Dan Quinn, the new head coach of the Washington Commanders, wore a T-shirt on Sunday that brought back memories of old mascots — and not in a good way.
The Commanders were long known as the Washington Redskins – and their logo featured a Native person’s head in a circle with two feathers on the side.
So when Quinn donned a graphic T-shirt that combined the team’s current “W” logo with those two feathers, he courted controversy.
The team told NBC Sports yesterday that they had “no organizational comment” — with the outlet also reporting that “Quinn wore the T-shirt on his own, without the team knowing he would be doing it.”
But beyond the obvious racial controversy, it also raises issues of copyright infringement, as the jersey is not officially licensed by the NFL.
Dan Quinn wore a controversial shirt that referenced the Commanders’ former logo
The feathers on the ‘W’ of the bootleg shirt harken back to when the team was called the Redskins
With Quinn joining the debate and wearing bootleg merchandise, it’s important to remember why it’s controversial in the first place.
The team was called the Redskins from 1933 to 2019. In its first year, the team was called the Braves, named after the baseball franchise that – at that time – played in Boston.
Within that time, there were numerous calls for the team to change its name, which was considered racist by many.
While not the only professional sports team to have a Native American as its mascot, the Redskins were one of the most prominent modern examples of that controversy.
A number of groups, including the National Congress of American Indians, considered the name “Redskins” a racial slur and tried for decades to change the name.
That change finally came in 2020, amid a wave of racial tensions and protests throughout that summer in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.
After remaining strong in his belief in keeping the name in recent years, former team owner Dan Snyder announced that they would be retiring the name in July 2020.
For a time, the team was known simply as the “Washington Football Team” before eventually becoming the Commanders in 2022.
Team owner Dan Snyder resisted calls to change the team’s name for years
Finally, after years of pressure from individuals and groups, Washington changed its name
Since that rebrand, many associated with the team have not liked the new name – and some are calling for a return to the old moniker.
ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio suggested that Quinn wearing that pirated merchandise felt like a “trial balloon, an interim step towards possibly bringing back the name and logo” – with the writer saying: “There are no accidents.”
He later reversed that belief somewhat: ‘We understand that Quinn wore the T-shirt alone, without the team knowing he would do it. While it may have seemed like a trial balloon of sorts for the head coach to display a mix of the current logo and the former logo, the Commanders are not testing the waters on a possible revival of the abandoned name and logo, or on its integration . from aspects of the old logo to the new one.’
But even if this was an accident, there are also legal issues involved with this shirt.
“The T-shirt is not officially licensed,” Florio reported. “The bots flooding social media with links to buy the shirt are selling something that infringes on the organization’s trademarks.
“The fact that Quinn has inadvertently aided and abetted infringement attempts creates a separate set of headaches for the team, which will have to mobilize its lawyers to stop and restrain the suppliers of the T-shirt to protect the associated copyrights. ‘
Many fans were unhappy with the name change to Commanders, which took place in 2022
But the issue of Quinn wearing unofficial merchandise is just as difficult to understand
Other writers shared a similar belief that the logo (and the fact that it was on counterfeit merchandise) was bad news for the coach and the team.
‘Dan Quinn in pirated merchandise. The NFL is not going to like this,” Dallas Cowboys writer Clarence Hill Jr. wrote on Twitter.
Jason Reid of ESPN wrote, “Anything to do with the former name is going to get people going one way or another. They just drafted a QB with the second overall pick. The new GM just had its first concept. New head coach leads the rookies. Optimism everywhere.
‘I just don’t understand the strategy of doing anything to take the focus away from the excitement on the pitch. If it was a trial balloon, there are ways that could have gone better than the new HC wearing a bootleg shirt. Nike pays for him to wear his shirts.
‘I understand that fans like the shirt and don’t think it matters, but Nike has a million reasons why it expects the coach to wear official clothing. Anyway, in my experience these things always add up. But maybe everything will be okay this time.”
Whether or not Quinn will be punished by the team or the league – or if the team decides to go after the sites selling this illegal merchandise – remains to be seen.