Norton Encouraged by New NFL Doubts about Washington Football Team Name

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that she was encouraged that National Football League (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell appears to be shifting his position regarding the disparaging nature of the name "Redskins." After defending the team name in a letter to Norton and other members of Congress in June as "distinct from any disparagement that could be viewed in some other context," Goodell, in an interview with 106.7 The Fan in D.C. on Wednesday, has now acknowledged that the issue should be addressed, and said, "if we are offending one person, we need to be listening and making sure that we're doing the right things to try to address that."

"Roger Goodell knows that a disparaging name for a NFL team implicates the league and its good name," said Norton. "He also may be alert to the fact that on four separate occasions the Patent and Trademark Office has refused to register any trademark containing the name ‘Redskins' on grounds of disparagement, and that but for a technicality, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruling in 1999 that the name was offensive under federal trademark law already would have succeeded in causing a name change. The legal handwriting is on the wall, and Goodell's statement makes clear that this issue has become troublesome to the National Football League. The team is so loved by us all in this region that it is inconceivable that a name change to eliminate an ethnic slur would diminish that admiration. Particularly in the team's multi-ethnic region, the reasons for the change would be embraced."

In May, Norton and nine other members of Congress sent letters to Goodell, team owner Daniel Snyder, the 31 other NFL franchises, and Washington football team sponsor FedEx, urging a change in the team name. In March, Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS) introduced a bill, which Norton and the others who signed the letter cosponsored, to cancel existing trademark registrations containing the term "redskin," and deny registration for new trademarks using the term.

Norton's interview on this issue with ESPN's "Outside the Lines" will air this Sunday, September 15, at 8:00 a.m., on ESPN2.

Published: September 13, 2013