Commanders changing crest to calm criticism

The Washington Commanders announced Tuesday they will change their just-unveiled crest logo to reflect the seasons that the team won the Super Bowl instead of the year the game took place after facing heavy criticism of the design from local football fans.

Previously, Washington listed the year in which the team’s Super Bowl victories took place. So, for example, the crest had “1992” on it rather than 1991. But the logo drew a wave of backlash, with many pointing out that the squad is referred to as the 1991 Redskins to match the 1991 regular season. 

The Commanders’ crest features five dates around the outer circle: 1937, 1942, 1982, 1987 and 1991. The latter three were changed with Tuesday’s revision.

“We heard our fans loud and clear,” the NFL team said in a statement. “Going forward, our crest will reflect our Super Bowl victories using the year from that regular season.”

The Commanders unveiled their original crest on Feb. 2, and it didn’t take long before the pushback began. In a tense radio interview, Team 980 host Kevin Sheehan interrupted Commanders President Jason Wright after Wright said it was the NFL’s “usual nomenclature” to refer to Super Bowl-winning teams from the year the Super Bowl took place.  Sheehan then interjected with: “No, it’s not. That’s not true.” 

Wright said then that crest logo was something the team could “easily fix.” However, in the coming weeks, the Commanders appeared to run into obstacles in doing so — clashing with the NFL as they attempted to change the logo.

At first, the Commanders tried to amend the crest by using the Roman numerals associated with the Super Bowl  — displaying the lettering during the Super Bowl week at an event in Los Angeles. But the NFL vetoed the change as the league claims copyrights to the Roman numerals, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The NFL requires any merchandise with Super Bowl references to be cleared with the league, the paper added. 

That left Washington to seek another solution, opting for the more popular version that fans had been calling for. 

The change was first noticed online over the weekend when a fan claimed his brother-in-law received an autographed piece of paper that contained the crest and the updated years during a season-ticket holder event. 

As part of the updating process, the Commanders had to apply for a new trademark. The team previously filed a trademark application for the Commanders’ crest on Feb. 2, but because of the change, a source familiar with the situation said the Commanders filed a completely new application to reflect the update. 

Trademark expert and lawyer Monica Talley told The Washington Times the only way one can amend an existing application through the United States Patent and Trademark Office is if the change is a “non-material alteration,” such as removing a hyphen.  Otherwise, a new application is needed. 

“If you’re changing something like a year to a different year … that would likely create a different commercial impression and you have to file a new application to cover it,” said Talley, who heads the trademark and brand protection practice at Sterne Kessler.

The Commanders also have to tweak Commanders merchandise with the old logo and swap it out with the new one. 

“We have begun the process of updating our crest online and with vendors,” the Commanders said in a statement. “For fans that have pre-ordered a jersey, the jersey will feature the updated crest and will begin shipping by early July. Licensees are in the process of creating new merchandise with the revised crest and the new merchandise will be in market as soon as possible.”