Become ‘Redtails,’ Return To Washington D.C., And NFL Rocks Along Potomac River

Since Magic
MAGIC
Johnson knows winning inside and outside of a uniform as somebody worth $620 million, let’s start there. He gets it. He understands the two biggest questions for the Washington NFL franchise he just helped purchase for $6.05 billion.

“Everything’s on the table, right? Especially after this year,” Johnson told the “Today” show, referring to the present and the past turmoil surrounding the Washington NFL franchise under Dan Snyder.

During Snyder’s 25 years in charge, the team won 42% of the time. Only five NFL franchises were worse during that stretch. Not only that, but after multiple investigations by the league into workplace misconduct around the Washington NFL franchise forced Snyder to pay the league a fine of $6o million, his peers approved the sale of the team to the Harris Group, featuring Johnson as a minority owner.

Question No. 1: What about the name?

Neither Johnson nor new primary owner Josh Harris is saying, but the Washington NFL franchise should become the “Washington Redtails.” Such a name is catchy, which would trigger a slew of marketing possibilities.

Mostly, since the Washington NFL franchise was the last to integrate in the history of the league (1962, which was 15 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball), it would bring at least a helmet full of justice to the racially insensitive past of the franchise by honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary Black pilots who fought during World War II.

“We’ll see where we are with the name, but I can’t say that right now,” Johnson added during his TV interview, referring to the Washington NFL franchise, currently the Commanders, and it was the Washington Football Team before that, and it was an offensive name to Native Americans before that.

“We’re going to spend this year understanding what we have in place, and then I’m sure that that’ll come up. The Commanders, the name of the team, will come up eventually. But right now, we got enough work to do that will keep us busy.”

Like Question No. 2: Where should the Washington NFL franchise play its home games around the Potomac River?

The choices are Maryland, where the team is now, or Washington D.C., where it used to reside from 1961 through 1996, or Virginia, where more than a few folks are willing to give the team everything shy of George Washington’s mansion in Mount Vernon.

Even though Johnson and Harris are nearly as silent on the future location of their team as Washington NFL franchise Hall of Famer Art Monk was around reporters and teammates in general during the 1980s and 1990s, here’s the answer: Go home, “Washington Redtails.”

In addition, the Washington NFL franchise should . . .

• Bolt the nasty traffic jams on game days in Landover, Maryland around that portion of the Capital Beltway.
• Continue to lobby Congress to give the Washington D.C. government that National Park Service land featuring RFK Stadium, where the old Washington NFL franchise spent three decades of goodness or greatness.
• Do both of those things after becoming the “Washington Redtails” and then watch this stagnant (OK, bad) franchise rise again.

Who cares Maryland Governor Wes Moore said his state will give the Washington NFL franchise significantly more than the $430 million promised by previous Maryland Governor Larry Hogan for infrastructure? It doesn’t matter ESPN reported movers and shakers in Virginia say they’ll shower the team with an incentive package worth $1.5 billion.

If E.T. went home during the 20th century, the Washington NFL franchise can do the same in this one.

But back to Johnson, the master of visions. He won five NBA championships while dribbling for the Los Angeles Lakers, and now at 63, he’s among the greatest entrepreneurs ever among former professional athletes.

Courtesy of Magic Johnson Enterprises, he has current or past financial ties to everything from movie theaters to Best Buy
BBY
to the 105 Starbucks chains he sold for $100 million. He also has ownership stakes, not only with the Washington NFL franchise, but with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Major League Baseball, the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles FC.

Both the Dodgers and Los Angeles FC won it all when Johnson’s ownership group was in charge.

If you do the math and include the Lakers, that’s seven world championship rings overall for Johnson, which means the following: Even though he is a minority owner of the Washington NFL franchise, his words are as potent as the primary owner.

And Johnson said changes are coming.

So, listen up, Magic.

Your “Washington Redtails” could prosper in a hurry — especially if you return to the same location in Washington D.C., where the franchise appeared in five Super Bowls and won three of them from 1971 to 1992 as those other “Red” somethings.