Edmonton Football Team adopts Elks as new name

The Edmonton Football Team completed its rebrand Tuesday, reintroducing itself as the Edmonton Elks ahead of the 2021 CFL season.

The franchise began referring to itself as the Edmonton Football Team or EE Football Team last July after retiring the Eskimos moniker. The former name drew criticism from the Indigenous community - particularly Inuit leaders - and supporters who said the term was derogatory.

Before landing on the Elks, the club also considered the Evergreens, Evergolds, Eclipse, Elkhounds, Eagles, Elements, and Energy. Edmonton received 14,833 submissions and 2,047 unique suggestions for a new name through public engagement.

The elk is one of the largest species of deer. The team consulted linguistics experts from the Oxford Dictionary and the University of Alberta to determine whether it should call itself the Elk or Elks.

The CFL plans to kick off a 14-game season in early August after forgoing its 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic.