Before the start of the 2020-2021 NFL season, the historic franchise of the Washington Football Team chose to officially change their name. Washington is one of the oldest teams in the NFL and have a deep history including three Superbowl wins and great players like Sean Taylor and Joe Theismann. However, outcries from the public for a name change have been going on for years. Nevertheless, it was not until Washington lost big name sponsors like NIKE and FedEx, that they chose to remove the racist name and logo. General manager Ron Rivera announced on July 13th that after 87 years the franchise will be officially dropping the name and calling themselves “The Washington Football Team” until they have time to think of a suitable name.
However, is the name change genuine if they only do it after losing huge spongers and fans? Washington ignored the public for years defending their name and logo, until it served their financial and public interest to change. Like the conflict theory argues, sports force an economic inequality that give the wealthy the power to make all the choices, primarily focused on individualized financial gain and never the good of our society’s future.
Yet this attitude shift by the Washington football team is still a great example of the growing social support for equality and justice worldwide. With a team like Washington taking these actions how long until other teams like the Cleveland Indians follow? Huge international coverage of professional sports is giving teams and athletes a platform to bring awareness to these social issues. The world is going through a social shift in our perspective of acceptance and public opinion is no longer tolerant of blunt racism, especially by huge well-known brands.
Christopher Jenkins
Sport, Not Games ⚽ 