Nearly 50 Democratic U.S. senators, and not one Republican, called on the National Football League this week to change the team name of the Washington Redskins, in the largest congressional effort of the decades-long effort to replace the term the senators called a racial slur.
Five Democrats did not sign the letter: Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both of Virginia, where the team’s headquarters and training facility are located; as well as Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
“Kaine has been publicly supporting a name change for months, but he had concerns about the tone of the letter sent by Senate Democrats,” one of his aides told msnbc.
Additionally, Warner “believes that it’s not for Congress to dictate what the league does. He believes that over time, team names will change to reflect the times,” Beth Adelson, a Warner aide, told msnbc.
Requests for comment from the other three legislators were not immediately returned to msnbc.
They urged NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to follow National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver, who recently fired Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling after a recording surfaced of the 80-year-old making racist comments.
“We urge you and the National Football League to send the same clear message as the NBA did: that racism and bigotry have no place in professional sports. It’s time for the NFL to endorse a name change for the Washington, D.C., football team,” the 49 legislators wrote Wednesday in their letter.
President Barack Obama and other elected officials, as well as civil rights organizations, sports leaders and members of the general American public, have expressed their concerns about the meaning of the term “redskin,” saying it possesses negative racial connotations. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused to register the team’s trademark and has determined the word is a “derogatory slang” term.
Earlier this week, the New York State Assembly passed a unanimous bipartisan resolution denouncing the use of racial slurs as professional sports team names. The state is home to NFL headquarters.
The Democrats questioned Goodell about what message his failure to act sends. The NBA punished Sterling for his comments against African-Americans, but the NFL allows a team to endorse negative language toward Native Americans, they wrote.
“The despicable comments made by Mr. Sterling have opened up a national conversation about race relations. We believe this conversation is an opportunity for the NFL to take action to remove the racial slur from the name of one of its marquee franchises,” they said in the letter.









