Washington Football Team

Washington Football Team
07/23/2020 AD renamed

Amidst the removal of many names and images as part of the George Floyd protests, a group of investors worth $620 billion wrote letters to major sponsors Nike, FedEx, and PepsiCo encouraging pressure on the Redskins to change their name.

At the beginning of the protests, when the Redskins participated in "Blackout Tuesday" on June 2, 2020, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded, "Want to really stand for racial justice? Change your name." Subsequently, Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser reiterated her position that the name is an impediment to the team's return to a stadium in the District of Columbia.

A statue of the team's founder, George Preston Marshall, has been removed from the grounds of RFK Stadium after being spray-painted with the words "Change the Name." The management of the stadium stated that the statue would not return, and that its removal was long overdue. In the following week, the team removed mention of Marshall from the team's other facilities and website.

FedEx called on the team to change its name on July 2, 2020. The same day, Nike removed Redskins apparel from its website.

On July 3, the league and the franchise announced that it was "undergoing a thorough review of the team name." On July 7, it was acknowledged that the Redskins were not in contact with a group of Native Americans who petitioned the NFL to force a name change and that Redskins head coach Ron Rivera also stated the team wanted to continue “honoring and supporting Native Americans and our Military.”

The team initiated a review which resulted in the decision to retire its name and logo, playing as the Washington Football Team pending adoption of a more permanent name.

Support for continued use of the name "Redskins" had come from the team's owners, management, the NFL Commissioner, and a majority of fans, which include some Native Americans. Supporters said that the name honors the achievements and virtues of Native Americans, and that it was not intended in a negative manner. Some, such as former team president Bruce Allen, also pointed to the use of Redskins by three high school teams, two on reservations, that have a Native American student majority.

Supporters asserted that a majority of Native Americans were not offended by the name based upon a national poll by Annenberg Public Policy Center in 2004.

In a commentary published soon after that poll, 15 Native American scholars collaborated on a critique that stated that there were so many flaws in the Annenberg study that rather than being a measure of Native American opinion, it was an expression of white privilege and colonialism. Specific criticism of the methodology includes the use of self-reporting to identify Native Americans, which violated the basic principles supporting the validity of public opinion polling.

A 2019 study by UC Berkeley found that 49% of Native Americans found the name offensive, rising to 67% of those who said they regularly participated in native or tribal culture.

Washington, D.C.

Lattitude: 38.9072° N
Longitude: 77.0369° W
Region: North America

Modern Day United States

Events in 2020 MORE