Change Looms In Washington

An Op-Ed By Jarrett Jennings

The Washington Problem

With a Press Release heavy on team name, the professional Washington D.C. football franchise has announced it will “undergo a thorough review of the team’s name.”

For the last 87 years, a disgusting racial slur for Native Americans has been featured as the nickname for a professional football team representing the capital city of the United States of America.

Back in 2013, former President Barack Obama criticized the franchise, saying he would “think about changing” its name.

He was met with unwarranted criticism for that statement by many, including current president (de-capitalized for a reason) Donald Trump, who has made it his mission to stoke the racial divide in this country.

The only person, however, who can actually do anything about the team name is owner Dan Snyder, who was not only uninterested in changing the name back in 2013, but actually went so far as to vow “never” to change the name of the franchise.

Despite the recent social upheaval in the wake of the murders of George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Breonna Taylor and countless others at the hands of police officers, it’s still unlikely Snyder would have been swayed to change the name of the team he, for some reason, holds so near and dear to his heart.

No, it was not until FedEx, Pepsi and Nike threatened to pull their sponsorships of the team, that the thought of changing its name was even considered by Snyder.

Nike went as far as deleting the team entirely from its website last week.

FedEx, which owns the naming rights to the stadium Washington plays in (FedEx Field), and Pepsi have been slower to completely cut ties with the franchise.

Both Pepsi and FedEx, which was founded by minority team-owner Fred Smith, have, however, released statements claiming the companies have been active in discussions to change the name of the franchise for some time.

The Natives

Before diving into the disturbing history of Washington D.C.’s NFL franchise, I would like to offer my choice for the change.

It is my belief that a new name for the franchise should—after so many years of serving as a discriminatory mark on the history of Native Americans—do its best to honor those people whose land was stolen so that white descendants of Europeans could prosper here.

My choice for the new team name has long been the Washington Natives.

History of Hate

Now, 87 years seems like forever, but the team has not always existed under its current racist moniker.

In 1932, the Boston Braves played a lone season of football, sharing a field with the then-Boston Braves baseball franchise.

Owner and team founder George Preston Marshall changed the name of the team in 1933 and moved it to historic Fenway Park, where it shared a field with the Boston Red Sox until 1936 when the team was moved again—this time to D.C.

Refusing to even entertain the thought of integrating his franchise, Marshall was a vocal and proactive supporter of segregation.

“We’ll start signing negroes,” Marshall once said, “when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites.”

Despite teams across the country adding Black players to rosters, at the 1960 player’s draft, Washington selected 20 white players, in an act of “state-rights football,” and Civil Rights defiance.

By 1961, the same year President John F. Kennedy took office, Washington sported the only professional football roster in the country that had not integrated—and the team was awful.

Kennedy had run his campaign on a pro-Civil Rights agenda. Though his presidency would ultimately fall short on this front, he did appoint more than 50 Black men and women to positions of power within his administration.

For Secretary of the Interior, Kennedy tabbed Stewart Lee Udall, a highly decorated WWII Army veteran. Though white, Udall made possibly the most significant impact in attempting to get Washington to integrate its football team.

Per a March 1961 story in the Casper Tribune-Herald & Star, Udall wrote a letter to Marshall, explaining that, as a condition of the 30-year lease of the newly-constructed, federally-funded, $20 million football stadium in D.C., he was expected to integrate his team.

In the letter, Marshall was also told that if he did not comply with the order, he was “in for a moral argument with the President and the administration,” and could face criminal prosecution.

Marshall was less than receptive to the idea publicly, saying “Our roster is closed. The draft is over.”

The ultimatum made national headlines and showed the Kennedy administration was ready to go to war with Marshall over the issue of segregation.

Following the push, KKK members and white supremacists rallied outside of Washington’s stadium. One protestor was quoted as saying he believed the United States were destined for dictatorship “when a football owner is forced to put a n****r on his team.”

A reminder that, from 1946 through 1961, a time when professional football clubs across the country were de-segregating with positive results, the Washington franchise went 69-116-8—finishing no higher than second in its division.

In continued public defiance, Marshall joked, saying “I don’t know what the hell it’s all about… I never realized so many fans were interested in a football team that only won one game [in both 1960 and 1961].”

As the worst team in football, Washington had the first pick in the draft.

With it, despite all of the public anti-integration rhetoric, Marshall left the selections up to head coach and general manager Bill McPeak, who selected Syracuse halfback Ernie Davis—the first Black player to win the Heisman trophy and one of three Black players selected by Washington in the 1962 draft.

With its second pick, Washington took RB Joe Hernandez, out of Arizona, and with its eighth-round pick, the team grabbed fullback Ron Hatcher, out of Michigan State. Neither player caught on with the team, as Hatcher rarely played, and Hernandez never signed a contract.

Davis had also been drafted by the Buffalo Bills of the AFL, days before, and had no desire to be a Jackie Robinson.

Even if he had wanted to be the first Black football player in Washington, he was never given the the chance—as Marshall had secretly traded the halfback’s rights to the Cleveland Browns, who wanted to pair Davis with his mentor and Hall of Fame rusher Jim Brown.

Davis welcomed the trade, but it remains unclear as to whether or not he had a say in the matter.

Because of a leukemia diagnosis, Davis would never play a down of professional football—dying in 1963 at the age of 23.

Despite not breaking the color barrier for Washington, Davis’ historic selection by the team, and his subsequent trade to the Browns for HBs Bobby Mitchell and Leroy Jackson, opened the door for the de-segregation of D.C. football.

Mitchell became a star for the Washington NFL franchise, but was not the lone Black contributor for the team, after it traded for Pittsburgh Steelers offensive guard John Nisby in the same off-season.

In 1963, Marshall suffered a stroke and relinquished control of the franchise he had founded. He died in 1969 at the age of 72.

Upon his death, a large portion of his fortune went towards establishing a foundation, in his name, to help underprivileged children in the DC area. But the foundation was barred from “any purpose which supports or employs the principle of racial integration in any form,”—a final despicable act in a life rooted in racism and hate.

Ironically, in 1988, Washington passer Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, outdueling the John Elway-led Denver Broncos in route to D.C.’s second NFL title.

Williams was also the first Black quarterback to be named Super Bowl MVP, going 18-of-29 for 340 yards, four touchdowns and just one interception in the team’s 42-10 victory.

Historic Parallels

Many parallels can be drawn between the events leading up to the de-segregation of the Washington franchise in the 1960s and the push to change the team’s name in 2020.

Every time the topic of changing the name has gotten traction, Snyder has acted as though his team is not founded firmly in racism and prejudice against Native Americans—as if the team’s name had the N-word referencing Black people, or the K-word referencing Jewish people, it would represent the “pride and strength” of those groups.

An Honorable Logo

In my opinion, the name of the Washington franchise is in stark contrast to its logo, which is one of the more respectful and distinguished logos in all of sports.

Walter “Blackie” Wetzel approached the ownership of the Washington football franchise in the early 1970s with a proposal to design a logo for the team. Wetzel served as the President of the National Congress of American Indians and was a longtime political leader in the Blackfeet Nation.

Per his son, Don Wetzel Sr., Walter created the logo “the right way.”

The elder Wetzel had called in leaders from other Native American tribes and, together, they had designed the logo based on the likeness of the ‘Buffalo Head nickel.’

It should be noted that Don Wetzel Sr. does not see a problem with the name of the team or the logo. As a Native American, his voice and opinion have meaning and matter.

But there are plenty of Native descendants that would disagree with Wetzel’s position.

Hope for the Future

Washington needs to change (in more ways than one).

Dan Snyder is far beyond redemption as a human being, as sticking to this franchise’s name will forever be a tarnish on his soul.

The right thing to do here is simple—change the name.

I believe it will be changed, not because Snyder has had a change of heart, but because of societal pressure, particularly from his major sponsors and minority-owners of the franchise who have reportedly been looking to sell off a total of 40-percent of the team.

The bigger the effect on Snyder’s pockets, the more he will listen to reason.