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 poised to retake control of the White House, hordes of Washington Commanders fans have called on the president-elect to intervene on their behalf to rename the franchise once again.
Following the Republican candidate’s victory at the polls on Tuesday, old-school NFL fans have urged Trump to convince the organization to restore its original name: 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 abandoned the name, which is considered offensive to Native Americans.
The franchise began a lengthy rebranding process in 2020, first becoming the Washington Football Team on a temporary basis before adopting the ‘Commanders’ in 2022.
NFL Fans Call on President-Elect Donald Trump to Reinstate a Franchise Name
Washington’s fan base has urged Trump to convince the team to return to the Redskins.
However, in the days after Trump took back the White House, his supporters called on the president-elect to revoke the politically correct nickname.
“Donald Trump should force the NFL to change their name to ‘Redskins,'” wrote one fan on X, formerly known as social media.
“Can we start calling Washington the Redskins again tomorrow?” said another in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“It’s time we bring back the Washington Redskins,” another declared after Trump’s election, while one supporter chimed in: “Can we change the name back to the Redskins now?”
‘It’s time to bring back the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Indians #MAGA #Trump,’ one fan posted, also referring to Cleveland’s MLB team, which changed its name from the Indians to the Guardians in 2022.
‘64% of Native Americans voted for Trump. Let the Indians and the redskins return. Let’s put an end to the politically correct nonsense,” claimed another.
One shared an image of a man peering out from behind a curtain and added: “Me checking to see if we can call Washington the Redskins again…”
In 2023, a group of Native Americans asked commanders to return to the Redskins to “end cancel culture.”
Many on social media claimed the 78-year-old should take action after the election.
However, the franchise, which came under new ownership last year, is a private entity and Trump, as president or president-elect, has no official authority over the team’s decisions.
The franchise’s previous name and logo were two of several controversies Snyder faced during his tenure as owner before selling it to a consortium led by Josh Harris in 2023.
Amid nationwide racial tension and the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd riots, the organization was ultimately forced to change its name when sponsors threatened to cancel their deals. Trump also lost his re-election bid that same 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 has to wait five years before it can change its name again. However, there is an exception if a new owner takes over.
During their ‘Redskins’ years, the team had a dark-skinned mascot with a mohawk adorned in a loincloth with the club logo.
The club originated in Boston, where then-owner George P. Marshall had wanted to call them ‘Braves’ but opted for his second option due to the existence of the city’s National League baseball team, which has since moved to Milwaukee. and Atlanta. .
The origin of the term is disputed, according to a 2016 Washington Post article, which states that it was first used as a pejorative as early as 1863 in Minnesota.
After defending the use of the ‘Redskins’ for years, team owner Dan Snyder relented in 2020
Protesters photographed in 2014, six years before the team left the ‘Redskins’
“The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for each Redskin sent to Purgatory,” reads an advertisement in The Winona Daily Republican. “This sum is more than the 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 disdainful.”
A 2016 Washington Post poll found that 90 percent of the 504 Native Americans surveyed “didn’t mind” the team name. Snyder eventually wrote an open letter, defending his decision to keep the nickname by citing the study.
However, journalists and social scientists have criticized that survey and other similar studies as unreliable.
“The reporters and editors behind this story must have known it would be used as justification for the continued use of these harmful and racist mascots,” read a statement from the Native American Journalists Association. “They were either deliberately malicious or dangerously naïve in the process and reporting used in this story, neither of which is acceptable by any journalistic institution.”
In March 2020, UC Berkeley revealed a study that found that more than half of its 1,000 Native Americans surveyed were offended by the team name.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that a trademark law prohibiting derogatory terms infringes on the right to freedom of expression. Before that, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had attempted to revoke the Redskins trademark because it was a racial epithet.
Prior to the 2021 season, the team prohibited fans from wearing headdresses at home games.
