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FedExField Getting Stripped

It's happening. It's been happening. The end of an 87-year era as the old name, logo and signage is being removed inside the halls at FedExField.

It's already been a summer that has not stopped. Did it even start? A summer and a year that we never saw coming.

In Washington, while dealing with the fallout from the Coronavirus and the Black Lives Matter movement, we also saw over 85 years of name history crumble to the ground. 

Well not exactly to the ground but that part of the history is being stripped and removed. 

That video is fascinating to me to watch because of the amount of times I've walked down that corridor at FedExField near the home locker room. 

There have a few happy Sunday's and many disasters. Some brutally cold nights and the occasionally hot, soupy weather engulfing all of us in August and sometimes in September. 

The organization maintains that it is not erasing the rich and controversial history and obviously the Vince Lombardi Trophy's will always remain, but it's hard to look at the removal and not be somewhat emotional. 

You've spent thousands of dollars and never ending emotion on that name and the franchise. 

I've spent more hours covering the chaos over the last 11-plus years than I have with my kids. Sad but true. 

To see it start to come down is still surreal and hard to fathom that we're finally here. 

This has been the worst year of many people's lives. Probably in Dan Snyder's  extravagant life. 

For the long-term, it's for the best. For the short-term, it's still hard to fathom. 

I can't say I never thought we would see it but I was pretty convinced that we wouldn't see it in my lifetime when the Supreme Court backed up the organization's trademark protection. 

Yet here we are. For those that are upset - I get it. I'm sure many others get it. Including inside the building. 

However -- life changes. Situations go sour. Relationships rip apart. Jobs, lives, families and names change. 

It's sometime impossibly hard to say goodbye. This isn't death. It's just change. A long-term gain with short-term stress and emotional over-reaction. 

It doesn't make it easy but just like we do elsewhere in life when we have to say goodbye -- let the tears in your eyes come down, remember the good days and make way for a new era. 

Or a new Riv-era as they are calling it. 

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Chris Russell is the Publisher of this site, a part of SI.com. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Washington Football Team" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621