It looks like 2020 will be the year that the Washington Redskins will be changing their nickname.
The Redskins name has been a source of controversy for years, but has really gotten a lot of attention this year as politicians, media and now corporate sponsors have all asked Snyder to do without the name that has been a part of the organization since 1933, when the team was originally named the Boston Redskins.
Snyder has relented in the past.
Those days are now over and now the team is seriously thinking about changing it after they released a statement on social media following pressure from FedEx and Nike.
In 2014, Snyder told ESPN that he wasn’t going to succumb to pressure to change the name because he felt that the term “Redskins” wasn’t disparaging to Native Americans.
“It’s just historical truths, and I’d like them to understand, as I think most do, that the name really means honor, respect,” he told ESPN at the time. “We sing ‘Hail to the Redskins.’ We don’t say hurt anybody. We say ‘Hail to the Redskins. Braves on the warpath. Fight for old D.C.’ We only sing it when we score touchdowns.”
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When asked what a “Redskin” was, Snyder replied: “A Redskin is a football player. A Redskin is our fans. The Washington Redskins fan base represents honor, represents respect, represents pride. Hopefully winning. And, and, it, it’s a positive. Taken out of context, you can take things out of context all over the place. But in this particular case, it is what it is. It’s very obvious.”
Snyder told USA Today in 2013 the team would “never change the name of the team.”
“As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it’s all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season,” he told the newspaper.
He added: “We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”
There’s now a clear line drawn in the sand, and Snyder has a decision to make after official team gear was removed from Nike.com and FedEx released a statement indicating that it had asked “the team in Washington” to change its name.
