WFT says fans sent nearly 40K name change submissions originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Over an eight-month period, the Washington Football Team had been accepting name change suggestions from fans by mail or through their fan engagement platform WashingtonJourney.com.
From August to late March, Washington collected an astounding 17,251 fan submissions and then after announcing a “last call” with a deadline of April 6, they received an additional 22,533 submissions.
That’s a grand total of 39,783 name change suggestions. When you break that number down further, you can start to see the kind of reach this movement has had across the fan base.
Per a release by the team, Washington received submissions from 61 different countries spanning six continents, including participation from all 50 states and every U.S. territory. Here’s a look at non-U.S. countries with the most submissions.
Canada: 560
Great Britain: 368
Germany: 152
Mexico: 104
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Over 13,000 submissions came from the DMV alone, broken down as such:
Virginia: 6,552
Maryland: 5,564
Washington D.C.: 1,157
Within the incredible volume of submissions, a few notable stories stuck out from some noteworthy fans. A ball boy from the 1972 NFC East Championship Game, a former RFK Stadium pretzel vendor, the son of a former Washington player and a fan whose family has been season-ticket holders since 1937 submitted their thoughts on the change.
The Washington Football Team is now in the “insights” portion of the process, where they plan to review fan feedback and hold further discussions on the future of the team’s name.
