As expected, the Washington Commanders scrapped the late-Dan Snyder era uniforms back in April.1 The “new” primary uniforms are modeled after the Super Bowl era. As a whole, the new set is a promising drive that stalls in the red zone and settles for 3 instead of 7. Actually, we’ll say they get the touchdown, but whiff on the extra point.
PREVIOUSLY: Washington Commanders: it just doesn’t matter, it’s still Dan Snyder’s franchise2
Primary helmet
It’s glossy again and returns to the 1972 striping pattern more or less. The facemask is gold again, just as it was between 1978 and 2021.
The W is all gold, though the primary logo is usually burgundy W outlined in gold. I wonder if just a gold outline would work better. Overall, it’s a good helmet – the most important part of the name is WASHINGTON and that is what is referenced.
I would have switched the white and yellow to make it consistent with the “classic” gold pants, but I get why they did not.
White
The Joe Gibbs look – white over burgundy returned for three games last year. It matches the vestigial memory of Washington football.
If it were up to me, this jersey would only be worn with the burgundy pants and contrasting white socks with burgundy and gold stripes. It’d also be worn any time Dallas, Denver, Buffalo or Miami came to town.
After all the fanfare about the return, they are coming out in…mono white in game 1.
Burgundy
Once again, it’s basically the same jersey they wore prior to the rebrand. It wasn’t worn often since white at home was the tradition under Gibbs and several other coaches. It seems white pants are the primary, but they pale in comparison to the gold pants. Those pants have new alternate striping – equally burgundy and white. It does not look as good as the George Allen3 pants4, but is consistent with the others. If were my choice, they would always go “Ketchup & Mustard.”
The mono burgundy look should also be prohibited.
Black for Black’s sake
Ugh. The team has been burgundy and gold since time immemorial, so all black uniforms rub me wrong on general principal. It’s as corny as a No Fear t-shirt. Way to do the same thing the next three teams up Interstate 95 do, but after the Ravens, Eagles and Jets did it first. At least it makes sense for the Ravens, even if it looks bad. Oh and let’s see, the Rams, 49ers, Cardinals and probably some teams I forgot it do it too. Oh yeah, Indy5 does too. Over 25% of the league does this it’s not EXTREME, it’s “how rebellious, in a conformist sort of way”
While its better than some all black uniforms and much better than the last one, I’m still shaking my head. It holds back the entire program. We’ll take off a point, as if they shanked the PAT.
Pandering to Lost Causers
Then there is the alternate helmet logo. It’s the W but with a spear in it. This seems more than a wink, but less than a dog whistle to the old branding.
This is a mistake that rewards the most annoying part of the fanbase. Even giving a nibble to that subset, obsessed and aggrieved that the slur is gone and who spend too much of their time commenting on every social media post. Just sad people at best, but more likely pretty damn racist and overall hateful. And in crass marketplace terms – probably not the target demographic to grow the fanbase. I can’t speak for everywhere, but between Alexandria and Capitol Hill five days a week, I see the new W a fair amount. My unscientific sampling says – the fanbase has accepted the W.
I can understand why people don’t like the Commanders name. It’s kind of generic and do we really need more militarism right now, particularly representing the District of Columbia in 2026? That being said, the “we still want the old name because Commanders reminds us of Dan Snyder” is really weak. The old name was created by a man so racist that he spent the last 20+ years of his ownership out of contention in large part because of his dedication to segregation. What a legacy!
Then there is the “we’re honoring them” angle. You don’t honor people with a slur. Duh.
While the actual logo was not caricature, it’s cultural misappropriation at best. And if you see the comments from the More likely, it’s the same people who defend the Confederate battle flag as “heritage, not hate” among other nonsense.
Would you want to hang out with 60,000 of them in a stadium on a Sunday afternoon? Or even 10 of them in a sports bar? Me neither.
Oh and by the way, no one under 40 really remembers the franchise thought of as respectable. It’s been over 30 years since two-consecutive playoff seasons.
How I’d have done it
The new uniforms are pretty close to what I had in mind back in 2025. Now,I am leaning more to just an outline of the W. The only place the W seems to be just yellow is the helmet – everywhere else it’s burgundy with gold outline. I would also have reversed the white and gold in the helmet stripe, but it’s not huge, especially since the striping on the gold pants is now consistent with the rest of the uniform set.
Footnotes
- Timely analysis by yours truly! ↩︎
- This post aged poorly, but in a decent way ↩︎
- In retrospect, he had a Hall of Fame quarterback and wide receiver and a tight end who probably should have been and he played a super-conservative offense. He’s incredibly overrated. ↩︎
- Bruce Allen’s one contribution to football, in spite of a generation in the game. His brother, George Jr., was a bigger failson though. They are just not good people. ↩︎
- They should have changed nicknames when they abandoned Baltimore. ↩︎