Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images.
Summer is over, meaning football season is here. Rejoice, actual and fantasy football nerds!
It was this time last summer that the Oneida Indian Nation launched their massive Change The Mascot campaign with a series of radio ads urging NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to make the Washington football team change their name and mascot. The Oneida Indian Nation’s campaign reignited a decades-old debate surrounding the racially offensive connotations of the team’s name and mascot, and in the past year, the debate has only gotten more heated. Numerous politicians—including President Barack Obama—have said on the record that team owner Dan Snyder should consider changing the name, and countess other publications—including, most recently, the Washington Post’s editorial board—have stopped using the team’s name.
But one thing is for sure: Snyder has no intention of changing the team’s name anytime in the near future. Recently, he’s been trying to skirt criticism about the team’s name by launching his own counter campaign, [Washington football team]Facts.com. During yesterday’s final preseason match, DC Sports Bog reports that Snyder’s campaign aired this video of “facts” about the team’s name:
While the facts remain that most polls about the issue show that a majority of people support the team’s name, the controversy doesn’t seem to be dying down anytime soon. Hail to the Washington football team name change controversies!