Cancel culture hasn’t forced the Washington Redskins to change their name, yet. However, a Hall of Fame coach and high-profile broadcaster says that he will never say the name.
Tony Dungy, Super Bowl champion and member of NBC’s Football Night in America broadcast team, told ESPN’s William C. Rhoden, that he will refer to the Redskins only as “Washington.”
“If the team doesn’t want to change, the least I can do is try not to use it,” Dungy explained.
“It’s not hard to change the name,” told Rhoden. “When I’m on the air, I try to just refer to them as Washington. I think it’s appropriate.”
In recent weeks, the National Congress of American Indians has called on Redskins players to boycott until the team name is changed.
“It’s time for the players to rip down that name like it was a statue of a Confederate general in their locker room,” NCAI President Fawn Shard demanded.
However, in a 2016 poll, the Washington Post found that 90% of Native Americans do not find the Redskins name to be offensive.
Nonetheless, Dungy sees the name as something that needs to be changed.
“You can say, ‘This has been a historic name and we’ve used it for this team for X number of years, but in this day and age, it’s offensive to some people, so we’re going to change it.’
“I don’t think that’s hard.”
Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder has steadfastly maintained that he will not change the team’s name.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn
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