The “Washington Sentinels” could possibly be the new name of the former Washington Redskins , Yahoo Sports reports, after sleuths on Reddit did some digging and found some tantalizing clues. The name also obliquely references a Keanu Reeves film, leading to comedy gold on Twitter.
Officially, the management of the Washington NFL team hasn’t revealed what the team’s new moniker will be. Last week, when the team announced that it would be retiring its controversial name after a period of review, the organization promised to reveal its new name at an unspecified later date.
According to a companion Yahoo Sports report, so-called “internet squatters” have trademarked an untold number of possible new names for the team, possibly delaying the release of the new one while the legalities are worked out and the checks are signed.
However, as it turns out, a Reddit user did some digging and found out that the same entity that runs “Redskins.com” had registered the domain “DCSentinels.com.” The theory goes that the filing was done to secure the website for the team that will soon be named “The Washington Sentinels,” or perhaps “The D.C. Sentinels,” or something similar.
However, writer Frank Schwab was quick to point out that “following trademark filings or new website domains isn’t always an accurate way of solving puzzles like this.” However, since there hasn’t been any word from the team about its new name, the internet is taking what it can get.
Meanwhile, the name ” Washington Sentinels” brings with it its own set of problems, as that is also the name of the football squad in the 2000 Keanu Reeves comedy, The Replacements , about a football strike that forces teams to hire replacement players.
Over on Twitter, the jokes are writing themselves.
I see people tweeting out how the Washington sentinels would be a cool new name. Yeah, let’s name the team after a fictional movie team based off of a time where the owners used replacement players to try to break the Union…
— Nolan Harrison III, MBA (@NolanHarrison74) July 22, 2020
1. Change the name to Washington Sentinels 2. Hire Keanu Reeves as Brand Ambassador 3. Sign Joe Flacco to backup QB deal 4. Misprint Joe Flacco’s jersey on purpose 5. PRINT MONEY
— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) July 22, 2020
And while adopting a fictitious name from a movie and applying it to a real team may seem ridiculous, there’s actually precedent for it: Anaheim’s hockey team is the Ducks. The franchise was owned by The Walt Disney Company, which released the 1992 film, The Mighty Ducks . Disney sold the team in 2005.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , the name of Washington’s football team was and is one of the many aspects of daily life that have been looked at through the lens of modern attitudes about race in the wake of the George Floyd protests.
For decades, Native American groups have called the name offensive, but owner Dan Snyder had steadfastly resisted changing it. However, sponsor FedEx reportedly threatened to withdraw from its lucrative stadium naming-rights deal with the organization if the name and logo weren’t changed.
