#Dan Snyder, Redskins face mounting pressure to change name

Once again, pressure is mounting for owner Daniel Snyder to change the Redskins’ name. This time, it is coming from investment firms and shareholders tied to the team’s sponsors and local politicians.

If Snyder doesn’t make the change, he could stand to lose sponsors such as Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo. He also wouldn’t be able to move the team from Landover, Md. back to Washington, D.C., according to Adweek and The Washington Post.

There has been pressure from fans and Native American groups in the past, but going the financial route is “different,” a former Redskins employee told Adweek.

According to Adweek, at least six groups and foundations, including non-profit First Peoples Worldwide and a number of investment firms, have approached sponsors about the Redskins name. So far, the sponsors haven’t supported the name publicly.

“Indigenous peoples were sort of left out of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s in many respects, because our conditions were so dire on reservations and our ability to engage publicly was very limited because of that,” said Carla Frederick, the director of First Peoples Worldwide and director of the University of Colorado Law School’s American Indian Law Clinic. “With social media now, obviously everything is different.”

The team’s lease with FedEx Field is up after 2027, and it hopes to come back to D.C. for the first time since it left RFK Stadium after the 1996 season. For that to happen, though, Snyder would need to change the name, The Washington Post reported.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives, has held this stance for years and remains committed to it. It is up to the mayor, D.C. council and residents to decide to do with the 190-acres of land on which RFK Stadium used to stand.

“I call on Dan Snyder once again to face that reality, since he does still desperately want to be in the nation’s capital,” Norton said.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has backed up Norton, telling The Team 980 that it was “past time for the team to deal with [a name that] offends so many people.”

The team has gone by the Redskins since 1933. Snyder has fought back against the name change, but he may not have a choice for much longer.