The one thing that’s not really on the top of his list right now?
“Of all the things that have been top of our list,” he said. “The future of training camp hasn’t quite broken through to the top of the list. We’ll get there when we get there.”
He expects to have a conversation with Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney after heading back to the city this year for five days.
Stoney wants them back as well. He said there was an “adversarial” relationship with the previous administration in Washington, but now with the change, he sees a very real possibility they could be back.
“I’m optimistic — hell I’m bullish on the fact that Washington will continue to be here in the city of Richmond and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that happens,” Stoney said.
As for what has changed: “People and personnel matter,” he said. “With Jason Wright and Coach Rivera, I’ve seen a night and day change on how they’ve gone about embracing Richmond. We feel the love and we hope they feel the love from the Richmond fans.”
Wright and the mayor spoke at the City of Richmond’s department of parks and recreation, where the Washington Football Team’s charitable foundation made a $75,000 donation.
The pressing thing at the moment for Wright is the rebrand with the new name. He wouldn’t say exactly how they were going to reveal the name, but he did say he realizes how important this process is.
“I knew it was a big deal,” he said. “But, when I got here and started to listen to our fans, I realized it was an even bigger deal because it’s also decades worth of memories, experiences, emotions, moments of pain, moments of joys and moments of connections with loved ones that have passed. Rights of passage all tied to this name, this logo, this emblem, in the flow of the football season.”
That’s not lost on Wright and his team.
“It’s like a family heirloom, and stewarding a family heirloom from one building to another is a weighty thing,” Wright said. “It’s incredibly important we do the best we can to steward this right.”