Washington could actually do the right thing with looming name change

In a surprising turn of events, Dan Snyder and Washington might do the right thing with their name change.

The professional football team in Washington (you do the racist math) might be changing their name to something more reasonable. In fact, if you can believe it, the new team name might not offend anyone at all.

Snyder’s been notoriously stubborn in terms of potentially altering the name of the Washington football franchise, reportedly holding on to ‘Warriors’ as an end all, be all backup. Warriors, however, still allows Snyder to use that Native American connotation, which shouldn’t be enough. Now, facing the prospect of losing millions in sponsorship dollars, Snyder might actually make the right decision.

Dan Snyder might actually change the Washington team name to something not offensive.

According to Adam Schefter, the new Washington team name, assuming there is one, will not have any Native American imagery, which is undoubtedly the right thing to do, but also a solution that took far too long for Dan Snyder to come up with.

The easy choice here is the Washington Redtails, which keeps the same color scheme and allows Snyder to honor African-American fighter pilots from World War 2. What’s there to lose? Even from a marketing perspective, the good will Snyder would gain in free PR would help make up for decades of distrust from the NFL community.

Native Americans have long expressed anger towards the name and logo. ‘Redskins’ is and always has been a racial slur, and one that was often used by conquering white men who took over Native American-controlled land. Even more so, it’s how they were depicted hundreds of years after the fact in cultural imagery.

It’s a redundant criticism, yet still a relevant one, to wonder how the name was allowed to exist this deep into the 21st Century before being changed.