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Momentum builds for a Redskins name change, and one man can make it happen

Mike Florio, NBC Sports, ProFootballTalk Discussion »

It was mentioned in today's one-liners, but the topic demands an article of its own.

The NFL franchise assigned to Washington DC, has a name that is both racist and offensive. Most Americans have become desensitized to that fact. But it is a fact.

And the time has come for the name to change.

Last Friday, Mike Wise of the Washington Post pressed Commissioner Roger Goodell on the topic, during Goodell's annual pre-Super Bowl press conference. (It's often called the "State of the League" press conference, but at any given moment the "State of the League" can be summarized thusly: (1) we're really rich; (2) we're really popular; and (3) we do what we want.)

Goodell provided a non-answer that produced the faint sound of tap shoes. "I don't think anybody wants to offend anybody," Goodell ultimately said.

Nobody may want to offend anybody, but the name offends plenty. Even if few notice.

"I think when people say Redskins we hear cup or bedspread," Wise said at a Thursday symposium conducted by the National Museum of the American Indian, via WUSA9.com. "The sound is the same, but when you go to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that name is equivalent to the 'N' word."

Wise, with whom we've disagreed a time or two in the past, is right on this one. It's an offensive name. And we're all numb to it.

Indeed, we're now numb to the fact that, for more than a generation, efforts have been undertaken to try to change it. For many, it's become a quaint footnote to America's ultimate reality show. A small pocket of people are complaining, no action is being taken in response, and it'll stay that way until the small pocket of complainers find something else about which to complain.

It shouldn't. The name should change. And there's likely only one way it will change, at any point in the next 10-15 years.

Quarterback Robert Griffin III needs to stand up and demand that it change. Read More »

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posted February 11, 2013 6:20 am est