The Washington Commanders are a professional American football franchise based in the Washington metropolitan area. They are members of the East division in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL). The Commanders were founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves, named after the local baseball franchise.[1] The franchise changed its name the following year to the Redskins and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1937.[1] In 2020, the team retired the Redskins name after longstanding controversies surrounding it and briefly played as the Washington Football Team before becoming the Commanders in 2022.[1]
There have been 31 head coaches for the franchise, four of which played for the franchise during their career. Joe Gibbs is the only coach to have more than one tenure with the team.[2] Ray Flaherty coached teams that won the 1937 and 1942 NFL Championships, while Joe Gibbs coached teams that won Super Bowl XVII (1982), Super Bowl XXII (1987), and Super Bowl XXVI (1991).[3] Gibbs is the franchise leader in games coached and wins, with Dudley DeGroot leading in winning percentage with .737.[4] Seven are Pro Football Hall of Fame members: Flaherty, Turk Edwards, Curly Lambeau, Otto Graham, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, and Gibbs.[5]