Washington Football Team

The Washington Football Team is a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. Formerly known as the Washington Redskins, the team competes in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the NFC East division. The team plays its home games at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, with its headquarters and training facility located in Ashburn, Virginia. The team has played more than 1,000 games and is one of only five in the NFL to record over 600 total wins. It was the first NFL franchise with an official marching band and a fight song, "Hail to the Redskins".

The team was founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves before changing its name to the Redskins the following year. The franchise then relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1937, where they have been based since. Washington won the 1937 and 1942 NFL championship games as well as 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 the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants (four each).

All of the team's championships were attained during two 10-year spans. From 1936 to 1945, Washington went to the NFL Championship six times, winning two of them. The second period lasted between 1982 and 1991 where they appeared in the postseason seven times, captured four Conference titles, and won three Super Bowls in four appearances. From 1946 to 1970, Washington only posted four winning seasons and did not have a single postseason appearance. During this period, they went without a single winning season during the years 1956–1968. In 1961, they posted their worst regular season record with a 1–12–1 showing. Since their last Super Bowl victory following the end of the 1991 season, they have only won the NFC East four times with just nine seasons with a winning record. In those, the team only made the postseason in six of them.

Washington's former Redskins name and logo drew controversy over its history, with many criticizing the term "redskin" as offensive to Native Americans. Despite years of refusal from the team to change it, pressure from several NFL and team sponsors eventually led them to retire the branding in 2020 as part of a wave of racial name changes in the wake of the George Floyd protests. The team tentatively rebranded as the Washington Football Team and will adopt a more permanent name by 2022.