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| Washington Commanders |
by Peggy Robin
You've heard all about it by now and are probably sick of it! You know what I mean. Two years and untold numbers of focus groups later, it's.....The Commanders! [Weak applause.]
Yes, it's boring. Generic. Uninspired. When polled, eighty-five percent of fans were against it. But there you have it – and it's not going to be changed now. So we need to learn to make the best of it.
How do we do that? Well, for one thing, we need to find a lively nickname, something to inspire some affection. But that points to yet another problem with "Commanders." It doesn't lend itself well to a cute nickname -- just the opposite.
People have already derided the most obvious one: The Commies.
The next thing that leaps out at you is almost as bad: The Mandies. Shudder to think of the unofficial team theme-song, if that nickname were to catch on.
What about "The Comms"? That sounds OK...until you dredge up a 50-some-year-old Star Trek episode, "The Omega Glory" in which the Comms were the bad guys, fighting the Yangs on an earth-like planet, with some eerily prescient echoes of the January 6 insurrection (and if you are up for a weird little digression, you can read up on it here: https://www.joeydevilla.com/2021/01/06/we-now-live-in-a-campy-star-trek-episode/) How long would it take for an internet meme of the Comms to pop up and mock that team nickname to death?
But I think I have a solution, and it's based on a Washington resident that anyone can love. It's Commander, the current First Dog in the White House. Commander is President Biden's German Shepherd and when the President was asked his take on the team's new name, he instantly made the connection: https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1488933067439935489
So here's the nickname I propose: "The Dogs." People love dogs, and German shepherds are one of the more popular breeds - considered smart, good defenders of their home turf, loyal, hardworking, and strong.
On top of that, there's a rhyming connection to the old team nickname, "The Hogs".
So let the popular First Dog become the unofficial symbol and basis for a nickname.
The only problem is how to get people to start calling them "The Dogs"? All I can do is suggest it here and hope others pick up the ball and run with it.. Wouldn't it be great if this nickname caught on, all because of your friendly neighborhood listserv? And just think if our hometown Dogs won the Superbowl.....and we could call them Top Dogs!
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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