While the Washington football team continues to disappoint this season, the controversy over their team name and mascot is creating bigger headlines than the team itself. Recently, sportscaster Bob Costas delivered an impassioned halftime speech, calling the team’s name an “insult.” This came only a few days after Washington owner Dan Snyder wrote a letter to season ticket holders reaffirming that he’ll never change the team name.
Now, a new poll conducted by the Oneida Indian Nation—the Native American tribe that’s been leading a nation-wide campaign to change the name and mascot—suggests that if the Washington football team were to change their name, most people would still support them just the same. According to the survey (which interviewed only 500 adults in the D.C. area), 73 percent of the people surveyed said they’d still support the team with a new moniker.
Additionally, the survey asked people if Snyder should meet with those who are offended by the name, of which 77 percent believed he should.
“You cannot poll morality, and our hope is that Mr. Snyder will demonstrate true leadership and change the offensive name, not because of what any public opinion studies show, but because it’s the right thing to do,” Oneida Indian Nation representative Ray Halbritter said in a press release. He added that “this polling information is valuable because it shows that the team has nothing to fear economically by changing its name. In fact, the data indicates that the team stands to actually gain support from its fans by finally making the right decision and changing the name.”
The poll did not, however, ask whether or not people agree that the Washington football team’s “angular, subversive dissonance with form tackles” is similar to D.C. post-hardcore/dance-punk legends Q and Not U.