The protracted chorus of boos, the middle fingers — this could be your future, too, Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris.
Harris got a glimpse of the albatross he’ll saddle himself, and his team, with if he gives in to President Donald Trump’s latest vanity ploy. Name the new Commanders stadium after Trump, as he reportedly wants, and Harris can kiss goodbye all the goodwill he’s generated since buying the team.
A president who unleashes goon squads on U.S. citizens, who gives foreign governments money while asking the Supreme Court to allow him to keep withholding food from the poor and elderly, who takes a wrecking ball to the White House and the Constitution is a leader whose name should be consigned to the dust bin of history, not plastered across a stadium.
“We’re doing great,” Trump said in an interview with FOX during the third quarter of the Commanders’ loss to the Detroit Lions.
“People have spirit,” he added. “Our stock market hit an all-time high. Prices are coming down — we inherited a mess — prices are coming way down. And I’ll tell you, our country has over 17 trillion being invested in it, which is a record. So we’re doing great.”
The stock market aside, nothing Trump said is true. Many, many people in this country are hurting and they’re angry, and Harris should not be naïve enough to think he and his team will be spared their wrath should he pay Trump fealty he does not deserve. Put Trump’s name on the new stadium, and the Commanders will return to the pariah status they had under previous owner Dan Snyder.
It would cost Harris a boatload of money, too, given a naming-rights deal for a new stadium in Washington, D.C., would fetch at least nine figures.
Commanders once a pariah
The Commanders were once one of the NFL’s marquee teams. But they became a national embarrassment under Snyder, who clung to a racist nickname, sexually harassed an employee and fostered a toxic, misogynistic workplace.
Sponsors fled, the Commanders might as well have been on a milk carton for as little as they were on national TV, and Snyder couldn’t get lawmakers in the District of Columbia, Virginia OR Maryland to work with him on a stadium deal.
Under Harris, Washington’s fortunes have been reversed. Literally and figuratively. Not only did the Commanders make the postseason last year for only the second time since 2015, they got their first playoff win since the 2005 season.
Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels had the top-selling jersey in all of sports in January and finished with the fourth-highest selling jersey in the NFL last season. The Commanders are on national TV eight times this year, a sharp increase from the two appearances that were common in recent seasons. In August, Forbes valued the franchise at $7.6 billion, $1.5 billion more than Harris paid for the team in 2023.
And in December, Congress passed a bill that gave Harris and the Commanders the land around RFK Stadium so they can finally build a new stadium. Then-President Joe Biden, not Trump, signed the deal into law in January.
Trump’s hold weakening
To jeopardize all that progress to placate a deeply unpopular president would be both foolish and self-destructive. If the Democratic landslides in Tuesday’s elections — besides their wins in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia, Democrats flipped offices in Georgia and Mississippi. Mississippi! — isn’t enough of a cautionary tale for the Commanders owner, Trump’s reception Sunday should make Harris steer a wide berth.
The sight of Trump on the Jumbotron drew jeers. When he was given the spotlight to swear in new military members, the chorus of boos was deafening. Rather than saluting our fearless leader, fans gave him the bird.
Put Trump’s name on the new Commanders stadium, and Harris can look forward to a similar future for his team. What should be a shining symbol of the Commanders’ renaissance will be considered junk real estate. A team that’s been one of the NFL’s feel-good stories will again be considered morally bankrupt.
If Harris capitulates, he won’t just be giving away a stadium name. He’ll be selling out his team, its reputation and its integrity. And it will be a blight from which the Commanders will never recover.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
