Washington and Jason Wright’s Great Misdirect

Posted on by

January 10, 2022

by David Earl

2/2/2022: The Release Date

As we’ve all seen on the finale of Making The Brand, we have learned when the name will be officially released, but even more importantly what the name will not be. Of course, this video turned an entire fan base into CSI Investigators looking for clues, doing things like zooming in on the helmet reflection in the window. A social media storm began setting the Washington fan base into a frenzy, but was that by design? As February nears and many guesses plus the claimed “sources” arose on what the new name will be, did Jason feel the need to throw off the scent in order to allow the reveal to carry more excitement and surprise? Well, any marketing expert will tell you, that’s a good idea.Β  Let’s not forget what he said on the Pat MacAfee show back in August, “You can only be so transparent to not shoot yourself in the damn foot.”

The Hot Names Discussed

Depending on what finalist list of names you believe, you’d see the name Admirals only on a few, but it has received some serious attention as of late. The name does carry a military theme that Ron Rivera wanted, but it specifically refers to the Navy and I am not exactly sure the team wants such a specific reference. While that kind of reference honestly doesn’t make complete sense, the attention started when www.washingtonadmirals.com was redirecting visitors to the team’s current website but then later would redirect you to a site called The Giving Kitchen. Now, as of today writing this article, the link brings you to the NFL Crucial Catch page on the official NFL site. These redirects are made possible through one avenue called the 302 Redirect. This can be used to temporarily redirect visitors to a different site knowing that the site owner will eventually direct it back to the original page. Another scenario includes redirecting the user to an alternate site while aΒ  permanent host page is built to launch at a later time. This method could very well give fans the feel Admirals could be the name based on these actions. This could also be just a deception from the actual truth, because Commanders really seems to be the most popular consensus today as this name is associated with every so-called finalist list. When attempting to access a Washington Commanders page it fails to load stating “Where this page is located isn’t responding,” which typically occurs if there is an error in the web browser; plus, I have not heard anyone having any success in accessing this page. Between these names mentioned and the curious results in accessing their respective pages plus the trademark reasonings for abandoning any version of Wolves being questionable, it is very possible this has all been an elaborate scheme to avoid too much transparency spoiling the true reveal. What am I getting at here??? Great question and here’s a very interesting theory around the name Redwolves.

Abandoned Redwolves a Ruse???

This conversation below brought up some intriguing realizations (or potential) of what may possibly be going on. Before the “Never Redwolves” crowd leaves this column, understand this isn’t necessarily a “save the Redwolves” name idea. Β Trust me, this gets interesting and makes you think.

First, think of the idea of an already established professional team (Minnesota Timberwolves) not wanting to share the “wolves” name concept and imagery with another franchise – to me, that doesn’t hold weight. The Giants, Cardinals, Panthers, Kings, and others share a common name between 2 professional sports leagues. In terms of trademarking and development of their product, these teams have done just fine for a very long time. With that explanation set aside, this conversation addressed some pertinent aspects of web design that seem to hold up in this scenario. What makes this important to understand? Well if one wants to either start a brand or, like in Washington’s case, rebrand, the desire would be to be able to successfully roll out this new product on day one successfully. From the initial planning of the site, the website design and development stage, and then the final review before rollout it’s a process that can take around 3+ months. When the development is complete and ready for rollout out, everything will need to migrate everything over to the official domain in preparation to launch the official, public web page. At this moment, if you access www.washingtonredwolves.com you will be given a “Forbidden to access” message, which is common in website development and is a good indicator that this site exists. This is a strong indicator this domain is the property of a third party as they will need to build this page independently in order to not give anything away. Thus, the only rights to access are given to administrators during the development of the potential Redwolves page. When the time is right, such as the actual February 2nd release date, the current Washington team URL would then be redirected to the potential new Redwolves URL much like how the Redskins URL redirects you to the current Washington URL. In a separate conversation with Captain Obvious, he points out too that, “They have to have the webpage ready for day one not only for massive sale but it has to be stress-tested and large enough to handle millions of almost instant URL queries. It’s not going to be something cheaply created and unvalidated prior to release.” So the timeline of when they supposedly knew the name (last Summer) and before the full rollout comes awfully close to the web development process I just spoke to. Now before you roll your eyes, understand that everything he stated is verifiable and makes a ton of sense especially with the further research I was able to accomplish. This isn’t to say the name will 100% be Redwolves, butΒ  be careful disregarding that notion, because, as I mentioned earlier, Jason will most certainly use misdirection so as to not spoil the reveal.

Eliminating Redwolves from the process would be a masterful ploy of misdirection because of the huge following the name has garnered. Bursting the hopes of the Redwolves movement and getting this section of fans talking more about Commanders, Admirals, or any other name as they come to terms with the name not being Redwolves would greatly benefit the organization heading into reveal day. Jason is a highly intelligent man and knows what he is doing so he probably would want to provide a little deception in order to preserve the intrigue. The best part of all this, if true, is that he is watching social media in humor as this fan base is chasing each other’s tails.

Darkhorse Candidate: Hogs or Redhogs as, as the “hogs” reference ties in team history and could ultimately be the name hidden behind the chatter of Commanders, Admirals, and the assumed elimination of Redwolves. Plus the www.washingtonhogs.com brings you to a domain that has links for Redskins and Washington (among others) and www.washingtonredhogs.com is a domain offering that site up for sale. Based on the discussion above involving domain constructions for eventual rollout this name seems like a long shot as either site links for Hogs not only already exist but nothing significant appears to be happening when accessing these pages.

Personal Favorite: As a veteran, the Redtails name would carry a lot of weight for me as it would be an honor to celebrate one of the elite military units from WWII the Tuskegee Airmen. I know I stand with very few apparently on this island but that’s ok.

Trademarking The Name: While nothing is apparently posted publicly through the USPTO database that doesn’t mean a trademark has not been filed overseas as discussed by this DC Trademark Attorney. Therefore, it’s possible the new name has been filed overseas, with a United States filing forthcoming, and if so, could add some additional credence to the Redwolves theory. Regardless these next few weeks will be interesting, annoying, and fun for sure, so buckle up for the ride cause it doesn’t get any easier.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: There is a legitimate dispute regarding the “Red Wolves” nickname going on in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office right now between Arkansas St. University, which uses the nickname “Red Wolves”, and a professional soccer team called the “Chattanooga Red Wolves”.Β  The USPTO actually suspended the soccer team mark pending resolution of the dispute.Β  This dispute most certainly would affect any “Redwolves / Red Wolves” trademark filing by Washington right now, if they are so inclined to do so – Steve Thomas]