With Washington D.C. lawmakers attempting to pressure Redskins owner Daniel Snyder into changing his teams moniker, which a segment of the Native American population considers racist, an Associated Press poll may be backing up the stubborn team owner.
According to reports, an AP poll that surveyed 1,004 adult Americans in mid-April indicated that 79 percent of the people surveyed have no problem with Washington's current team name. According to the same poll, 11 percent of those surveyed think it should be changed, eight percent were unsure and two percent did not answer.
Of those in favor of keeping the name, many cited tradition, as did NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. One responder in support of the Redskins current identity said, That's who they've been forever. That's who they're known as. I think we as a people make race out to be a bigger issue than it is."
Meanwhile, one of the 11 percent in favor of a name change countered, With everything that Native Americans have gone through in this country, to have a sports team named the Redskins - come on, now. It's bad. Much farther down the road, we're going to look back on this and say, 'Are you serious? Did they really call them the Washington Redskins?' It's a no-brainer."
This is not the first time the Washington NFL franchise has faced heat over its use of the term Redskins, but this time legislation is being introduced that could strip Snyder of trademarking rights, which would deal a blow to both the team as well as the NFL.
In spite of that threat, Snyder has refused to budge on the issue. Recently, he told USA Today, "We will never change the name of the team," Snyder told USA TODAY Sports this week. "As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it's all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season."
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