Grosso

The Washington football team doesn’t have any plans to change its name any time soon, so a member of the D.C. Council has taken it upon himself to do it for them. David Grosso (I-At Large) plans to introduce a resolution that would—at least in the non-binding words of the District government—call on the team to change its name to “Redtails,” The Washington Post reports.

Grosso tells the Post that he is pushing the resolution because as a term widely viewed as a racial slur, the football team’s official name not only denigrates a group of people, it also dishonors Washington itself:

According to Grosso’s resolution, which he plans to formally introduce in a few weeks, the 13-member council would declare that “District residents and their elected representatives should not tolerate commercial or other use of derogatory terminology relating to any people’s racial identity, or which dishonors any person’s race, or which dishonors the name Washington.”

“Washington’s name has been dishonored by association with the word ‘[Washington football team],’ ” the resolution states. “Because it is well known in America and in nations afar that American Indians have experienced utmost suffering and disrespect over the years.”

The team might play in Landover, Md. and have its corporate offices in Ashburn, Va., but Washington remains its geographic namesake, and the fight song “Hail to the [Washington football team]” still ends with the refrain “Fight for old D.C.!” Grosso told the Post that with “Redtails,” the fight song could go nearly unchanged.

Redtails would also be a more dignified historical reference than the Washington football team’s current name. The Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American military pilots in U.S. history, were nicknamed “Red Tails,” which Grosso’s resolution notes.