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Inaugural season: 1995

Team information

Inaugural season: 1988

The Washington Commanders is a National Football League (NFL) franchise that began play in the 1932 season. The team was originally based in Boston, Massachusetts, where it was named the Braves. The franchise changed its name to the Redskins in 1933, and four years later moved to Washington, DC. That name generated much controversy over the decades, particularly among American Indian activists and others who argued that the term is racist and culturally offensive. Although team officials long vowed to keep the name and insisted it was meant to honor Native Americans, increasing pressure from sponsors and the public led the franchise to retire it in July 2020. After playing two seasons as the Washington Football Team, the team announced its new name, the Washington Commanders, in February 2022.

Godzilla is a fictional Japanese movie monster who made his film debut in 1954, and over the following decades has become a worldwide pop-culture icon. The towering dinosaur-like creature known for his deadly rampages through Tokyo and atomic fire breath has starred in more than thirty theatrical releases in both Japan and the United States. Originally known as Gojira, a combination of the Japanese words for “whale” and “gorilla,” Godzilla was conceived as a terrifying force of nature altered by nuclear testing in the Pacific. However, over the course of several film reboots, he has gone through numerous transformations, ranging from a friendly protector of humanity to a vengeful manifestation of Japan’s war dead.

The Atlanta Falcons are a National Football League (NFL) franchise that began play in the 1966 season. The Falcons were born at a time when the NFL was undergoing a period of expansion, a business tactic in its pitched battle with the rival American Football League (AFL). The city of Atlanta, Georgia, had been trying to get a professional sports franchise for years, and welcomed the new team with open arms.

The Los Angeles Chargers are a National Football League (NFL) franchise that began play in the 1960 season. The Chargers were one of the original teams in the American Football League (AFL), a rival to the NFL formed to take advantage of the sport’s growing popularity. After a move to San Diego, the Chargers epitomized the innovative, wide-open style of play embraced by the AFL. They became one of the league’s most successful teams, winning the 1963 AFL title, and eventually joined the NFL when the leagues merged in 1970.

The Cleveland Browns are a National Football League (NFL) franchise that began play as a member of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1946. The Browns are unique in the NFL in that they are the only team named after a person, former coach and general manager Paul Brown.

Many scholars classify the literature of the late Middle Ages as written works produced from about 1300 to 1500 CE. Great societal change sparked by wars, plague, and social unrest marked this period. The authors of the period continued to use many of the genres and subjects of earlier literature but began to inject a sense of individuality and more modern ideas into their works. Another important aspect of late Middle Ages literature was that it fully adopted writing in the vernacular, the language spoken by the majority of the common people. The most influential literary work from this period is Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories that offers a unique window into life in the Middle Ages and is considered one of the founding works of English literature. Other notable works from the late Middle Ages include Piers Plowman by William Langland, the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe, and Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by unknown authors.

Black Panther is a comic book character first developed in the 1960s by the legendary Marvel Comics team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The Black Panther came about because Kirby realized that Marvel did not have any Black characters, despite the fact that many of the company’s readers were Black. The Black Panther is a warrior and protector of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, a technologically advanced country powered by a mysterious metal known as vibranium. Although the title of Black Panther can be earned by anyone through ritual combat, for most of the comic’s existence, the role has been filled by T’Challa, the king of Wakanda. Since the character’s debut, the Black Panther has not only protected the people of his nation but has also joined the Avengers in defeating threats to the universe and has battled societal issues such as racism.

Black Adam is a DC Comics character who has served as both a villain and an antihero in various incarnations since 1945. Adam was introduced as an early villain pitted against Shazam/Captain Marvel, the heroic persona adopted by teenager Billy Batson. Originally, Black Adam was granted his powers by an ancient Egyptian wizard but grew corrupt and villainous over time. In later origin stories, Adam used his powers to free his people from slavery in the ancient world, only to later fall victim to corruption. His power was sealed away for millennia before being reawakened in the modern world. Adam remained a villain in the comics for years before he attempted to reform himself and make amends for his past actions. Despite his turn to the side of good, Adam remained incredibly powerful and sometimes used violent means to dispense justice.

The epistles are a series of twenty-one letters written by early Christian leaders to members of the church. The letters were a means to discuss specific aspects of faith within the early church and encourage followers to stay strong in the face of opposition. The epistles are among the twenty-seven books included in the New Testament of the Bible. While they comprise the largest number of works in the New Testament, they are relatively brief compared to the four gospels, the book of Acts, and Revelation. Thirteen of the epistles are traditionally believed to have been written by the Apostle Paul, who significantly spread Christianity through the Mediterranean region. The apostles Peter, John, and Thaddeus, and a relative of Jesus named James are traditionally said to have written the others, although their authorship has been disputed.

The gospels are four books in the New Testament of the Bible that recount the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. According to Christian tradition, the gospels were written by two followers of Jesus—Matthew and John—and two prominent early Christians—Mark and Luke; however, scholars doubt that these figures were the actual authors of the books. Three of the gospels, those by Mark, Matthew, and Luke, are remarkably similar and recount many of the same events, sometimes using the same words. These works, known as the synoptic gospels, suggest that the authors copied from one another or from an earlier unknown source. The Gospel of John departs from the synoptics in that it relates different events and differs in tone from the other three books.

Simply put, ars poetica is poetry written about poetry. The term comes from a 476-line poetic essay, “Ars Poetica” (“Art of Poetry”), written by Roman poet Horace about 15 BCE. Horace wrote the work as a sort of “how-to” manual for would-be poets. It was originally addressed to a prominent Roman family whose son had expressed interest in becoming a poet, but Horace also intended it to be a dissertation on the beauty and purpose of poetry. In the modern sense, ars poetica is any style of poetry that treats the process of writing poetry or the poem itself as its own subject. Among the best-known examples of ars poetica are “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” by Emily Dickinson and “Ars Poetica” by Archibald MacLeish.

In poetry, a rhymed stanza is a series of lines that contain words with similar sounds. Most often, the rhyme occurs in the last stressed syllable in the final word of each line. The rhyming lines can adhere to numerous rhyming schemes, some of which are more direct and others that alternate the rhyming words into various patterns. Poems can be created using various stanza patterns as well. Typically, stanzas are defined by their length; a two-line stanza is known as a couplet, a three-line stanza is a tercet, and so on. Stanzas can also vary according to different rhyming schemes or the rhythmic emphasis placed on their syllables. The rhyming scheme of a poem is indicated using letters, with each letter corresponding to a line within a stanza that rhymes with another line. For example, in a poem with the scheme ABAB, the first and third lines of the stanza will rhyme with each other, as will the second and fourth.

Canaan was an ancient region in the Middle East that encompassed the area where Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank are in modern times. Canaan plays a prominent role in the biblical Old Testament, where it was viewed as the promised land of “milk and honey,” but its inhabitants condemned as sinful and deserving of God’s wrath. Historically, humans first settled in the region of Canaan about ten thousand years ago and built one of the world’s first urban centers. The region’s inhabitants, who were a collection of peoples who spoke Semitic languages, eventually evolved to become the seagoing Phoenicians. Although the Bible says Canaan and the Canaanite people were wiped out by the Israelites, archaeologists see many similarities between the two cultures and have found Canaanite DNA in the modern Israeli and Lebanese people.

According to the Christian Bible, Calvary was the hilltop site outside Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was crucified. The site is named in all four Gospels as Golgotha, from the Aramaic gulgulta, or “place of the skull.” Calvary is the English version of Calvaria, the Latin translation of Golgotha. The site was originally marked in the fourth century by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is said to house not only the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, but also the location of his tomb. Later archaeologists disputed the site as they did not believe it lay outside the city walls. However, modern research suggests the church may in fact have been built upon the historic site of Calvary.

The colonization of South Africa is generally considered to have begun in the seventeenth century, when the Dutch first established a supply station on the Cape of Good Hope. However, long before the arrival of Europeans, southern Africa had a history of settlement and migration among the region’s Indigenous peoples. The area’s Khoikhoi and San peoples had been living in southern Africa before they were displaced by the arrival of Bantu-speaking peoples approximately 1,500 years ago. When Dutch explorers arrived in 1652, they were soon followed by a wave of settlers who established farms in the area. These farmers, known as Boers, often used violent methods to displace local populations. After a century and a half, the Dutch colony fell into the hands of the British, who established their own settlements in southern Africa. Almost immediately, conflicts erupted between the British and the Boer colonists, prompting the Boers to set out inland to seek new territory away from the British. The Boers established their own independent republics, leading to decades of conflict with both the indigenous populations and the British. By the early twentieth century, the Boer republics had fallen under control of Britain, paving the way for the establishment of modern-day South Africa.

Emigration is the process of relocating from one country to live in another. To emigrate is to leave a place of origin. Emigration is different than immigration, whose chief act is to arrive. Immigration entails the arrival into a new nation from another location. Both emigration and immigration occur in tandem; immigrants into a new country are always emigrants from a former homeland. While nations keep track of immigrants entering their borders, they do not often record statistics of those who leave. As a result, accurate emigration figures are difficult to attain. Estimates suggest that India, Mexico, Russia, and China had the largest number of citizens emigrate elsewhere in 2019.

Beverly Hills is a wealthy city in Los Angeles County, California, known for its celebrity residents, luxury hotels, and upscale shopping district. Prior to the city’s founding in the early twentieth century, the area was mostly farmland that suffered through a series of devastating droughts. Investors hoping to find oil in the region instead discovered underground water, allowing for the development of a city on the site. The city was named Beverly Hills after a neighborhood in a Boston, Massachusetts, suburb. It gained its reputation as a home for Hollywood’s elite in the late 1910s when two of the silent film era’s biggest stars built a mansion there.

Phronesis is a Greek term that is translated as practical wisdom but can also mean prudence or common sense. In the Greek philosophical tradition, phronesis is more than just knowing which course of action is the proper, moral choice. It is the intellectual virtue of knowing how to take the proper course of action and why it is the right thing to do. Phronesis is a form of learned and stored knowledge that provides the foundation for good judgment in making decisions.

Sustainable finance is a growing trend in business that considers environmental, social, and economic factors as the primary reasons for investment decisions. The movement began in the 1980s and early 1990s. It slowly grew in popularity as global concerns about climate change and other social issues began to rise. Businesses that practice sustainable finance can take several steps to accomplish their goals. They can make internal investment decisions that make company policies and processes more environmentally and socially friendly. They can also channel their investment funds into education, clean energy, sustainable agriculture, and similar businesses. By the early 2020s, an estimated $520 billion had been invested in U.S. companies that adhered to sustainable finance guidelines.

Pegasus is a winged horse from Greek mythology. The mythical creature, one of the most well-known in Greek legend, was said to have been the son of the god Poseidon and born from the severed head of the hideous Medusa. Pegasus was portrayed as a large white horse with majestic wings capable of incredible speed. In the most common myths, he helped the Greek hero Bellerophon complete a series of deadly challenges. In other myths, Pegasus served the Muses and created a magical spring with his hoofprint. He was also said to have helped the goddess Eos in bringing the dawn each morning and brought Zeus his lightning bolts and thunder when called upon. In astronomy, Pegasus is also a modern constellation with a distinctive square-shaped pattern that is prominent in the autumn night sky.

In democratic societies, a free press is considered a fundamental human right that allows for the free exchange of ideas and information throughout society. In essence, a free press enables media outlets, such as book publishers, newspapers, and television and online media, to disseminate information without government censorship or control. In many nations throughout the world, the right of the media to report the news accurately comes into conflict with the interests of national and local governments. In free societies, this conflict allows the media to serve as a watchdog, helping to keep the power of governments and businesses in check.

Humanism is a philosophy that places humans in control of their own existence rather than relying on religion or supernatural forces. Its roots go back thousands of years to the philosophies of ancient China and Greece. Humanism focuses on science and reason as explanations for the natural world. It celebrates individual freedom and human accomplishments and provides a moral framework for human rights. It does not necessarily eliminate the idea of a god, but it removes divine influence as a cause of human actions. Humanism was the driving force behind the intellectual rebirth known as the Renaissance. Its impact can be seen in much of the era’s philosophy, music, and art and can be viewed as an impetus for the religious revolt known as the Reformation.

The existential risk from artificial general intelligence is the idea that advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology may one day create an uncontrollable superintelligence that would result in catastrophic consequences for human civilization. These hypothetical consequences range from crippling disruptions in computer networks to the breakdown of society and, in the worst-case scenario, the extinction of humanity. While the idea of an existential risk from AI has raised concerns among scholars and scientists, experts are divided as to how much of a risk, if any, a future superintelligence might pose.