Photo by Fred King

Dan Snyder is looking for a new home for his Washington football team. Will they stay in Maryland? Perhaps move to Virginia, where the team’s offices are? Or maybe a comeback in D.C.? For the latter to happen, chances are he’ll have to change the team’s name, which he won’t do.

But, if the team does elect to stay in Maryland, Snyder won’t have to worry about pressure to change the team’s name from the state’s new governor. On Tuesday, Republican Larry Hogan was elected to be Maryland’s next governor, taking over duties from Democrat Martin O’Malley. Unlike O’Malley, who said it’s “probably time” for Snyder to change the team’s name, Hogan is totally down with it.

As the Post reports, Hogan recently told the Washington Times that he not only supports the team’s name, but says he doesn’t thing the government should have a role in if the team should change it’s name or not:

“I like to call them the Washington [football team] and I don’t think the government has any business whatsoever trying to tell a private enterprise what they should call themselves,” he told The Times. “There used to be a thing called freedom of speech. I also understand a lot of people are offended by the name but a lot of people are offended by Washington. Maybe they should drop that from the name.”

Hogan also called out his challenger, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, for being a hypocrite in the same interview. “Anthony Brown went to every game with lobbyists and people he was trying to impress and big donors,” he said. “And they were all wearing [Washington] hats and [Washington] jackets. They were all eating and drinking on the taxpayers’ dime. Now he refuses to call them the [Washington football team]. He calls them ‘the professional football team in Washington,’ while he wears his [Washington] hat and coat and he goes to the games.”

If Snyder is indeed looking to keep the team’s stadium in Maryland, he’s got the local support for the name, whereas some D.C. politicians have said that they probably wouldn’t support bringing the team back to the District with their current name.