NFL news: Joe Theismann talks Redskins’ legacy, hopes Commanders will honor it

The Washington Commanders will eventually return to the nation’s capital and play at the old RFK Stadium site in a state-of-the-art stadium.

One of the keys to earning federal lawmakers’ support in building the stadium there was to have “good-faith negotiations” about honoring the franchise’s legacy as the Redskins and the Native American family that created the original logo the team used for decades before switching names. 

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., made it clear in November on Fox News Channel’s “America Reports.”

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While Commanders team owner Josh Harris has made clear that the Commanders nickname is here to stay, Super Bowl champion Joe Theismann expressed optimism that the franchise will find a way to honor the logo and the family behind it.

“I think Josh Harris and his group are certainly well aware of what the Redskins were – obviously being a big fan growing up in this area, it’s a dream come true I’m sure for him and some of the people that are a part of the ownership group,” Theismann told Fox News Digital. “In some way, shape or form they possibly will honor it.

“I don’t know whether people realize but the Redskin logo that was on our helmets was designed by a Native American, and it would be a great honor to be able to continue to honor the Native Americans and the tribes that are a part of that going forward. I mean, that’s the way I felt when I put that uniform on. It was an honor for me to be able to represent the Washington Redskins, the Native Americans of this country. We won a Super Bowl, and I was given a chief’s headdress. It would be nice again to sort of connect the old with the new.”

Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, #7, in action against the Miami Dolphins at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 3, 1978. (Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

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Theismann was adamant that the new faces of the franchise should establish their own path forward as the Commanders like the Redskins of his day established theirs.

“Let this group of guys called the Commanders establish their own legacy,” he said. “We had one, now it’s their turn to establish theirs.”

Blackie Wetzel was credited with creating the portrait of John Two Guns White Calf in 1971, which the Washington Redskins used in 1972, Fox News Digital previously reported. The descendants of Two Guns White Calf also called for the image to be back in the NFL.

Theismann spoke to Fox News Digital ahead of his appearance at the American Century Championship golf tournament at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Club.

Blackfoot chief John Two Guns White Calf, left, who served as the inspiration for the Washington Redskins logo, which represented the NFL franchise on the field form 1972 to 2020. The franchise’s original logo from its founding in 1932 was inspired by Lenni Lenape chief Tammany, dubbed “The Patron Saint of America” by the Founding Fathers and the generation that fought the American Revolution. (Getty Images)

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