Washington Commanders

The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The franchise was founded by George Preston Marshall as the Boston Braves in 1932, were renamed the Boston Redskins the following year, and became the Washington Redskins upon moving to Washington, D.C., in 1937. The Redskins name and logo drew criticism for decades before they were retired in 2020 as part of a wave of name changes during a period of racial unrest in the United States. The team played as the Washington Football Team for two seasons before rebranding as the Commanders in 2022.

The Commanders play their home games at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, and have a headquarters and training facility in Ashburn, Virginia. The Commanders have played more than 1,300 games and have won more than 600. Washington was among the first NFL franchises with an original fight song, "Hail to the Commanders", which has been played by their marching band after home game touchdowns since 1937. The franchise won NFL championships in 1937 and 1942 and Super Bowls XVII (1982), XXII (1987), and XXVI (1991). The Commanders have finished a season as league runner-up six times, losing the 1936, 1940, 1943, and 1945 title games and Super Bowls VII (1972) and XVIII (1983). Washington has 14 division titles and 26 total playoff appearances.

All of Washington's championships were attained during two 10-year spans. From 1936 to 1945, the team went to the NFL Championship six times, winning two of them under general manager Jack Espey and head coach Ray Flaherty. Washington appeared in four Super Bowls and won three under owner Jack Kent Cooke, general managers Bobby Beathard and Charley Casserly, and head coach Joe Gibbs from 1982 to 1991. From 1946 to 1970, Washington posted just four winning seasons and never reached the playoffs. They went without a single winning season from 1956 to 1968 and achieved their worst regular-season record, 1–12–1, in 1961. From their 1991 Super Bowl victory through 2024, the team notched just four NFC East division titles and three playoff wins.

The city of Boston was awarded a National Football League (NFL) franchise on July 9, 1932, under the ownership of American businessman George Preston Marshall. The team was named after the Boston Braves baseball team, with whom they shared Braves Field, with the inaugural season coached by Lud Wray. The team saw several changes in 1933, including a name change to the "Redskins" and playing their home games at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Wray was also replaced at head coach by Lone Star Dietz.

The situation faced by Marshall in Boston was difficult. In 1935, Joe F. Carr opined: "To the casual observer bred in the knowledge of New England's place in football's sun, because its cradle and nursery were there, the success of a Boston team in the professional ranks would be a foregone conclusion. Nothing could have been more erroneous. Boston finished the most forbidding ground for professional football of any large city in the country. The history of the game in Boston and New England was entirely associated with college, preparatory, and high school playing. Its eminence as an institution of sport grew in a hallowed atmosphere as an almost sacrosanct element of education which was to be kept ever free from commercial pollution." The Redskins appeared in the 1936 NFL Championship Game, their first championship appearance, but lost to the Green Bay Packers 21–6.

After five years in Boston, which Marshall said showed a lack of interest in the team, the Redskins moved to Washington, D.C., in 1937. The team arranged to share Griffith Stadium with the Washington Senators, an American League baseball team. In their first game in D.C., the season opener, the Redskins defeated the New York Giants. The same season, they earned their first division title in Washington with a 49–14 win over the Giants. Shortly after, the team won their first championship by defeating the Chicago Bears in the 1937 NFL Championship Game.

The Redskins met the Bears again in the 1940 NFL Championship Game. The result, 73–0 in favor of the Bears, remains the worst one-sided loss in NFL history. The Redskins won their second championship in 1942, defeating the Bears 14–6. In 1943, Dutch Bergman was named head coach and led the team to a return to the NFL championship game, however they were defeated by the Chicago Bears 41–21. That same season, Sammy Baugh led the NFL in passing, punting, and interceptions.

The Redskins played in the NFL Championship one more time before a quarter-century drought that lasted until the 1972 season. With former Olympic gold medalist Dudley DeGroot as their new head coach, the Redskins went 8–2 during the 1945 season. One of the most impressive performances came from Baugh, who had a completion percentage of 70.3. They ended the season by losing to the Cleveland Rams in the 1945 NFL Championship Game, 15–14. The one-point margin of victory came under scrutiny because of a safety that occurred early in the game. In the first quarter, the Redskins had the ball at their own 5-yard line. Dropping back into the end zone, quarterback Baugh threw to an open receiver, but the ball hit the goal post and bounced back to the ground in the end zone. Under the rules at the time, this was ruled as a safety and thus gave the Rams a 2–0 lead. Marshall was so upset at the outcome that he became a major force in passing a major rule change after the season, in which a forward pass that struck the goalpost was automatically ruled incomplete. This later became known as the "Baugh/Marshall Rule".