Playing name game with Browns’ next opponent
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Next up: Washington
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) September 21, 2020
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The Browns down through the years have played some teams with names that will sound oh, so strange to most of today’s fans.
The Los Angeles Dons.
The Chicago Rockets.
The Seahawks, but Miami and not Seattle.
The Brooklyn Dodgers, but football and not baseball.
The New York Yankees.
The Buffalo Bisons.
The Cardinals, but not Arizona, Phoenix or even St. Louis, but rather Chicago, when the current franchise was based there.
The College All-Stars.
But as strange as all of those names are — and again, they are indeed very strange indeed — but they will no longer be the strangest. That moniker will go to the Browns’ opponents on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium, the Washington Football Team.
Known, of course, formerly as the Washington Redskins until the nickname was dropped a couple months ago when owner Daniel Snyder finally decided it was too offensive, the Washington Football Team name will be used for the remainder of the season until a new nickname can be selected in the offseason.
My guess? The new nickname will be something to signify that the city is the nation’s capital, such as what Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals, formerly the Montreal Expos, and before them, the Washington Senators, now the Texas Rangers, and the NHL’s Washington Capitals have done.
The franchise now known as the the Washington Football Team started in Boston in 1932 and spent its first five seasons there, being called the Braves, the same as the city’s National League MLB team at the time, for that first year before becoming the Redskins in 1933, The franchise moved to Washington in 1937, which is the same year that the Cleveland Rams, now the Los Angeles Rams, began play in the NFL.
Our own Cleveland Indians will get through the 2020 season with the status-quo, but that will almost certainly change in the offseason after club officials said several months ago that the name will be studied following years of claims by some that it is offensive as well. Will it be the Spiders, the name from over 100 years ago? That’s my prediction, but who knows?
When it comes to names, the Washington Football Team is about as boring as it gets. If the Browns nickname were to be removed for whatever reason, certainly not for being offensive because it isn’t, would you like the club to be known as the Cleveland Football Team? No, I didn’t think so. I wouldn’t like that, either.
Browns longtime radio play-by-play announcer Jim Donovan will get a real workout on Sunday, having to drag out the long name of Washington every time he refers to the team.
Or is it Team?
Playing name game with Browns’ next opponent was written by Steve King
More: Monday Night Football born in Cleveland 50 years ago
