Cakes: Commanders will have a new name by 2027 season

Week 1, 2027 season: pencil it in as the debut of the Washington (insert new nickname here)!

Yahoo! Sports’ Burgundy Blog reported on Al Galdi’s podcast recently that minority owner Mitchell Rales isn’t a fan of the Commanders name, and that ‘the answer he got was extremely negative’ when Rales recently asked some attendees at a social event about the name.

“Door’s still open, I didn’t think it was, but you said all along they’re gonna change the name at some point,” JP said after Cakes read the report. “I feel like people have just come around, and I’ve seen more Commanders gear out there – and we did pregame shows for a long time where over the years, less and less people were wearing Washington Redskins gear. The hat, now, I’m seeing a lot more of that at least, but I always felt like Commanders was going to stick just because time would pass and people would get used to it, especially if they win.”

“And it was almost exclusively pretty old jerseys if you saw it,” Cakes added of that old gear.

But now, well, JP has come around a bit, because if an owner doesn’t like it?

“Mitchell Rales grew up in this area and he's friends with the other owner, and they probably all don't really like the name,” JP said before Cakes reminded that Magic Johnson was also ambivalent about it even right before that group bought the team.

“I don't think that the name change is paramount, it's not clearly top of the list for the ownership group,” Cakes said.

“But now they’re settled in, with a full season behind them and a new coach and GM, so the focus now is on that stadium,” JP replied, “but who knows what the timeline will be.”

Bish thinks fans will be pumped when camp starts this week so that’ll put everything on the back burner for the time being, and that led to Cakes ask if he should place a bet on the timing of the name change.

“I would say within three years,” JP said, which is what Cakes and Bish were thinking too, and here’s the official word from John Auville:

“My wager will be that by the time the 2027 season kicks off, this team will no longer be named the Washington Commanders,” he said. “By then, they’ll have at least figured out where the stadium will be and it will be in the process of being constructed, and then they can worry about the name.”

“So, in 2027 they will operate with a different name? I’ll take that bet,” JP said, before he and Bish took the bet of $20 against Cakes on the move – and he asked Cakes for another wager on whether or not any of the next three seasons will be winning records, which Johnny was also affirmative on.

Listen to it all above!