A Letter from Danny

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/07/richard-sherman-nfl-wouldnt-ban-a-donald-sterling-type-owner/

Richard Sherman: NFL wouldn’t ban a Donald Sterling-type owner

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been almost universally praised for banning Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life after Sterling was recorded making racist remarks. But one of the NFL’s most prominent players says that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wouldn’t stand up to an owner the way Silver did.

Asked in an interview with Time if he thinks Goodell would act the same way, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman answered, “No I don’t.”

Sherman elaborated that the NFL has an opportunity to show leadership on racial sensitivity by changing the name of the Washington Redskins. Instead, the NFL is refusing to take a stand.

“Because we have an NFL team called the Redskins. I don’t think the NFL really is as concerned as they show. The NFL is more of a bottom line league. If it doesn’t effect their bottom line, they’re not as concerned,” Sherman said.

Goodell said this week on NFL Network that he sees no connection between the Sterling issue and the Redskins issue, but Sherman says the discussion about Sterling using racially offensive words should also initiate a discussion about Daniel Snyder owning a team that uses a name many consider offensive.

Sherman’s new status as one of the highest-paid players in the NFL isn’t changing his status as one of the most outspoken players in the NFL.

 

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/22/fifty-senators-send-letter-pushing-nfl-to-change-redskins-name/

Half teh US Senate wants a name change. I think it will come in less than 5 yrs.

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/29/dan-snyders-minions-keep-bungling-the-team-name-issue/

[Robjr83]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/22/fifty-senators-send-letter-pushing-nfl-to-change-redskins-name/

Half teh US Senate wants a name change. I think it will come in less than 5 yrs.

 

1/2 the Senate are also morons.... I'll leave which half ambiguous

[dc.]

I think you're underestimating by a factor of about 100%

[JPPT1974]

Well the name of trying to figure out to keep the Redskins or not, continues to intrigue as well as this will continue to drag on!

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1/2 the Senate are also morons.... I'll leave which half ambiguous

That goes without saying. But they are morons with power.

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/09/daniel-snyder-hires-lobbyist-to-defend-team-name/

Daniel Snyder hires lobbyist to defend team name

With 50 Senators recently urging the NFL to force the franchise owned by Daniel Snyder to change its name, Snyder realizes that he needs someone to use someone other than president and G.M. Bruce Allen and/or Twitter to deliver the team’s message to Senators, Congresspeople, and other interested politicians.

As first reported by Politico, the team hashired the law firm of McGuireWoods to lobby on its behalf. Former Virginia governor George Allen, Bruce’s brother, previously worked for that firm.

The official disclosure form indicates that the firm has been hired to conduct “discussions of team origins, history and traditions, Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation and youth sports, activities of Original Americans’ Foundation.”

In other words, the firm has been to take some steam out of the effort among politicians to change the team name — even though the team has acted like any and all political pressure to change its name has had no impact on the team’s steadfast refusal to consider a name change.

Bottom line? The letter signed by 50 Senators found the nerve in third molar with Snyder and company, who are now setting up yet another front in the ever-growing battle to keep the name in place.

You know it is getting deep when you need to hire a lobbyist.

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/10/anti-redskins-commercial-to-air-during-nba-finals/

Anti-Redskins commercial to air during NBA Finals

Opponents of the name of the Washington Redskins will air their message before a large audience of sports fans tonight.

The Washington Post reports that the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, a tribe based in California, has paid for a 60-second anti-Redskins commercial to run during halftime of tonight’s NBA Finals game. The ad will run in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco and Washington, and the tribe said it made a “significant investment” to purchase the air time.

The commercial begins with a long montage of names and labels that Native Americans call themselves, like “proud” and “forgotten,” “Navajo” and “Blackfoot,” “patriot” and “soldier,” “Jim Thorpe” and “Billy Mills.” It ends with the narrator saying, “Native Americans call themselves many things. The one thing they don’t” and then an image of a Redskins helmet.

A longer version of the ad was posted on YouTube just before the Super Bowl and has been viewed nearly 2 million times.

 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT8Q1VY8_Bg

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJKfs4ZnbNE

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http://news.yahoo.com/trademark-board-rules-against-redskins-142056503.html

 

 

Trademark board rules against Redskins name Board strips Washington Redskins of trademark protection due to 'disparaging' name

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Patent Office has ruled the Washington Redskins nickname is "disparaging of Native Americans" and that the team's federal trademarks for the name must be canceled.

The ruling announced Wednesday comes after a campaign to change the name has gained momentum over the past year.

The decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is similar to one it issued in 1999. That ruling was overturned in 2003 in large part on a technicality because the courts decided that the plaintiffs were too old.

The new case was launched in 2006 by a younger group of Native Americans. A hearing was held in March 2013.

Just like last time, the Redskins can retain their trademark protection during an appeal.

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/21/fedex-ceo-refuses-to-say-whether-he-supports-washington-name/

 

 

FedEx CEO refuses to say whether he supports Washington name

It isn't good when a sponsor is less than supportive.

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/08/washington-blogger-turned-lobbyist-resigns-after-two-weeks-on-the-job/

Washington blogger-turned-lobbyist resigns after two weeks on the job

The Ben Tribbett era has ended in Washington. There was one?

The liberal blogger hired by owner Daniel Snyder to assist with the defense of the team’s name has resigned, according to the blogger-turned-lobbyist’s Twitter feed.

“So I’m going to send in my resignation to the Redskins,” Tribbett tweeted Monday night. “Hopefully that allows debate to move back to where it should be.”

The debate had migrated from the name to Tribbett, who rose to semi-prominence by pointing out that the brother of Washington president Bruce Allen had used a racial slur on the campaign trail in 2006. The inconsistency between Tribbett’s attack on George Allen for using the term “macaca” and Tribbett’s defense of the team name gained traction on Sunday, when it was shown via an archive of Tribbett’s blog that he had supported his position that “macaca” amounts to a slur by linking to a list that identifies both that term and “redskins” as racially offensive.

But the catalyst for the resignation possibly was the discovery by the Indian Country Today Media Network of a series of tweets posted by Tribbett while gambling in Las Vegas in 2010.

“An older native american guy just accused me of cheating and pulled some stuff out of his pocket to put some kind of spell on me,” Tribbett said. “Epic.”

Twenty-seven minutes later, Tribbett posted, “100 into 500. #curse fail.”

Then came the kicker, 14 minutes later: “Just took Chief for his last 300. I’d call it a scalping but that seems uncalled for.”

And so the Tribbett blink-of-an-eye hiring-and-resignation officially becomes the latest, and potentially the greatest, blunder committed by the franchise during the last two years, when the opposition to the name has been fueled in large part by the manner in which the team has opted to defend it.

 

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/16/sec-blocks-fedex-shareholder-vote-on-naming-rights-deal/

SEC blocks FedEx shareholder vote on naming-rights deal

As the opposition to the name of the Washington NFL franchise continues, the federal government has blocked an effort to cancel the naming-rights deal at the stadium where the team plays.

Via Mark Holan of the Washington Business Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission has concluded that FedEx is not required to permit shareholder discussion and vote on the question of whether the company is suffering “reputational damage from its association with the Washington, D.C., NFL franchise.” The SEC ruled that the issue falls within the “ordinary business” of the company, making it beyond the scope of shareholder approval or action.

The request for consideration of the issue came from, among others, The Oneida Trust of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, Calvert Investments, Boston Common Asset Management, Walden Asset Management, and Trillium Asset Management.

“We regret that FedEx is censoring our effort to promote an open and productive discussion amongst FedEx shareholders on this critically important issue,” Brandon Stevens of the Oneida Tribe told Holan via email. “It’s not too late for FedEx and CEO Fred Smith to do the right thing. They should demonstrate their commitment to diversity and respect for Native American culture and tradition by taking a stand against this racist team name and at the very least allow the proposal to move forward.”

Stevens added that “this issue is not going away,” and that action will be taken from the floor of the shareholder meeting in September.

FedEx CEO Fred Smith, who also owns a minority share of the team, previously hasdeclined to disclose his personal views as to whether the name of the team should change. His own views likely don’t matter in this specific instance. FedEx has purchased the naming rights for the stadium well into the future. It’s unlikely that owner Daniel Snyder would ever agree to let the company walk away from the deal — unless, of course, another company would be willing to pay more to take the place of FedEx.

It remains to be seen whether any effort to boycott or otherwise pressure FedEx takes root as football season approaches. While it’s a given that ongoing efforts will be directed at the team and the league, the movement could soon result in more direct challenges to those who do business with the franchise, including the 31 other owners who partially share in the revenues generated by merchandise bearing the team’s name.

 

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LOL! They purchased the shares...and were OK doing it when the team was the Redskins....and now they have a problem with it....because the public has a problem with it.

They never would have cared until this snow balled into public outrage.

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Absolutely.

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The Washington Redskins have yet another embarrassing PR gaffe to add to their list. A California Native American tribe is accusing the team of offering them a bribe after they refused to accept a charitable donation to build a skate park. Details of the meeting between Redskins officials and tribal leaders paint a picture of utter cluelessness perfectly in keeping with everything we know about Daniel Snyder’s operation.

"We respectfully listened to their presentation. But when Gary Edwards referred to himself as a “redskin” in front of our Nation’s officials, I knew that their visit had ulterior motives.

The Redskins presented a rendering of the skate park they proposed to donate, and of course it was painted in the team’s colors. The Redskins also offered to buy iPads for the tribe’s children “for the purpose of learning their Native language.” And they offered all of this, they claimed, with no strings attached.

The Quechan tribe was not buying what the Redskins were selling according to Escalanti:

We say no. There are no questions about this. We will not align ourselves with an organization to simply become a statistic in their fight for name acceptance in Native communities. We’re stronger than that and we know bribe money when we see it.

The organization Eradicating Native American Mascotry (ENAM) offered an even more strongly negative characterization of the Redskins’ efforts at buying off the tribe:

[Edwards] appears to feel that only by being a mascot for a $1.8 billion team can Native Americans continue to exist in this country.

Escalanti said:

We don’t need hush money, we need the franchise to respect that the majority of Native America is against the racial slur they use as a team name.

The tribe will continue their efforts to raise funds for their skate park, without any help from Daniel Snyder and his band of tone-deaf lackeys. http://fansided.com/2014/07/18/indian-tribe-refuses-bribe-money-donation-redskins/#!bhP3DE

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The granddaughter of George Preston Marshall, the original Washington Redskins owner and the man who gave the team its nickname, told Leesburg Today that the team "needs to change the name."

“In this day and age, it’s just not right,” granddaughter Jordan Wright said.

Wright's call for a name change comes a few days after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on ABC News that the name is offensive and "ought to be changed."

The Redskins hold the stance that the team name honors Native Americans, while critics allege that the name is racist and offensive toward Native Americans.

The national Change the Mascot campaign, launched by the Oneida Indian Nation, issued a statement on Thursday in support of Wright's comments:

“We applaud Ms. Wright for speaking out and calling for a change. She could have remained silent, but instead chose to publicly repudiate her grandfather’s legacy and stand on the right side of history. This is yet another wake up call to the NFL. When even the kin of the owner who gave the Washington team its name is now demanding a change, it is yet another sign that the team’s current ownership is standing on the wrong side of history. As Ms. Wright said: they need to change the name.”

Current Redskins owner Dan Snyder has repeatedly stated he will not change the team's name, and recently NBC announcer Al Michaels said Snyder told him he'll change the name "over my dead body." http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/07/18/george-preston-marshall-granddaughter-wants-redskins-changed

 

[cravnravn]

FUCK the protesters,, I protest the nationals.. America was built by internationals, I feel slighted by calling our nation's capital team the nationals,

[cravnravn]

How long have the Bullets not been the Bullets?

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About 16 yrs I think.

[cravnravn]

so do you think these protesters will go up in arms when they are still called the Redskins? Ive heard sports guys still call them the Bullets as well as Ive heard announcers call the Colts the Baltimore Colts

[dc.]

Certainly people won't like it, but I don't think up-in-arms. You can't erase history, so you'll always have someone say, "They used to be..." and you'll always have some local radio jockey saying, "the REDSKINS" just because they refuse to change their ways or just to rile someone up.

 

That becomes a problem for the announcer. If the protesters get upset, they'll let the radio stations know... but that becomes the station's financial choice.

 

 

BTW - you're comparison on the Nats is a nice try, but hardly in the same ballpark.

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BTW - you're comparison on the Nats is a nice try, but hardly in the same ballpark.

Are saying there is some reaching going on?