The Washington football team has come up with a new name to replace the the old one, at least temporarily: The Washington Football Team, or just "Washington" for short.  

It is what many have been calling the team already rather than use the old name.

The move gives the team and owner Dan Snyder more time to figure out what the new name and branding will be. 

While the web site is still redskins.com, the link leads to a new Washington Football Team branded site. 

Saying it was for "updated brand clarity and consistency purposes," the team announced that pending adoption of a new name and logo, the "redskins" name will be officially retired before the start of the new season, which is currently a home opener against Philadelphia Sept. 13, and the team will encourage fans and the media to use "Washington Football Team" starting immediately.

That will give the team more time to undertake an "in-depth" branding process, the team said. 

In the meantime Washington Football Team gear will be available in the NFL Shop. 

Snyder had been under extreme pressure, including from advertisers and sponsors, to change the name, something he has strongly resisted.

In the wake of the George Floyd killing and a national referendum on race and discrimination, the team launched a review of the name July 3, and announced July 13 a change was coming.  

Broadcasters in the U.S. have pretty much left whether to use the team name up to their analysts and sports anchors, though the hometown newspaper, the Washington Post, had decided not to use the name on its editorial page, which has urged a name change, while continuing to use it on the news pages. 

"This process allows the team to take into account not only the proud tradition and history of the franchise but also input from our alumni, the organization's sponsors, the National Football League and the local community," said Snyder back when the review was launched.  

That history also includes being the last team in the league to integrate. The statue of its former owner George Preston Marshall, who resisted integration until the early 1960s, was removed from in front of the team's former home, RFK Stadium in Washington, earlier this month.  

Back in 2014, the FCC's Media Bureau rejected a petition to deny the renewal of Snyder's Washington radio station, WWXX-FM, over its use of the term "Redskins" on-air to refer to the team. Challenges to several TV station licenses were also lodged on the grounds the term was profane, but the FCC did not see it that way.  

Numerous members of Congress have also called for the name change, including threatening to eliminate the NFL's tax-exempt status because the league hasn't taken action to get the team owner to change its name. 

Snyder has said the name honors a proud heritage and points to some Native Americans who do not oppose it. For example, back in 2016, the Washington Postreleased a poll of more than 500 Native Americans that found that nine in 10 did not find the team name offensive. But a February 2020 UC Berkley study--conducted even before Floyd's death and the protests--found that half of 1,000 Native Americans polled were offended by the name. 

But a columnist for British newspaper The Independent, who argued several years ago that the BBC should not use the name when reporting about a game between the team and the Cincinnati Bengals played in London, cited Oneida leader Ray Halbritter, who in turn pointed to a newspaper clipping from 1863 referring to "red-skins" as the bloody scalps for which a $200 bounty was being paid.

In keeping with its "snatched from the headline" plot twists, irreverent cable staple South Park is taking on the Washington Redskins and owner Dan Snyder in its Sept 24. episode, "Go Fund Yourself."

The team is under pressure in Washington to change its name, which some American Indian groups argue is an offensive, dictionary-defined racial slur.  

In the episode, the South Park crew uses kickstarter to fund a new company they decide to call The Washington Redskins. When an animated Dan Snyder claims its use is disparaging, the boys point out the team's federal trademark protection has been cancelled.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in June ruled that “Redskins” is disparaging to Native Americans, and has cancelled the federal protections for associated trademarks. The team is appealing the decision, which came in response to a challenge by Native American groups in Blackhorse v. Pro Football, Inc.

The decision does not mean that the football team has to change its name or stop using the trademarks at issue. But it does mean that it loses the legal presumption of ownership, the ability to use the registration symbol, or to be able to get the Customs and Border Patrol service to block importation of counterfeit goods into the country.

A promo for the Comedy Central show ran during Sunday's game between Washington and the Philadelphia Eagles in the D.C. market.

George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf has challenged the license of Dan Snyder's WWXX-FM (ESPN 980) Washington over the broadcast of the name "Redskins." He filed the station license challenge paperwork at the FCC Tuesday, Banzhaf told B&C.

Snyder's Red Zebra Broadcasting owns seven radio stations.

Banzhaf signaled last week that he was teeing up a challenge to one or all the stations, and followed through Tuesday with the challenge to Snyder's Washington outlet.

According to Banzhaf, his challenge is based in part on the argument by former FCC officials and others that the term is a racial slur and that "the unnecessary and repeated on-air use of that derogatory racist word is contrary to current federal law and akin to broadcasting obscenity." Unlike indecency, which is allowed but must be confined to the overnight hours —10 p.m. to 6 a.m.— there is no safe harbor for obscenity.

Chief among those one-time FCC officials is former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, who along with former commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Nicholas Johnson and others also called on the FCC to convene a forum with broadcasters about whether they should "self-regulate" and not use the name.

Banzhaf also argues that the term constitutes hate speech and cites studies showing racially derogatory words related to Indians can cause "real physical harm, including beatings, bullying and ostracism.

Banzhaf has been trying for years to get the Redskins to change their name or broadcasters not to use it, but last week pointed to various recent events that have "substantially strengthened" the arguments he is making.

Those include a U.S. Patent and Trade office ruling that the name was offensive and the associated trademarks should not get federal protection. That happened once before, prompting Banzhaf to take aim at some TV station licenses in 2005, though that did not result in licenses being pulled or the name being dropped on-air.

This time around, momentum seems to be building, with former FCC officials, legislators and the President all suggesting it could be time for a change. Some NFL broadcasters have also signaled they don't plan to use the term, and the Washington Post editorial board has banished the term from the opinion page.