Ex-NFL star mum on possibility of Trump’s name on Commanders’ new stadium, but excited for team’s return to DC
The Washington Commanders will be returning to the site of RFK Stadium, where Joe Theismann became a household name.
It’s where the former NFL quarterback threw both his first and final NFL passes. After moving out of the nation’s capital to Landover, Maryland, in 1997, the Commanders are expected to return home in 2030.
“There’s an old saying, you can’t go home again. The Commanders are proving that you can,” Theismann told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
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President Donald Trump reportedly wants his name attached to the upcoming stadium. While the White House would not confirm such reports, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it would be a “beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible.”
Trump, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and team owner Josh Harris were in the Oval Office when the deal for the RFK Stadium site was announced. But Trump sparked controversy when he threatened to halt the team’s plans to build a new stadium in the nation’s capital if it didn’t bring back its old Redskins moniker.
When asked about the possibility of Trump’s name being on the stadium, Theismann did not offer much.
“President Trump is our president. Whatever happens going forward is between the ownership of the Commanders and the president, and it’s going to be what it’s going to be,” he said.
No matter what the stadium is named, Theismann sees the move as generations of Washington fans — past, present and future — all coming together.
“It’s exciting. Josh being a guy who grew up as a fan of the Redskins at that time — a lot of ownership is that way — it’s exciting for them to get back home, too,” Theismann said. “I think those people who were fans of the Redskins and watched us play at RFK Stadium are also fans of the Commanders, and it’ll be nostalgic for them. It’ll be nostalgic for the fans to go back to a stadium that’s going to be there — back where that site was once before, where a lot of their childhood memories were so special.”
The domed stadium will cost an estimated $3.7 billion.
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