The Washington Redskins Are Making A Change but Not What Everyone Wants
Over the last couple of weeks, there has been an increased push for the Washington Redskins to change their team name. It’s an effort that is gaining steam with many significant corporations putting their financial ties with the franchise at stake. All that has guided the team to make at least one significant much-needed alteration moving forward.
Push for Washington Redskins name change
The last several years have seen a significant push for the Washington Redskins to change their team name, but that hasn’t garnered any movement in that direction.
However, that has seen a recent uptick in the right path toward getting that action followed through by franchise owner Dan Snyder. It has led to significant business partners pulling away. That has seen FedEx, who holds the naming rights to the franchise’s stadium under a $205 million deal that extends through 2025, sent a request for the team to change their name. It has also seen sponsors, such as Nike, Amazon, and Pepsi, pressuring the organization to make that move.
Beyond that, it saw commissioner Roger Goodell chime into the situation last Friday, stating that the league has continued to have discussions with Snyder with the hope of making that change. There is a growing financial push for him to make the necessary changes as the team could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars due to their name if nothing is done.
Washington Redskins are making one specific change
With each passing day, there appears to be a steady growing push with more companies making a financial stance with the situation.
It continues to push Dan Synder into the position of changing the name of the Washington Redskins to something that doesn’t have a racial connotation. With that in mind, Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting that the team is working toward changing their logo entirely.
Although that isn’t necessarily the change that many want to see, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. That logo has been in place since 1972 when Walter Wetzel, a former Blackfeet tribal chairman and past president of the National Congress of American Indians, proposed it. It’s taken the likeness of the image used on the Buffalo Nickel, which the team hasn’t overhauled to any significant measure.
The image is undoubtedly a part of the problem as it further fuels the issues. However, the main push is to see the team finally sway away from utilizing the word Redskins.
Will Dan Snyder make the name change?
That remains the biggest question around the entire situation as Snyder has stayed quite strung on keeping the Redskins name.
It’s something that he hasn’t wavered away from retaining as he voiced during the previous push back in 2013. He stated that the name was part of the team’s history that extends over 80 years in the NFL. Things are much different this time around as there is much financial loss involved with many of their most significant business partners in Nike, Amazon, Pepsi, and FedEx.
The hope remains that it is enough to convince Dan Snyder to make the overdue name change to move the team away from that word finally. There are strong suggestions that are garnering traction as potential replacements. Red Tails appears to be the clubhouse leader as it’s a reference to the Tuskegee airmen, who were an all-black group of fighter pilots in World World II.
It’s a chance for Snyder to move things forward away from a situation that has dogged the league for many years. Only time will tell if they will go that route.
