In 1961, Jack Kent Cooke purchased a 25 percent interest in the Washington Redskins after team owner and founder George Preston Marshall became incapacitated by a stroke, becoming majority owner in 1974 and sole owner in 1985.

In 1997, Cooke completed a stadium deal near Landover, Maryland, for a new home for his team. This community was named Raljon—a name devised by Cooke by combining the names of his sons Ralph and John. Shortly afterward, he died of cardiac arrest. The stadium was posthumously named Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, which was changed under subsequent ownership to FedExField in 1999.