The Washington Redskins are under pressure to change the team's name, which many people consider racist, and until that happens, the team will not be able to move to RFK Stadium in D.C.
The Redskins have been hoping to relocate from the FedEx Field in Maryland, where they currently play, since 2019 when a bill was introduced encouraging the government to sell the land to the city, NBC Sports Washington reported.
However, the bill will only be passed if the team changes the name it has played under since 1933.
"I call on Dan Snyder [who purchased the Redskins in 1999] once again to face that reality, since he does still desperately want to be in the nation’s capital," said D.C.’s nonvoting House Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, according to The Washington Post. "He has got a problem he can’t get around — and he particularly can’t get around it today, after the George Floyd killing."
"There is no viable path, locally or federally, for the Washington football team to return to Washington, D.C., without first changing the team name," added D.C. Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio.
Many consider the nickname of the NFL club to be a racial slur directed at Native Americans and although there has been mounting pressure for the team to play under a different name, Snyder has refused. In 2017, he won a Supreme Court case after the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board voted to strip the Redskins of its trademarks because it determined that the name was disparaging.
"We’ll never change the name," Snyder insisted in a statement to USA Today. "It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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