Skip to main content

New Team Name Coming, but the Giants-Washington Football Club's Rivalry Won't Change

What happens when a football club changes it name? Does it wipe out its prior history with the other teams? That all depends on the circumstances surrounding the switch, so we did some research.

It’s not often that an NFL franchise changes its name, but in the case of the Washington Football Club, the name change was one that many people believed was long overdue. While we don’t know the new name of the club, I got to thinking about the history between the two clubs.

The Giants and Washington have met 174 times in the regular season and two times in the postseason, including the huge clash during the NFC Championship Game in the 1986 season in which the Giants became the first team to beat Washington three times in one season.

Since then, the Giants hold a 102-68-4 advantage over the Washington Football Club, including an 8-4 record since 2014.

A question that came up was whether the Giants and the Washington Football Club’s rivalry would be retired once the new team name was announced.

The answer is no because the Washington Football Club isn’t ceasing operations, like when the Cleveland Browns temporarily left Cleveland after the 1995 season and became the Baltimore Ravens.

In that instance, the Ravens, as part of their authorization to start a new life in Baltimore, had to abandon all ties to the Browns team name, including its historical records, and begin creating a new history as the Ravens.

In 1999, when the Browns returned to the NFL, that franchise picked up where it had left off in terms of adding to the franchise’s history.

When the Houston Oilers relocated to Tennessee after the 1996 season, they kept the nickname, “Oilers” for two seasons before finally changing their identity in 1999 to the "Titans." Meanwhile, the Houston/Tennessee club retained its history, including its team records against its various opponents.

Expect the same to apply in the case of the Washington Football Club, which according to NFL Network, could have a new name as soon as a couple of weeks.