Daniel Snyder: Washington football team; $1 billion; Potomac, Md.

Daniel Snyder: Washington football team; $1 billion; Potomac, Md.

Tonight, the Washington football team will kick off its 2013/2014 season with a home opener against the Philadelphia Eagles. And things are looking promising this season: After a fairly successful season last year, RGIII is back and (supposedly) healthy again, and the team is looking poised and polished after a four-game win streak in the preseason.

While we at DCist hope for the best this season and would love to see the team take the field at the MetLife Stadium in February, we still object to the team’s overtly racist name and have refrained from using it, like several other publications. Since then, many others have joined, a radio campaign against the team’s name was launched, MMQB’s Peter King announced he’ll no longer refer to the team’s nickname, and on Friday ESPN’s Bill Simmons omitted the name from a Grantland piece.

Simmons posted an article carefully analyzing the prospects of the 2013 season, carefully analyzing each team and ranking them prior to the start of the season. In it, Simmons ranks the Washington football team at number 17, referring to them simply as the Washington D.C.’s:

17. The Washington D.C.’s

Just a gut feeling: You had the controversy over Robert Griffin’s knee injury in January, then the controversy over their name (and that’s just going to get worse, especially when Dan Snyder says something dumb publicly — and you know he will), then the whole “every time Griffin scrambles, D.C. fans will be holding their breath” thing … just feels like one of those seasons when they keep landing in PTI’s A-block for all the wrong reasons. By the way, gamblers had no idea what to make of the NFC East this season — none of the four teams had an over/under higher than 8.5 wins.

Does this mean Grantland is also omitting use of the team’s name on their site? Hopefully so. Unlike Slate, Mother Jones, or The New Republic, Simmons nor any other editor, has publicly said they’re not going to use the team’s name anymore, but the clear omission of it in this piece is evidence enough, right?

DCist reached out to Grantland, but a request for comment has not yet been returned.

Although Snyder has publicly stated that he’ll “NEVER” change the team’s name, if more and more publications—and bigger ones—stop referring to their name, at a certain point, Snyder will have to give in. Or at least that’s the hope.

If Grantland—which is a wildly popular sports and pop culture blog—is indeed omitting the team’s name from their style guide, this is obviously a huge step in influencing bigger publications to follow suit. Bezos, are you paying attention?

Regardless, best of luck to the Washington football team in tonight’s game. We’ll be rooting for you (but, you know, not the name).

Update: A reader reports that Simmons said that he wouldn’t use the Washington football team’s name on his podcast, but thus far, DCist can’t find the episode. If you know which one, shoot us an email at tips@dcist.com.

Update #2: Here’s that podcast (skip to 51:54), where Simmons says he won’t say the name anymore: “It’s offensive to people…it’s genuinely offensive. It’s not a nice thing to say.” Also, here’s Grantland’s Dave Zirin on the issue.

Filed Under: bill simmons, grantland, washington football team,