The Washington Commanders are a professional American football franchise based in the Washington metropolitan area. They are members of the East division in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL). The Commanders were founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves, named after the local baseball franchise.[1] The franchise changed its name the following year to the Redskins and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1937.[1] In 2020, the team retired the Redskins name after longstanding controversies surrounding it and briefly became the Washington Football Team, before choosing the Washington Commanders as their permanent name in 2022.[1]
The franchise has won three Super Bowl championships (Super Bowl XVII, Super Bowl XXII, and Super Bowl XXVI).[2] They also played in and lost Super Bowl VII and Super Bowl XVIII.[2] Before the AFL and NFL merged in 1970,[3] Washington won two NFL Championships (1937 and 1942). They also played in and lost the 1936, 1940, 1943, and 1945 Championship games. Only five teams have appeared in more Super Bowls than Washington: the New England Patriots (11), Dallas Cowboys (eight), Pittsburgh Steelers (eight), Denver Broncos (eight), and San Francisco 49ers (seven); Washington's five appearances are tied with the Green Bay Packers, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, and New York Giants.[4]
All of the franchise's championships were attained during two 10-year spans. The first period of success was from 1936 to 1945, when they went to the NFL Championship six times, winning two of them. The second period of success was from 1982 and 1991, when they appeared in the postseason seven times, captured four Conference titles, and won three Super Bowls. This period included the 1983 and 1991 seasons when the team won 14 games, the most the team has won in a single season.[5]
Washington has also experienced periods of extended failure in its history. The most notable period of continued failure was from 1946 to 1970, when they posted only four winning seasons and did not have a single postseason appearance.[5] During this period, they went without a single winning season between 1956 to 1968 and posted their worst regular-season record in franchise history, going 1–12–1 in 1961.[5] Washington is currently experiencing its second period of failure, which began in 1993 and continued through the entire franchise ownership of Daniel Snyder. Since 1993, they have posted only eight winning seasons and six postseason appearances.[5]
The city of Boston was awarded an NFL franchise on July 9, 1932,[6] under the ownership of George Preston Marshall, Vincent Bendix, Jay O'Brien, and Dorland Doyle.[6] The team took the place of the temporary traveling Cleveland Indians, who themselves were operated under the franchise of the Newark Tornadoes[7] after the Tornadoes had left the league after the 1930 season and had sold its franchise rights back to the NFL. Despite this, neither team management nor the NFL claim that the Indians or Tornadoes were earlier incarnations of the team currently in Washington. Additionally, none of the members of the 1930 Newark Tornadoes roster,[8] and only two of the 1931 Indians (Algy Clark and Dale Waters),[9] remained on the 1932 Boston Braves roster.[10]
Initially, the new team took the same name as their landlords, the Boston Braves, one of the two local Major League Baseball teams. The Braves played their first game on October 2, 1932, under the leadership of coach Lud Wray, against the Brooklyn Dodgers, to whom they lost 14–0.[11] The next week, the Braves recorded their first win, beating the New York Giants 14–6.[12] The new franchise's losses during the first season reached $46,000 ($1,052,789 in 2024) and Bendix, O'Brien, and Doyle dropped out of the investment, leaving Marshall the sole owner of the Braves.[13][14] The team moved to Fenway Park[15] (home of the Boston Red Sox) the next year, and Marshall changed the name to "Redskins". According to ESPN, the team has long contended it was named in honor of Marshall's head coach, William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz, who was believed to be part Sioux.[16] A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying that he did not name the team specifically in honor of Dietz or any of the team's native members, but because Marshall wanted to avoid any confusion with the Braves baseball squad while still keeping the native connotations of the previous moniker.[17]
Dietz's first year as coach in 1933 was unremarkable, and the Redskins finished with a 5–5–2 record.[18] However, one impressive feat during the season was Cliff Battles' performance against the New York Giants on October 8, 1933, when he rushed 16 times for 215 yards (197 m) and scored one touchdown and became the first player ever to rush for more than 200 yards (180 m) in a game.[19]
Dietz was fired after posting a 6–6 record in 1934, and Eddie Casey was hired as his replacement.[18] During the 1935 season, the Redskins split their first two games before going into a season-long scoring slump, posting only 23 points during a seven-game losing streak. The Redskins posted a win and a tie in their final two games, finishing with a 2–8–1 record,[18] scoring only 65 points on the season. Casey was fired at the end of the season.[20]
The Redskins' most productive year in Boston came in 1936. It started with the first annual NFL draft on February 8, 1936, in which the Redskins had the second overall pick. Their first selection as an NFL team was Riley Smith, a blocking back from Alabama. The first player ever selected in the draft, Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger, chose not to play pro football. Because of this, Smith holds the distinction of being the first drafted player to play in the National Football League.[21] Later in the draft, the Redskins selected Wayne Millner, who became a large part of their offense. The next big addition was the hiring of Ray Flaherty as head coach. In the following decade, Flaherty led the team to two NFL championships and four divisional titles.[22]
After starting the season 4–5, the Redskins won their last three games to finish with a record of 7–5,[18] attaining both their first winning record and their first Eastern Division Championship. However, during the final game of the regular season, a 30–0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, only 4,813 fans showed up to Fenway Park. An angry Marshall then decided to give up home field advantage for the 1936 NFL Championship Game. The game was then played on December 13, 1936, at New York's Polo Grounds, where they lost to the Green Bay Packers, 21–6.[23]
"I moved my team to Washington because the Boston papers gave girls' field hockey more coverage than the Redskins," Marshall said in 1953.[16] Before leaving Massachusetts, however, the Redskins made one more big addition that helped their franchise for years to come. The addition came after the 1937 NFL draft on December 12, 1936, when they signed an innovative rookie quarterback from Texas Christian University: Sammy Baugh.[11] In an era where the forward pass was relatively rare, the Redskins used it as their primary method of gaining yards. "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh also played numerous other positions, including cornerback and punter.[24]
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After the disappointing 1936 NFL title game, George Preston Marshall had the team moved to his home in Washington, D.C., on February 13, 1937, retaining the name "Redskins" although it was now out of context.[6] They then shared Griffith Stadium with the Washington Senators baseball team.[25]
Marshall sought to incorporate many elements of the college football atmosphere into Redskins games. At the time, the college game was far more popular than the NFL, which was still shaking off its barnstorming roots. On August 9, 1937, the Redskins marching band was founded.[6] The all-volunteer ensemble formed when Marshall brought the Redskins to Washington, with the goal of entertaining fans from the moment they walked into the stadium until the time they left it.[26] The Redskins are now one of only two teams in the NFL with an official marching band. The other is the Baltimore Ravens.[27] The Redskins were also one of the first teams to have a fight song, "Hail to the Redskins", which made its debut on August 17, 1938, as the official fight song of the Redskins. The song was composed by band leader Barnee Breeskin and the lyrics were written by actress Corinne Griffith, the wife of Marshall.
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