For years, Native Americans and others have urged Washington’s NFL club to change its name. So, what caused
owner Dan Snyder to finally crack?
Dave Zirin writes on sports politics for The Nation as well as on his blog Edge of Sports. We spoke with him about
Snyder’s recent revelations and the franchise’s future.
Opposition to the name has existed since the 1940s, and it became more vocal after the American Indian Movement
was founded in the 1960s. There were sit-ins and protests when the Washington Redskins played in the Super Bowl
in 1992 since Minnesota has a sizable Native American population.
It didn’t really take off until the introduction of social media, when many Native voices were able to be heard that
had previously been diligently ignored by Dan Snyder, the team, and the Washington town, which has a very small
Native American population. These voices were silenced locally and ignored at the corporate level, but social media
enabled them to gain traction.
It all revolves around the franchise’s owner, Dan Snyder. He’s extremely stubborn and aggressive, and he takes
satisfaction in the fact that he refuses to change the name. He stated to USA Today that the squad would “never
change the name. … It’s that simple.” That has been his approach to the name for the whole time he has owned the
brand, and it is the hill he is willing to die on. He refused to meet with Native American leaders and activists who
wanted to discuss why the name was damaging.
His case [for maintaining the name] has revolved around the manner his father introduced him to the squad and the
times they spent together growing up. The thought that it would be tarnished by racism was something he refused to
accept.
