NFL's Washington team to retire
Redskins name and logo
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[July 14, 2020]
By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) - The U.S. National Football
League's Washington team announced on Monday it will retire its
Redskins name and logo, which it has used since 1933 but which has
long been criticized as racist by Native American rights groups.
Team owner Dan Snyder, who bought the franchise in 1999, had
previously said he would never change the name but softened his
stance after FedEx Corp <FDX.N>, which owns the naming rights to the
team's suburban stadium in Landover, Maryland, urged the NFL club to
rebrand.
The team said on July 3 it would conduct a thorough review of the
club's name.
"Today, we are announcing we will be retiring the Redskins name and
logo upon completion of this review," the team said in a statement.
The team did not provide a timeline for when the review would be
completed. Its statement did not specify a reason for the name
change.
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Critics have ramped up pressure on the team to change its name,
which is widely seen as a racial slur against Native Americans, amid
the nationwide reckoning on racism and police brutality triggered by
the May 25 death of a Black man named George Floyd in police custody
in Minneapolis.
In June, a group of more than 80 socially minded investment firms,
collectively with more than $620 billion in assets under management,
urged FedEx, Nike Inc <NKE.N> and PepsiCo Inc <PEP.O> to terminate
relationships with the team unless it changed its name.
PepsiCo and Nike both followed FedEx's lead and said they welcomed
the call for a review of the team's name.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a news briefing
that she had not yet spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump about
the team's decision but reiterated comments he made recently in
which he said the name stands for "strength."
"Last week, his tweet made it clear that these teams name their
teams out of strength, not weakness," said McEnany.
"And he says that he believes the Native American community would be
very angry at this and he does have polling to back him up," she
added, citing an old Washington Post poll that showed 90% of Native
Americans were not offended by the name.
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![](../images/071420PICS/sports37.jpg)
Washington Redskins team logos are seen on flags mounted on a
vehicle outside FedEx Field after the team announced it will be
abandoning its controversial Redskins team name and logo under
pressure from sponsors to scrap the name criticized as racist by
Native American rights groups, in Landover, Maryland U.S., July 13,
2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Mar/14/images/ads/current/tires250x300.gif)
The National Congress of American Indians said in a statement on
Monday: "We commend the Washington NFL team for eliminating a brand
that disrespected, demeaned, and stereotyped all Native people, and
we call on all other sports teams and corporate brands to retire all
caricatures of Native Americans that they use as their mascots."
The team that became the Washington Redskins was founded in 1932 as
the Boston Braves. Its name was changed to the Redskins the
following year and it moved to Washington in 1937. Many American
professional and collegiate sports teams have nicknames on Native
American themes.
Snyder and Ron Rivera, the team's new head coach, "are working
closely to develop a new name and design approach that will enhance
the standing of our proud, tradition rich franchise and inspire our
sponsors, fans and community for the next 100 years," the team said.
The team has won three Super Bowls and is one of the NFL's marquee
franchises, ranked by Forbes last September as the league's seventh
most valuable franchise at $3.4 billion.
In June, a memorial to the team's founding owner, George Preston
Marshall, who fought against the racial integration of the NFL, was
removed from RFK Stadium, the team's former home in Washington.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Jul/14/images/ads/current/jaconcrete_sda_HG_2020.png)
The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the
team's announcement.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue and Steve Keating in Toronto, Editing by
Franklin Paul, Will Dunham and Rosalba O'Brien)
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