The Washington Redskins hired head coach Ron Rivera this offseason to bring stability and a new culture to the club. Just a few months into the job, Rivera is already making an impact and the team’s name could be the next major change made.
Ron Rivera: ‘It would be awesome’ to change team name before 2020 season
Team owner Daniel Snyder has faced criticism in recent years for sticking with the team’s name. However, things seem to be changing with calls for a name change growing louder with FedEx and Nike now taking action to make it happen.
After years of saying the Redskins name would remain as long as he was owner, Snyder changed his stance on Friday and the club announced a formal review is underway. Now with a growing expectation that the team’s name will be changed, Ron Rivera is making it clear he’d love to see it happen as quickly as possible.
“If we get it done in time for the season, it would be awesome,” Ron Rivera said, via The Washington Post.
Rivera told The Washington Post he spent time recently researching the term “Redskins” and that helped influence him to realize a change should come.
The term is defined as a racial slur by Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, citing the use of the slur against Native Americans throughout the history of the United States.
Washington’s organization will likely spend significant time determining when it wants to change the team’s name and then make the sweeping changes to its jerseys, merchandise and other material with the former logo and name. However, Rivera seems to believe a few names are already emerging as potential replacements.
“We want to do this in a positive way,” Rivera said, via The Washington Post. “… We came up with a couple of names — two of them I really like.”
It might be a few weeks before we hear which new names the team is considering, but it seems increasingly likely that change will finally come.