Donald Trump‘s election victory over Kamala Harris this week has sparked a bold sports movement within the NFL community.
With the 78-year-old poised to reassume control of the White House, hoards of Washington Commanders fans have called on the president-elect to intervene on their behalf to change the franchise’s name once again.
In the wake of the Republican candidate’s triumph at the ballot box Tuesday, old-school NFL fans have urged Trump to convince the organization to restoring its original name – the Washington Redskins.
The team played as the Washington Redskins from 1937, when they relocated to the nation’s capital from Boston, until 2020 when former owner Dan Snyder succumbed to years-long pressure and dropped the name, which is considered offensive to Native Americans.
The franchise began a lengthy rebranding process in 2020, first becoming the Washington Football Team on a temporary basis before adopting the ‘Commanders’ in 2022.
However, in the days after Trump reclaimed the White House, the fanbase has called on the president-elect to overturn the politically correct moniker.
‘Donald Trump should force the NFL to rename them to the “Redskins”,’ one fan wrote on X, formerly known as social media.
‘Can we start calling Washington the Redskins again Tomorrow,’ another said in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
‘It’s time we bring back the Washington Redskins,’ another declared in the wake of Trump’s election, while one supporter chimed in, ‘Can we change the name back to the Redskins now?’
‘Time to bring back the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians #MAGA #Trump,’ one fan posted, also referring to Cleveland’s MLB team, which changed it name from the Indians to the Guardians in 2022.
‘64% of Native Americans voted for Trump. Bring back the Indians and Redskins. End the politically correct nonsense.,’ another alleged.
One shared an image of a man peering around a curtain, adding: ‘Me checking to see if we can call Washington the Redskins again yet…’
In 2023, a Native American group called on the Commanders to revert back to the Redskins to ‘put an end to cancel culture.’
However, the franchise, which came under new ownership last year, is a private entity and Trump, as president or president-elect, has no official authority over the team’s decisions.
The franchise’s previous name and logo were two of several controversies Snyder faced during his tenure as owner before he sold to a Josh Harris-led consortium in 2023.
Amid racial tension across the country and the aftermath of the George Floyd riots in 2020, the organization was finally forced to change its name when sponsors threatened to pull their deals. Trump also lost his re-election bid later that year.
The new ownership group includes Harris, who also owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers , as well as Los Angeles Lakers legend and Dodgers co-owner, Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson.
An NFL team has to wait five years before it can rebrand again. However, there is an exception if a new ownership takes charge.
During their ‘Redskins’ years, the team did have a dark-skinned, mohawked mascot adorned with loin cloth featuring the club’s logo.
The club originated in Boston, where then-owner George P. Marshall had wanted to call them the ‘Braves’ but opted for his second choice due to the existence of the city’s National League baseball team, which has since moved on to Milwaukee and Atlanta.
The term’s origin is disputed, according to a 2016 Washington Post article, that claims it was first used as a pejorative as early as 1863 in Minnesota.
‘The State reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory,’ read an announcement in The Winona Daily Republican. ‘This sum is more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River are worth.’
By 1898, Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary began defining ‘redskin’ with the phrase ‘often contemptuous.’
A 2016 Washington Post poll found that 90 percent of the 504 Native American respondents were ‘not bothered’ by the team name. Snyder ultimately wrote an open letter, defending his decision to keep the moniker by citing the study.
However, that survey and other similar studies have been slammed by journalists and social scientists as being unreliable.
‘The reporters and editors behind this story must have known that it would be used as justification for the continued use of these harmful, racist mascots,’ read a statement from the Native American Journalists Association. ‘They were either willfully malicious or dangerously naïve in the process and reporting used in this story, and neither is acceptable from any journalistic institution.’
In March of 2020, UC Berkeley revealed a study that found that more than half of its 1,000 Native American respondents were offended by the team name.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that a trademark law barring disparaging terms infringes on free speech rights. Prior to that, the United States Patent and Trademark office had tried to revoke the Redskins’ trademark because it was a racial epithet.
Before the 2021 season, the team banned fans from wearing headdresses to home games.
