NFL fans demand Donald Trump restores team’s controversial former name

Donald Trump’s election victory over Kamala Harris this week has sparked a bold sports movement within the NFL community.

With the 78-year-old set to take back control of the White House, large numbers of Washington Commanders fans have called on the president-elect to intervene on their behalf to change the franchise’s name again.

In the wake of the Republican candidate’s triumph at the ballot box Tuesday, old-school NFL fans have urged Trump to convince the organization to restore its original name — the Washington Redskins.

The team played as the Washington Redskins from 1937, when they moved to the nation’s capital from Boston, until 2020 when former owner Dan Snyder succumbed to years of pressure and dropped the name, considered offensive to Native Americans.

The franchise began a lengthy rebranding process in 2020, first becoming the Washington Football Team on an interim basis before adopting the ‘Commanders’ in 2022.

However, in the days after Trump won back the White House, the fanbase has called on the president-elect to undo the politically correct name.

“Donald Trump should force the NFL to rename them the ‘Redskins,’” ​​one fan wrote on X, formerly known as social media.

“Can we call Washington the Redskins again tomorrow,” said another early Wednesday morning.

“It’s time we bring back the Washington Redskins,” declared another in the wake of Trump’s election, while a supporter chimed in, “Can we change the name back to the Redskins now?”

“Time to bring back the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians #MAGA #Trump,” one fan wrote, referring to Cleveland’s MLB team, which changed its name from the Indians to the Guardians in 2022.

‘64% of Indians voted for Trump. Bring back the Indians and the Redskins. End the politically correct nonsense,” another claimed.

One shared a photo of a man peering through a curtain and added: “I’ll see if we can call Washington the Redskins again…”

In 2023, a Native American group called on Commanders to return to the Redskins to “end cancel culture.”

However, the franchise, which gained new ownership last year, is a private entity and Trump, as president or newly elected president, has no official authority over the team’s decisions.

The franchise’s previous name and logo were two of the many controversies Snyder faced during his tenure as owner before selling to a Josh Harris-led consortium in 2023.

Amid racial tensions across the country and the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots, the organization was ultimately forced to change its name when sponsors threatened to withdraw their deals. Trump also lost his re-election bid later that year.

The new ownership group includes Harris, who also owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, as well as Los Angeles Lakers legend and Dodgers co-owner Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

An NFL team must wait five years before it can be rebranded. However, there is an exception when a new owner takes over.

During their ‘Redskins’ years, the team had a dark-skinned, mohawk mascot adorned with a loincloth bearing the club’s logo.

The club originated in Boston, where then-owner George P. Marshall had wanted to name them the ‘Braves’, but opted for his second choice due to the existence of the city’s National League baseball team, which has since moved to Milwaukee and Atlanta. .

The origins of the term are disputed, according to a 2016 Washington Post article, which claims the term was first used as a pejorative as early as 1863 in Minnesota.

“The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red skin sent to purgatory,” read an announcement in The Winona Daily Republican. “This amount is more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River are worth.”

In 1898, Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary began defining “redskin” with the phrase “often contemptuous.”

A 2016 Washington Post poll found that 90 percent of 504 Native American respondents were “not bothered” by the team name. Snyder eventually wrote an open letter, defending his decision to keep the name by citing the research.

However, that study and others like it have been labeled unreliable by journalists and social scientists.

“The reporters and editors behind this story must have known it would be used to justify the continued use of these harmful, racist mascots,” said a statement from the Native American Journalists Association. “They were either deliberately malicious or dangerously naive in the process and reporting used in this story, neither of which is acceptable to any journalistic institution.”

In March 2020, UC Berkeley unveiled a survey that found more than half of 1,000 Native American respondents were offended by the team name.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that a trademark law banning disparaging terms infringes the right to freedom of expression. Previously, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had attempted to revoke the Redskins trademark because it was a racist term.

Before the 2021 season, the team banned fans from wearing headdresses at home games.