The horns blared moments after rookie running back Robert Henry Jr. burst into the end zone and Drew Stevens booted the extra point. As the Washington Commanders’ kicking unit jogged off the field just before halftime of their preseason opener against the Miami Dolphins, the large video board at Northwest Stadium flickered with burgundy and gold lights and panned to the crowd. Then, in bold lettering, the lyrics to the team’s fight song flashed across the screen as fans erupted in song.Hail to the Commanders! Hail vic-tor-y!Braves on the warpath! Fight for old D.C.!Run or pass and score, we want a lot more!Beat ’em, swamp ’em, touchdown! Let the points soar!Fight on! Fight on! Til you have won!All of Washington! Rah! Rah! Rah!Hail to the Commanders! Hail vic-tor-y!Braves on the warpath! Fight for old D.C.!Four years after removing the line “Braves on the warpath!” to better align with their new name, the Commanders quietly brought it back — so quietly that most fans that night appeared oblivious to the change.“I watched fans struggle with (the previous version) a little in the stadium,” team president Mark Clouse told The Athletic shortly after the preseason opener. “And so in the offseason, I said, well, let’s go back and what if we use the old cadence and figure out how many words we can use and kind of let it live.”Combined with other changes the franchise has made in recent years in an effort to honor its past, the alteration to the fight song renewed speculation that Washington may be intentionally inching closer to its former Redskins brand.A Commanders spokesperson said the team has not changed its position on returning to its old name. The changes, though, have rankled some in the Native American community.The new Commanders renderings pay homage to RFK stadiumNicki JhabvalaFor decades, the team and its former owner, Daniel Snyder, resisted calls to change that name, which many consider derogatory toward Native Americans.In 2020 — following the murder of George Floyd and after some of the team’s top sponsors threatened to sever ties with the franchise — Snyder agreed to drop the old moniker and search for a new identity. The team temporarily adopted “The Washington Football Team” before unveiling the Commanders name, with a new logo and uniforms, in February 2022.During the two-year search for a new brand identity, former team president Jason Wright said that after having discussions with Native American leaders, the franchise believed cutting all ties to Native American imagery “is the right path.” He added that “an embrace of potentially Native-adjacent iconography and imagery would not represent a clear departure that many communities have so forcefully advocated for us to embrace, and that frankly, we set out to do when we started this process.”With the new name, “W” logo and uniforms, the team also altered its fight song, via fan vote. “Fight for the Commanders” replaced the line “Braves on the warpath,” and “All of Washington” replaced “Sons of Washington.”The Commanders’ new ownership group, led by managing partner Josh Harris, purchased the team for a record $6.05 billion in 2023 and quickly made it clear the old name would not return. Wright left the team the following summer. The ownership group fully committed to the Commanders’ name after the team’s successful 2024 season, when it returned to the NFC Championship Game for the first time in more than three decades.