‘Washington Orange Skins’: Twitter has ideas for the NFL team’s renaming in the Trump era

07/14/2020 9:17 am ET • Nellie English

Screenshot / Twitter

The iconic Washington Redskins are soon to be no more — under that name anyway. The beloved NFL team will be changing their name, which has long been criticized as being offensive to the Native American community. The franchise will be dropping both the “Redskins” team name and the logo. The logo is currently the face and headdress of a Native American man.

The move comes after increasing pressure from the team’s sponsors, including FedEx, Pepsi, and Bank of America. The name was adopted in 1933 and is one of the most polarizing team names in American sports. After 87 years of being the Redskins, the Washington team is now toying with the idea of becoming the Redwolves, Redhawks, or Redtails. The latter pays homage to the World War II Tuskegee Airmen and is the current favorite.

Twitter had plenty more suggestions.

Some were serious…

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There were plenty of Twitter users offering actual name suggestions.

Dear Bob Costas, I hear your criticism of the #Redskins name, and I submit to you my suggestion: pic.twitter.com/IJtgpC68fq #yourewelcome

— Capital Katie (@CapitalKatie) October 14, 2013

Hey @Redskins, my husband has a great suggestion for a new name —
Washington Warriors.

— Deena (@DeenaG33) July 13, 2020

My suggestion for the new Washington Redskin name : The Washington Peacemakers. #NFL #WashingtonRedskins #NEPatriots

— kp.reynolds (@longballlefty) July 13, 2020

@Redskins just a suggestion on new name? The Washington Americans?#justathought

— Harry Cafarelli (@CafarelliHarry) July 13, 2020

If I may submit my suggestion for the #Redskins name change. The Washington Sentinels. pic.twitter.com/b3qK32KGqp

— Manny Faces (@WiseTakes) July 13, 2020

Others, not so much

Man laughing in front of a blue background

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Several users ran with the name change and got in a few sick burns.

pic.twitter.com/fspkaQoZDU

— Floridians for Trump (@TrumpFL) July 13, 2020

My suggestion for the Redskins new name: Washington Congress. It’ll fit them great cause they never get anything done on the field

— Colton Hagan (@colton_hagan) July 13, 2020

Washington Redskins Change Their Name To The D.C. Redskins https://t.co/BqRFgEwEUo pic.twitter.com/nequ12owvv

— The Onion (@TheOnion) July 13, 2020

Either that or “Washington Whiteskins”

— miscellarny (@miscellarny) July 13, 2020

The “Washington Irish Sunburns” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

— Ryan Downey (@DarthGeek1) July 13, 2020

pic.twitter.com/1BzPRmObg4

— Juan Rivera, P.E. (@Boricua_En_Maui) July 13, 2020

@Evandwetzel4 My suggestion for the new #Redskins Redskins name and logo #RedskinsNewName pic.twitter.com/X8htcO2RVJ

— Tom Thurman (@JTomThurman1) July 4, 2020

Here’s my name suggestion @Redskins pic.twitter.com/2Sb0lnVlbO

— Brendan (@BrendanWincek) July 13, 2020

There were also suggestions on how to keep ‘Redskins’ without causing offense

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Name suggestion: Call them the Washington Red Skins. The red is for the red on the American Flag since they play close to D.C. and the Skin is for the fact that all of their players have skin.

— Jack Pencek (@PencekJack) July 13, 2020

The Washington Redskins should keep their name, but change their logo to a potato.

Everybody wins.

— Zakk Saam 🗯 (@ZakkSaam) July 13, 2020

Is ‘Redskins’ a racist slur?

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Yes, yes it is. A few Twitter users gave clear explanations for those that don’t understand.

Also it’s literally a slur, like if you google it, it’s classed as “dated and offensive” that’s what you’re mad about a team not being able to call themselves. It’s not “pc garbage” to think a literal slur should not be a team’s name. pic.twitter.com/QattnYY5Kt

— 💜🌈 (@YayDonovan) July 13, 2020

Food for thought: The term "redskin" is a reference to the bloody skins of natives scalped by white people for money. Natives do not actually have red tones in their skin and the term is just as offensive as the "n word", the only difference is we've normalized it. pic.twitter.com/jUylnA3mzQ

— BLACK LIVES MATTER ✊ (@rareshibe) July 13, 2020

Will there be more NFL changes to come?

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Washington may not be the only team that needs to look into a name change.

The National Football League has a lot to apologize for…

The Washington Redskins (@Redskins) have made the change [it better not be offensive.]

When will the rest do the same? @NFL pic.twitter.com/PRilzOupW4

— Joey Carreon🇺🇸 (@MichigansJoey) July 13, 2020

Redskins change name, chiefs fans telling me their name isn’t offensive and shouldn’t be changed. Imagine this guy in blackface cheering on KC Black. Black, like Chiefs is not offensive in itself; the connotation people associate with it is. #RedskinsNewName #changeChiefsName pic.twitter.com/SWiLFLu7gV

— Juaquin R. Orosco (@JuaquinOrosco) July 13, 2020