Washington football fans come with their share of baggage: the pileup of losses, the churn of starting quarterbacks, the front-office scandals, that polarizing former team name. They also have a lot of stuff — branded jerseys, hats, T-shirts, pennants, posters and other memorabilia that celebrate an identity the team has cast off.
Now the question for fans and the franchise is this: What do you do with it?
As the NFL team fully divests itself of a name that many find racially insensitive, the transition has set off a novel experiment in the fast-growing sports collectibles industry. A rebrand typically occurs because of a move, said Leila Dunbar, a D.C.-based memorabilia appraiser, in the way the Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens or the Montreal Expos turned into the Washington Nationals.
Advertisement
But the Washington Football Team’s situation is unique because it had been under immense pressure to change its name, as well as for its unprecedented decision to take a temporary name rather than wait until it had a replacement. The unusual circumstances, combined with the franchise’s core of die-hard fans, create openings for the old gear on the memorabilia market, collectors and appraisers say.
Experts say there are plenty of fans who will snap up Washington Redskins merchandise to preserve what they consider the region’s sporting heritage, shaking off criticisms that the name is derogatory. There also are those who are looking forward to embracing the new name and being done with the Washington Football Team temporary moniker.
“I look constantly now on eBay,” said Kevin McHale, a lifelong Washington football fan in New Jersey. “I’ve probably bought more since the name changed than I was before. Before I would bookmark something, like, ‘I’d like to have that.’ Now when I see something I like, I buy it, because I may never see something like that again.”
Advertisement
Chris Bryant in Staunton, Va., is planning a full-scale redesign of his “fan cave.” He spent $1,000 to $1,500 to redo his basement from a Redskins theme to a WFT one. He will do it again with the franchise’s new name.
“When it comes to my fandom and financially, I kind of set aside money and I just kind of buy whatever I want,” he said.
Licensed sports merchandising is a $30 billion global market, according to market research firm Research and Markets, with companies such as Nike, Under Armour and Adidas fighting for the right to clothe and equip college and professional athletes.
The NFL has separate apparel deals with Nike, to outfit players and coaches, and Fanatics, to sell merchandise to fans. The league has not released the values of those agreements, but they’re believed to be worth billions.
Advertisement
Neither the team, Nike nor Fanatics responded to questions about their plans for old Redskins and Washington Football Team paraphernalia. Sports marketing consultants uninvolved with the name change said rebranding franchises often significantly mark down old merchandise for sale or donate it overseas to keep it from circulating on auction sites domestically.
That still leaves untold amounts of old Washington football items circulating for collectors. Christie Lopez in Leesburg purchased a Redskins Christmas village play set in early January. “As soon as I saw it, I was like, ‘I have to have that,’ ” she said.
She is drawn to the old name because of her family’s Cherokee heritage, she said, and her husband’s longtime fandom. He is a member of the “Hogettes,” the flamboyant fan group that formed in the early 1980s to celebrate the team’s famed offensive line nicknamed “The Hogs.” As the older members of the group liquidate their collections, Lopez has taken much of it to display in her basement.
Advertisement
“I opened a box one day, and there were 500 [plastic] pig snouts,” she said.
Samu Qureshi of Bethesda calls his collection “the museum.” It includes game-used equipment, old correspondence and memos from team and league officials, players’ contracts and more. On display in his basement is a jock strap once used by Hall of Fame running back John Riggins.
He hopes, one day, to lend some of the items to team owner Daniel Snyder for a museum. He even has tried to call team president Jason Wright to discuss the idea. No one has called him back.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, is considering its approach to capturing this era, according to Jon Kendle, its vice president of archives, education and football information. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., may face a similar challenge with the former Cleveland Indians, who transitioned to the Guardians ahead of the 2022 season.
Advertisement
“We try to smooth it out as much as possible, but there’s certain things that we just can’t as a museum, as a keeper of history — we can’t scrub the history clean,” Kendle said.
When the franchise became the Washington Football Team in 2020, Qureshi said, there was a surge in demand for items with its old logo and a pronounced lack of interest in Washington Football Team materials.
It made a limited run of Washington Football Team merchandise, and many hometown fans went to FedEx Field still wearing the old logo. Some even complained online about the lack of Washington Football Team apparel compared with other NFL clubs.
“A lot of fans through this period were saying: ‘Why would I waste my money on this stuff? [The name] is going to change again,’ ” Lopez said.
Now that the name is changing again, collectors say there’s not much Washington Football Team gear to go around. Qureshi said he added a few items — mostly game programs — to his collection to keep up with the team’s history. Bryant redid his basement but didn’t go as all-out as he could have because he knew the name was temporary. He has more than 70 team jerseys, he said. Eight are from the WFT.
Advertisement
That makes sense, appraisers say, because the Washington Football Team’s record wasn’t very good. Sure, it won the NFC East in 2020, but with a 7-9 record. The Washington Football Team era, memorabilia experts say, has mostly been defined by on-field mediocrity and off-field scandal, namely allegations of a misogynistic work environment and accusations of exploitation of the team’s cheerleaders. That significantly hurts the collectible and merchandise markets, which are driven by on-field success.
“That’s the way it is in sports in general,” Dunbar said. “It’s all about winners.”
The combination of excellence, popularity, rarity and timing feed into the value of collectibles, now a $5.4 billion market by some estimates. Michael Jordan memorabilia, for example, has surged in value since the debut of the 2020 docuseries, “The Last Dance,” which looked back at his final season with the Chicago Bulls. A 1986 Jordan rookie card is at auction on eBay for $16,100.
Advertisement
And though there might be some early excitement around a new name, she said — who doesn’t like a new hoodie or T-shirt? — much of the interest in the new brand will depend on the team’s wins and losses. Until then, fans are likely to gravitate toward items from the team’s successful past.
“I doubt I’ll be buying anything Washington Football Team,” said Rudy Gersten, a lifelong fan in Bethesda who has collected merchandise for three decades. “I doubt I’ll buy any of the new name, whatever it may be. But I may well continue to look into buying old Redskins items and continue to build my collection. I don’t plan on getting rid of any of it.”
Nicki Jhabvala contributed to this report.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmhqYGd%2FcHyRaGdqZ6eWwKm1zaCrqKZdm7ywwMGao6VlpJqurnnCqKOlnZOptqO4xKxkq52Sp66vsI4%3D