NFL - The Redskins are no more.

Tikay10

After years of lobbying, the Washington Redskins have been forced to drop "Redskins" from their official team name.

"Redskins" is deemed to be a racial slur.

The Management had resisted this change for years, but last week all their sponsors withdrew support until they changed their name.

Money talks....


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53390944

rabdeniro

Quite a few auld films will be gettin canned.

vaigret

My team, sad about the change but can see why

TWRAMYEP

daft

EvilPingu

Alternative headline: The worst team owner in the NFL has made the decision that should've been made several years ago because it's finally hit him in the pocket. It was clear a long time ago that there would eventually be some catalyst that would eventually force the name change to happen.

Dan Snyder has been under pressure to change the name since he bought the team in 1999. The only reason it's taken this long for sponsors to apply pressure and force the change is because he's turned the team into a laughing stock on the field with awful GM/coach hirings/firings and free agency decisions *cough*Albert Haynesworth*cough* for the last two decades, meaning the team has been out of the spotlight and consistently irrelevant under his 'leadership'.

If they were going 13-3 instead of 3-13 and competing to be the #1 seed in their conference instead of the #1 pick in the draft, this change would've happened years ago. Winning would have drawn nationwide attention (in the US) to the team and the name issue, but Washington aren't very good at winning.

Despite the ongoing calls for a name change, Snyder said in 2013: "We'll never change the name. NEVER. You can use caps". Polls since then have indicated that anywhere between 11-26% of people feel there needs to be a name change, with only 60-79% support for the "Redskins" name among respondents, depending which poll you look at. Obv there's about 10-15% "Don't know" responses on most polls, too.

Purely from a business POV (therefore regardless of what you think of the name), if polls indicated that somewhere between 11-26% don't like the name and others are unsure, that's a lot of people who are less likely to consider supporting your team, buying merch with Nike logos on it, etc - With BLM likely to result in an increase of people uncomfortable with the name, it's no wonder that sponsors forced Snyder's hand on this one.

Some commentators have been refusing to use the "Redskins" part of the name for years now, instead using "Washington" at all times. On the occasions when RG3 or Kirk Cousins dragged the team to relevance by winning 9 or 10 games and competing for a division title (despite Snyder), I always found the use of "Washington" instead of "Redskins" stood out since the other teams were still being called the Cowboys/Eagles/Giants/whatever, and it stuck out like a sore thumb when the commentator would say something like: "The Cowboys' O-line are dominating Washington's front seven today".

It's fair enough if the commentator is uncomfortable with using the "Redskins" name to avoid saying it, however much it draws attention to the issue. Of course, using the name is problematic too, so it's a no-win situation. Ultimately, the "Redskins" name and branding distracted the viewer from the on-field product.

Finally, consider that the team's first owner, George Preston Marshall*, was a strong advocate of racial segregation. As a result, not only were Washington were the last team in the NFL to allow African Americans to play for them as Marshall stubbornly refused to allow integration, but they only did so after they were given an ultimatum to sign black players** else the Government would revoke the lease they had on the team's home stadium at the time.

If you own a team with that history, the last thing you should do is keep a name that attracts accusations of racism, then use 'being proud of your history' as a reason to keep the name when your history includes an extremely racist founder. That's what Snyder did any time the name controversy came up. Yes, there is history for the team to be proud of there. But the Redskins' history is the entire history of the team, not just the 3 Superbowl wins and Hall of Fame players back as far as Sammy Baugh that most fans are aware of. I doubt Snyder would choose to defend Marshall's views, but it's part of the team's history and you can't pick and choose if you're using "the team's history" as an argument, even if most NFL fans in 2020 are completely unaware of Marshall and his beliefs.

The fact it's taken until now for this name change to happen is just another reminder that there's 32 teams in the NFL and the other 31 teams have someone more capable than Dan Snyder in charge.



* I encourage any NFL fan to read up about George Preston Marshall. He's in the NFL Hall of Fame, and influenced aspects of the game that are taken for granted nowadays - the forward pass from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage (the rule used to be 5 metres behind the line of scrimmage until about 1935-1940ish), and much of the entertainment around an NFL game can be credited to Marshall, as well as obviously being the founder of a team that was hugely successful in the pre-WW2 era. However, he was incredibly racist and an outspoken critic of racial integration, holding the league back as much as some of his innovations moved it forward. In the current climate, there may be the same "Should he be in the Hall of Fame?" conversations as with O.J. Simpson.

** Interesting off-topic note here - Washington drafted Ernie Davis, the first black Heisman Trophy winner, first overall in 1962. However, he refused to sign for the team because of Marshall, so got traded to Cleveland. The player they got in return became the first black player to play for Washington, while Davis was supposed to play alongside legendary running back Jim Brown. Tragically, Davis died of Leukaemia before ever playing a regular season game in the NFL.

Tikay10

Terrific piece there Andy, thank you.

It's quite sad that the change has only come about due to commercial pressure (sponsors withdrawing) rather than an actual belief in the cause.

I was not aware of Mr Marshall & his dreadful views - for those interested, his Wiki page is well worth a read, here;

George Marshall

And here's the Wiki page of Ernie Davis;

Ernie Davis

vaigret

Now they need to talk to the Native American tribes and I suggest a tribal name from one of them that were in the Washington region years before the settlers came.