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June 15th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Washington’s owner Daniel Snyder has been extremely adamant that he will never change the name of his team despite letters from a number of U.S. Congress members requesting that he do so. The nickname has gotten more and more attention over the last few years including a decision by a major newspaper in Missouri in not publishing the nickname in describing Washington D.C.’s NFL team. Daniel Snyder got his biggest supporter of his stance against changing his team’s name in Roger Goodell, who publicly commented on the nickname while saying the nickname is a, “unifying force that stands for strength, courage, pride and respect”. That Goodell would support an NFL owner isn’t surprising at all but the words he chose to use in supporting Snyder about a highly polarizing topic are shocking and disappointing.
Clearly, this topic is a political issue that touches on topics of ethnicity and history. While Roger Goodell feels the history of the Washington Redskin nickname supersedes the fact that the word is now a disparaging term for Native Americans according to references like the Merriam Webster Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary. Goodell and Snyder can feel comfortable that it appears that most of the American public share their opinion in regards to the nickname. According to a recent AP poll, 79 percent of Americans do not think the team should change the name. Sadly, Goodell’s decision to state the “positive” traits of a racist nickname further relegates Native Americans to background status despite decades of fighting against the nickname. His statement says to the NFL’s Native American fan base while he possibly cares about potential gay players in the NFL, the health of the NFL workforce, and putting minorities in NFL front offices and head coaching positions, Goodell defines to Native Americans what constitutes an offensive term.
Source Article from http://www.examiner.com/article/roger-goodell-neglects-nfl-s-native-american-customer-base?cid=rss
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