Green Bay Packers CEO: Redskins Name ‘Very Derogatory to a Lot of People’
More: Green Bay Packers CEO: Redskins Name ‘Very Derogatory to a Lot of People’
Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder may have vowed to “NEVER” change the name of his football team, but the head of another organization took a stand against it today. Green Bay Packers chief executive Mark Murphy, who heads the publicly-owned franchise, told a Milwaukee radio station Tuesday that he was “sensitive” to calls to change the name.
“I don’t know if there is any way you can change Redskins,” Murphy said, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “The owner, Dan Snyder, has come out very strong that he will never change the name. But I am sensitive. It’s a name that’s very derogatory to a lot of people.”
Snyder and the NFL have dug in their heels in defending the name during the off-season even as it has drawn more controversy. The name is currently facing a lawsuit seeking to void its federal trademark protections, and members of Congress and the D.C. City Council have called on the team to change it. Darrell Green and Art Monk, two Hall of Famers who played for the Redskins, said the team should at least be open to discussion about a name change if people find it offensive, though both said later that they did not support abandoning the name. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell defended it in June, calling “Redskins” a symbol of “strength, courage, pride, and respect.”
Don’t change the team name, just change the mascot to a Potato. Problem solved!