‘How about the Washington WhoGivesASh*ts?’: NFL fans react as ‘Demon Cats’ floated as new name for Washington Football Team

The team formerly known as the Washington Redskins have provoked howls of derision from NFL fans after they released a shortlist of potential new names which include 'Icons', 'Renegades' and more bizarrely, the 'Demon Cats'.

The Washington franchise has been operating under the magnificently uninventive 'Washington Football Team' moniker since dropping their decades-old Redskins name after it was deemed racially insensitive before the start of last season, as the NFL seemingly embraced cancel culture with open arms.

The term 'Redskin' was considered as a derogatory term towards Native Americans but the franchise had long resisted any calls for a more 'woke' nickname until the wave of 'Black Lives Matter' protests last term prompted one of the team's primary sponsors, FedEx Corp, to pile pressure on team ownership to make a change.

The team soon announced that they would compete under the vanilla 'Football Team' name for at least one season, but it seems that the winds of change are in the air in Washington after they distributed a list of potential new team names to season-ticket holders in a bid to generate feedback - and one of those in particular has caused quite a kerfuffle amongst the fanbase.

Yes, the Demon Cats. What exactly is a Demon Cat? Frankly, we have no idea other than to say that it is certainly not a wild animal native to the rolling hills of Washington DC. 

But while some of the other suggestions have an air of respectability about them - 'Aces', 'Guardians' and 'Royals' among them - the potential of a their being a professional team of Demon Cats out on the gridiron next season has set some fans' pulses racing.

"If I'm not rooting for the Washington Demon Cats by this time next year something has gone terribly wrong," argued one commenter, while another summed up the entire name change drama as such: "How about Washington WhoGivesASh*ts?"

"Please be the Demon Cats because it’s so stupid," said another, giving their blessing to the unconventional nickname. 

As for how 'Demon Cats' even became a possibility, it is almost certainly down to someone in the Washington team's marketing department trying to come up with the most impressive sounding words to tie in with the 'DC' in Washington DC, but if they wanted to maintain the link with the city after which they are named there might be a few more possibiliities.

The Washington Presidents, perhaps? Or maybe even the Washington Bureaucrats?

But if they really wanted to embrace the controversial, there is really one one option: The Washington Capitol Rioters.