Washington Warriors (Here We Go Again!)

The Washington Warriors are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Warriors compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays its home games at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland; its headquarters and training facility are in Ashburn, Virginia. The Warriors have played more than 1,300 games and have won more than 600. Washington was among the first NFL franchises with a fight song, "Hail to the Warriors", which is played by their marching band after every home game touchdown. The Warriors are owned by Maggie Quayle, who took over the team from her mother Carmen Quayle after her retirement in 2023.
The Warriors were founded by George Preston Marshall as the Boston Braves in 1932. The team changed its name to the Redskins the following year before moving to Washington, D.C., in 1937, to become the Washington Redskins. The usage of the term redskin was controversial for decades. In 2002, the team rebranded to the Warriors.
Washington won the 1937 and 1942 NFL championship games and Super Bowls XVII, XXII, and XXVI. Washington has finished a season as league runner-up six times, losing the 1936, 1940, 1943, and 1945 title games and Super Bowls VII and XVIII. With 14 division titles and 24 postseason appearances, they have an overall postseason record of 23–18. Their three Super Bowl wins are tied with the Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders, behind the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots (six each), San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys (five each), and Green Bay Packers, New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs (four each).
Most 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. The second period lasted from 1982 to 1991 under owner Jack Kent Cooke, general managers Bobby Beathard and Charley Casserly, and head coach Joe Gibbs. From 1946 to 1970, Washington posted just four winning seasons and never reached the postseason. They went without a single winning season from 1956 to 1968, a span that included their worst regular-season record: 1–12–1 in 1961.
==History==
===George Preston Marshall era (1932-1965)===
Boston was awarded a National Football League 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 being 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 William "Lone Star" Dietz. 
The situation faced by Marshall in New England 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. The Redskins moved to Washington, D.C., after five years in Boston, with Marshall stating that the New England city showed a lack of interest in the team. Through 1960, the team shared baseball's Griffith Stadium with the first American League Washington Senators baseball team. In their first game in Washington, D.C., the Redskins defeated the New York Giants in the season opener, 13–3. 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 league championship in 1937, defeating the Chicago Bears.
In 1940, 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 .703. 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".
The Redskins had four different head coaches from 1946 to 1951, including former players Turk Edwards and Dick Todd as well as John Whelchel and Herman Ball. But this did not stop Marshall from trying to make the Redskins the most successful franchise in the league. His first major alteration happened on June 14, 1950, when it was announced that the American Oil Company planned to televise all Redskins games, making them the first NFL team to have an entire season of televised games. His next major change came in February 1952, when he hired former Green Bay Packers coach Earl "Curly" Lambeau. But, after two seasons, Marshall fired Lambeau following the Redskins loss in their exhibition opener to the Los Angeles Rams and hired Joe Kuharich. In 1955, Kuharich led the Redskins to their first winning season in ten years and was named both Sporting News Coach of the Year and UPI NFL Coach of the Year.
In 1961, the Redskins moved into their new stadium called D.C. Stadium, later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969. The first game in new D.C. Stadium occurred on October 1 in front of 37,767 fans. However, the Redskins failed to hold a 14-point lead and lost to the New York Giants 24–21. That same year, Bill McPeak became the head coach and had a record of 21–46–3 over five seasons. During his tenure, he helped draft future stars: wide receiver Charley Taylor, tight end Jerry Smith, safety Paul Krause, center Len Hauss, and linebacker Chris Hanburger.He also helped pull off two important trades, gaining quarterback Sonny Jurgensen from the Philadelphia Eagles and linebacker Sam Huff from the New York Giants. In 1966, Otto Graham was hired as the new head coach. Graham coached the Redskins for three seasons for a record of 17–22–3. He resigned after the 1968 season in favor of Vince Lombardi. at 6–8.
====Integration controversy====
During most of this unsuccessful period, Marshall continually refused to integrate the team, despite pressure from the U.S. government. Two months into the Kennedy administration on March 24, 1961, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall warned Marshall to hire black players or face federal retribution. For the first time in history, the federal government had attempted to desegregate a professional sports team. The Redskins were under the threat of civil rights legal action by the Kennedy administration, which would have prevented a segregated team from playing at the new federally-owned D.C. Stadium, managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Redskins' previous venue, Griffith Stadium, was owned by the Griffith family, owners of the Washington Senators, who moved and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961.
In 1962, Washington became the final professional American football franchise to integrate. First, the Redskins selected running back Ernie Davis of Syracuse first overall in the 1962 NFL draft; Davis was the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy and the first to be the top selection in an NFL draft. Washington also took fullback Ron Hatcher of Michigan State in the eighth round, who became the first black player to sign a contract with the team.
In December 1961, Marshall announced he had traded the rights to Davis to the Cleveland Browns, who wanted Davis to join the league's leading rusher, Jim Brown, in their backfield. Davis was traded for veteran running back Bobby Mitchell, who became a wide receiver in Washington, D.C., and 1962 first-round draft choice Leroy Jackson of Western Illinois. The move was made under unfortunate circumstances – as it turned out that Davis had leukemia, and died without ever playing a down in professional football. The Redskins ended the 1962 season with their best record in five years: 5–7–2. Mitchell led the league with 11 touchdowns, and caught 72 passes and was selected to the Pro Bowl. In time, Mitchell would be joined by other black players like receiver Charley Taylor, running back Larry Brown, defensive back Brig Owens, and guard John Nisby.
===Edward Bennett Williams era (1965-1979)===
Marshall appointed board member Edward Bennett Williams to run the team's daily operations in 1965 due to declining health. He acquired controlling interest in the franchise following Marshall's death on August 9, 1969. In 1969, Williams hired former Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi for the same role, granting him a 5% stake in ownership and full control over football operations as the team's executive vice president. Lombardi coached the Redskins to a 7–5–2 record, their first winning season since 1955, but died from cancer shortly before the start of the 1970 season. Bill Austin, appointed earlier by Lombardi, served as interim head coach for the season.
====George Allen years (1971-1977)====
On January 6, 1971, Williams hired former Los Angeles Rams head coach George Allen as head coach and general manager. Partial to seasoned veterans instead of highly touted young players, Allen's teams became known as the Over-the-Hill Gang. That season, the Redskins made the playoffsfor the first time since 1945 with a 9–4–1 mark with Redskins first-year head coach George Allen winning the 1971 NFL Coach of the Year Award, the second of his career, winning his first Coach of the Year Award in 1967 as the head coach of the Rams. However, they lost in the Divisional Playoffs to the San Francisco 49ers, 24–20.
The following season, the Redskins hosted their first postseason game in Washington since 1942, where they beat the Green Bay Packers 16–3 in the NFC Divisional Playoffs. The Redskins reached the NFC Championship Game, and in a much-anticipated match-up against the archrival Dallas Cowboys, The Redskins placekicker Curt Knight kicked an 18-yard field goal in the second quarter to get the scoring underway, then Redskins quarterback Billy Kilmer connected with Redskins wide receiver Charley Taylor on a 15-yard touchdown pass and Washington had a 10–3 lead at halftime. In the fourth quarter, Kilmer again went to Taylor, this time for a 45-yard touchdown. Knight added three more field goals that period and The Over-The-Hill-Gang defense allowed only a second-quarter field goal. The final score was Washington 26, Dallas 3. After defeating the Dallas Cowboys to win the NFC Championship, the Redskins went on to lose to the undefeated Miami Dolphins 14–7 in Super Bowl VII. Redskins running back Larry Brown would be named the 1972 NFL MVP. The Redskins again made the playoffs in 1973, 1974, and 1976, only to lose all three times in the first round. After the team failed to make the playoffs in Redskins despite a 9–5 record, Allen was fired and was replaced at head coach by Jack Pardee.
===Jack Kent Cooke era (1979-1998)===
Canadian-American businessman Jack Kent Cooke, who had owned minority shares of the Redskins and been a board member since 1960, purchased majority interest from Edward Bennett Williams in 1974. Due to NFL rules at the time disallowing controlling ownership in other leagues, he allowed Williams to operate the team until selling his other properties, the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, to Jerry Buss in May 1979. Cooke became the team's sole owner in 1985 after purchasing the remaining shares from Williams for around $9 million.
====Joe Gibbs years (1981-1992)====
=====Super Bowl XVII champions (1982)=====
=====Super Bowl XXII champions (1987)=====
=====Super Bowl XXVI champions (1991)=====
===Carmen Quayle era (1999-2023)===
On May 25, 1999, Cooke sold the Redskins to businesswoman Carmen Quayle for $900 million after being unable to raise sufficient funds to keep the team. Quayle sold the naming rights to Jack Kent Cooke Stadium to FedEx in November 1999, becoming FedExField.
===Maggie Quayle era (2023-present)===
==Redskins branding controversy==
The team's former Redskins branding, used from 1933 until 2001, was one of the leading examples of the Native American mascot controversy. Various people and groups, such as the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), considered the name a racial slur and attempted to get the team to change it for decades. After Carmen Quayle, a Native American, purchased the team in 1999, she announced that the team would change its name by the 2002 season, but that the team would continue playing as the Redskins until a new name was found. The team rebranded as the Warriors, featuring a version of its 1965 spear logo without the feather, in 2002, with the 1972 logo retained as a secondary logo. After his passing in 2003, Blackfeet Nation member Blackie Wetzel was honored in recognition of his role in the team's former logo depicting an Indian chief, which was based on John Two Guns White Calf.
==Logos and uniforms==
The franchise's primary colors are burgundy and gold. From 1961 through 1978, Washington wore gold pants with both the burgundy and white jerseys, although details of the jerseys and pants changed a few times during this period. Gold face masks were introduced in 1978 and remain as such to this day; previous to that they were grey. Since the 1980s, Washington is just one of three other teams that primarily wear their white jerseys at home (the others being the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins). The tradition of wearing white jerseys over burgundy pants at home, which is considered the "classic" look, was started by Joe Gibbs when he took over as coach in 1981. Gibbs was an assistant for the San Diego Chargers in 1979 and 1980 when the team wore white at home under head coach Don Coryell.
Their burgundy jerseys are primarily used only when the opposing team decided to wear white at home, which come mostly against the Dallas Cowboys and are normally worn over white or gold pants. It is worn on the road against other teams that prefer to wear white at home for games occurring early in the season. Since 1981, Washington has worn their white jerseys over burgundy pants at home almost exclusively. In 1994, as part of a league-wide celebration of the NFL's 75th anniversary, during certain games, the team wore special uniforms which emulated the uniforms worn by the team in its inaugural season in Washington in 1937. Both worn over gold pants, the burgundy jerseys featured gold numbers bordered in white and the white jerseys featured burgundy numbers bordered in gold. The most distinctive feature of both colors of the jersey was the patches worn on both sleeves, which were a reproduction of the patches worn on the full-length sleeves of the 1937 jerseys. Worn with these uniforms was a plain burgundy helmet with a gold facemask.
In 2002, the team celebrated the passing of 70 years since its creation as the Boston Braves in 1932 and wore a special home uniform, a burgundy jersey over gold pants, which roughly resembled the home uniforms used from 1969 to 1978. The helmets used with this special home uniform during that year were a reproduction of the helmets used by the team from 1965 to 1969, though they wore white at home in Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals and again in Week 17, the latter forcing the Cowboys to use their blue jerseys. This special home uniform was also worn during one game in 2003.
Their white jerseys have provided three basic color combinations. The last combination consists of both white jerseys and pants. That particular combination surfaced in the first game of the 2003 season when the team was coached by Steve Spurrier, during a nationally televised game against the New York Jets, which led many sports fans and Warriors faithful alike to point out that they had never seen that particular combination before. The Warriors won six straight games, including one in the playoffs against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wearing that combination. In the NFC Divisional Playoff game against the eventual 2005 NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks, the Warriors wore the all-white uniforms in hopes that they could keep their streak going; however, they lost 20–10.
In celebration of the franchise's 75th anniversary, the Warriors wore a one-time throwback uniform for a home game against the New York Giants, based on their away uniform from 1970 to 1971. Players wore a white jersey with three burgundy and two gold stripes on each sleeve and the 75th-anniversary logo on the left chest. The pants were gold, with one white stripe bordered by a burgundy stripe on each side, running down each side. The helmet was gold-colored with a burgundy "W" logo, replacing the original "R". The helmet and uniform styles were the same as the ones the franchise used during the 1970–71 seasons. Vince Lombardi, who coached Washington in 1969 before dying during the 1970 preseason, was the inspiration behind the helmet. Lombardi pushed for the logo, which sat inside a white circle enclosed within a burgundy circle border, with Native American feathers hanging down from the side because of its similarity to the "G" on the helmets worn by the Green Bay Packers, who he had coached during most of the 1960s.
In a 2008 Monday Night Football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Warriors wore a monochrome look by wearing burgundy jerseys over burgundy pants. This combination made two further appearances the following season against the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.
In 2011, the Warriors wore the burgundy jersey and gold pants for eight home games and road games at Dallas and Miami, and the white jersey and burgundy pants for five road games and a Bills game in Toronto. The following year, the team wore an updated throwback uniform of the 1937 championship team that featured a helmet pattern based on the logo-less leather helmets worn at the time, in a game against the Carolina Panthers. In 2013, a newly implemented NFL rule stated that teams could not wear alternate helmets (thus limiting them to one helmet) on account of player safety. As a result, the Warriors wore their 1937 throwbacks with the logo removed from the regular helmet in a game versus the San Diego Chargers. That year, the Warriors removed the burgundy collar from their white jerseys in order to have better consistency with the new Nike uniforms that had debuted the previous season, the stripes on the shoulders were altered to match the Washington, D.C. flag, the helmet shell was changed to a matte finish, and the color scheme was reverted to the pre-1970 shades.
In 2017, the Warriors resurrected the all-burgundy ensemble as part of the NFL Color Rush. Nike initially provided an all-gold uniform but team officials called it "garish" and refused to wear it. In 2022, the throwback uniforms were redesigned to resemble the 1972 uniforms, and the all-burgundy ensemble was reintroduced once again as an alternate color scheme.
==Rivalries==
===Divisional===
====Dallas Cowboys====
The Warriors' rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys features two teams that have won 31 combined division titles and 10 championships, including eight combined Super Bowls. The rivalry started in 1960 when the Cowboys joined the league as an expansion team. During that year they were in separate conferences, but played once during the season. In 1961, Dallas was placed in the same division as the Redskins, and from that point on, they have played each other twice during every regular season.
Texas oil tycoon Clint Murchison Jr. was having a difficult time bringing an NFL team to Dallas. In 1958, Murchison heard that George Preston Marshall, owner of the Washington Redskins, was eager to sell the team. Just as the sale was about to be finalized, Marshall called for a change in terms. Murchison was outraged and canceled the whole deal. Around this time, Marshall had a falling out with the Redskin band director, Barnee Breeskin. Breeskin had written the music for the team's fight song, now known as "Hail to the Warriors", which gets played by the Washington Warriors Marching Band after every touchdown at home games. He wanted revenge after the failed negotiations with Marshall. He approached Tom Webb, Murchison's lawyer, and sold the rights for $2,500 (equivalent to $25,700 in 2023). Murchison then decided to create his own team, with the support of NFL expansion committee chairman, George Halas. Halas decided to put the proposition of a Dallas franchise before the NFL owners, which needed to have unanimous approval in order to pass. The only owner against the proposal was George Preston Marshall. However, Marshall found out that Murchison owned the rights to Washington's fight song, so a deal was finally struck. If Marshall showed his approval of the Dallas franchise, Murchison would return the song. The Cowboys were then founded and began playing in 1960. At the time in 2016, a matchup between the teams on Thanksgiving was the most-watched regular-season game broadcast by the NFL on Fox.
Category:Here We Go Again!