New Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn is trying to throw it back.
Retro and vintage apparel are in right now, and throwback uniforms and logos are often used by professional and college teams alike. People long for nostalgia, and to be perfectly honest, a lot of the older logos and imaging are better than the sleek, modern day ones we have grown accustomed to.
However, it can get a little problematic when you try to pay homage to a logo, or brand, that has effectively been “cancelled.” Back in 2020, the franchise known as the Washington Redskins kneeled to the public pressure and retired the “Redskins,” opting to switch to the creatively coined “Washington Football Team.”
The original name had long been criticized for its potentially controversial nature, and when all of the other “canceling” went down back in 2020, the team went along with it. Then after two years as a generically named team, the football team in the country’s capitol changed their name to the Commanders.
So that’s all she wrote right? Well, there are plenty of NFL fans that still long for the old brand to return to Washington in some form or fashion, and they just might be in luck. New head coach Dan Quinn decided to go against the grain and wore a t-shirt to a recent press conference that morphed together the modern Commanders logo with the old Redskins imaging.
Needless to say, it has caused quite the stir:
𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄: The #Commanders have no comment on Dan Quinn's not-officially-licensed T-shirt incorporating the old team logo.
Quinn supposedly acted alone and without team knowledge or involvement. pic.twitter.com/MyCmr4uBeu
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) May 13, 2024
We really have to say “acted alone and without team knowledge or involvement” on this one? He’s not on trial… he just wore a t-shirt.
Clearly the shirt is unlicensed, and it evidently caught the Commanders organization off guard. But at the end of the day, is it really that big of a deal to subtly honor the old ways of the Washington D.C. team? Based on the response that the shirt has gotten on social media, the Washington Commanders would be smart to capitalize on the product and start selling these things:
I love it! The libs are mad!
— 🌹 (@nickyrebornnnnn) May 13, 2024
Dope shirt
— Stay with me (@staywithme2099) May 13, 2024
I love the shirt. We need to put this on the helmet
— Levi Spry (@levi_spry) May 14, 2024
More Commanders fans will be wearing this shirt than any other team shirt or player jersey this year 🔥
— Garrett Woodrum (@garrettwoodrum5) May 14, 2024
No way we’re making a news story over some feathers now
— dustin (@DJ_DoesSports) May 13, 2024
We sure are…
And we aren’t the only ones. A local news station did a deep dive on “T-shirt-gate” to see if the Dan Quinn stunt, if you can call it that, was really a big deal at all:
Big Deal or No Big Deal
Dan Quinn wore a T-shirt this past weekend that set social media on 🔥🔥
The shirt blended the new Commanders logo with the old logo.
I asked my media friends @DHarrison82 & @EarlForcey to chime in! pic.twitter.com/yL9PlTVm8e
— Scott Abraham (@Scott7news) May 13, 2024
