imagery that often accompanies these names “are symbols of disrespect that degrade, mock, and harm Native people, in particular Native youth.” Phillips says Native children and parents have been harassed and bullied at school for protesting to change their Native-themed mascots. “We have a long road ahead of us,” she says.

“The team might be beginning a new era, but I am far from ready to move forward,” Native advocate Amanda Blackhorse wrote in a Washington Post op-ed this week. “The history of how we got to this moment must not be obscured by new color schemes and jersey designs. I cannot look ahead without looking deep into the past, and I will not move on until the team and the NFL make amends to the people they harmed most — Native advocates and their children.”

Still, Phillips says she and other advocates feel encouraged by the progress.

“Having to face [the old name] created this daily life of hearing a racial slur being thrown at you and seeing it everywhere,” she says. “Now with that being gone and no longer having to see it on Cheeto bags and Tostitos bags, and no longer having to hear it on the TV nonstop and on Sundays, it’s a huge relief.”

George Perry, a former VP of marketing for the team and a business professor at George Mason University, says the name Commanders makes sense because of the region’s strong ties to the armed forces. But Perry says the team will need much more than a name change to win back fan attendance — which has been in the dumpster for a decade.

“This is the identity of the team, and this is what the fanbase will connect to and support and get behind and rally behind, hopefully for many years to come,” Perry says. “Unfortunately, this brand over the last 20 years has been damaged tremendously.”

If there’s one thing most fans can agree on, it’s that the team has a long way to go both on and off the field. Once the highest valued franchise in America, Washington is now equipped with a new name, the 11th pick in the next draft, new people in its front office, and a sizable salary cap to rebuild its roster. But Rick Snider, a columnist for 106.7 The Fan, says none of that matters if the team doesn’t produce results.

“I’m sure they’re going to sell a bazillion bucks worth of merchandise to start with,” Snider says. “But at the end of the day, you gotta win games — and this team has stunk for 30 years.”