Reports state CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos will change team name

The Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League reportedly will change their name. The team would not confirm the two reports.

TSN and Postmedia said Friday the team will make a switch following a decision to do the same by Washington’s NFL team.

“We acknowledge and appreciate the feedback and input regarding our name,” the team said in a statement. “We take this issue seriously as has been demonstrated by the three years we’ve spent engaging in Canada’s north and conducting research related to our name.

“We recognize that a lot has occurred since this information was gathered, and as a result, we are accelerating our ongoing process of review. We will be seeking further input from the Inuit, our partners and other stakeholders to inform our decisions moving forward. We’ll continue to listen carefully and with an open mind. We intend to complete our review as quickly as possible and will provide an update on these discussions by the end of this month.”

Teams across sports have been under increasing pressure to drop racist or stereotypical names. Critics say the Edmonton team’s name is a derogatory, colonial-era term for Inuit.

Aaron Paquette, a city councilor in Edmonton, tweeted that he had an “extremely productive” meeting with the club Thursday. He said he was “very impressed with the potential coming out of our conversation.”

One of the team’s sponsors, national car-and-home insurance provider Belairdirect, is rethinking its relationship with the club because of the name.