Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images.

While Native American groups continue their campaign to get the Washington football team to change their name and logo, other activist and civil rights groups have started joining the fight.

Over the the weekend, a prominent civil rights group with close ties to the NFL said that it’s time for the team to change its name. According to the Post, the Fritz Pollard Alliance—”an influential nonprofit group that was instrumental in forcing the league to revise its minority-hiring practices”—had previously tried to discuss the name-change controversy with team owner Dan Snyder in a meeting last August, but “were shouted down by the executive director of the foundation he created to help Native Americans.”

A bump in the ongoing name-change controversy from the Fritz Pollard Alliance is a big deal in that the influential group is headed by former NFL players—including a former Washington player—and is closely tied with the League.

“As the NFL continues to move in the direction of respect and dignity, one of its teams carrying this name cuts glaringly against the grain,” read a letter co-signed by the group’s chairman, John Wooten, a member of the Alliance, writes in a letter to their representatives. “It hurts the League and it hurts us all.”

Of course, the team isn’t too thrilled about the Fritz Pollard Alliance’s stance on their team name. In an email to the Post, spokesman Tony Wyllie says that “we’ve had many conversations with the FPA about the name issue and are disappointed in their decision. We believe that they ignored the outstanding support we have received from Native Americans across this country for the Washington [football team] and the Washington [football team] Original Americans Foundation during their decision making process,” Wyllie said in a statement.

Naturally, activists in favor of changing the team’s name are applauding the Alliance’s letter. “We deeply appreciate that the Fritz Pollard Alliance took to heart the sentiments we expressed in our meeting with the group last year, and thank them for their moral clarity in opposing the continued use of a dictionary-defined racial slur that demeans and denigrates Native Americans,” Oneida Indian Nation spokesman Ray Halbritter said in a statement. “Our hope is that the league, Washington’s team, and its owner Dan Snyder will finally decide to do the right thing and make a long-overdue change that enables the NFL to move forward in a way that demonstrates a true commitment to upholding the American ideals of tolerance and mutual respect.”