Somers column: Washington NFL owner Snyder finally does the right thing,
I hate emptying the dishwasher. While I know better than to gripe out loud when my wife asks me to do to do it, my heavy sighs and facial expressions convey that it’s the last thing on earth I would prefer to be doing.
Dan Snyder, owner of the NFL's Washington, D.C., franchise, knows the feeling. That was clear from the statement issued Monday morning by the team announcing that it was “retiring” its nickname and logo upon completion of a “thorough review” of that nickname.
The announcement made it sound as if the nickname was taking a buyout and being thanked for its years of service.
It was clear this is the last thing on earth Snyder would prefer to be doing.
Sadly, it was money, not conscience, that gave him no choice.
FedEx, the title sponsor for the team’s stadium, told Snyder it wanted the name changed. Nike and PepsiCo did, too. Amazon, Target and Walmart decided not to sell the team’s merchandise under the nickname, which denigrates Native Americans.
In making the announcement, the team threw a little early retirement party for the nickname. The statement was released via the team’s twitter handle that includes its nickname, on letterhead that includes the nickname and with a headline that includes the nickname.
It’s not hard to picture Snyder pouting and stomping his foot.
In 2013, he told that he would never change the nickname. “NEVER,” he said. “You can use caps.”
The death of George Floyd at the hands of police, and the subsequent conversations about systemic racism in America, brought the appropriateness of the nickname of the NFL’s Washington franchise back to the forefront.
In a statement, Jonathan Nez, president of the Navajo Nation, called Monday a “historic day for all indigenous peoples around the world.”
The change, Nez noted, “did not come about willingly by the team’s owners but by the mounting pressure and advocacy of indigenous peoples such as Amanda Blackhorse, and many others who fought long and hard for this change.”
Monday’s announcement was in the making.
In 2006, Blackhorse, a Navajo woman from Arizona, and four others were part of a legal action seeking to revoke the team’s trademark of the nickname because it was a slur. The team appealed and ultimately won when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in another case that such trademarks were protected by the First Amendment.
decades
In 2014, a group of Native American activists held marches and rallies at or near stadiums on Washington’s schedule, including prior to a Cardinals game in Glendale.
Snyder didn’t budge then. And sponsors didn’t make him.
Changing the name then would have been bold, but hardly progressive. Stanford, UMass, St. John’s, Miami (Ohio) and a litany of other universities have gotten rid of various Native Americanbased nicknames over the past 50 years.
A lifelong fan of the NFL franchise in Washington, D.C., Snyder wouldn’t budge. He didn’t do much of anything else right as owner, either.
In Snyder’s 21 seasons as owner, Washington is 142-193-1 (.423). It hasn’t won a playoff game since 2005 and attendance has declined sharply over the past decade or so.
What Snyder has done in that time is make money. Snyder bought the team for $800 million in 1999, and NFL franchises are going for more than $2 billion these days.
But keeping the nickname had become untenable. Sponsors were trampling over themselves to run away from the franchise.
Snyder is changing the name because of money, not because of a moral compass. Through the passive-aggressiveness statement on Monday, it’s clear Snyder dreaded the job.
But at least it’s done, and that's a good thing.
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