According to multiple sources, the Washington Redskins will announce on Monday morning that they will officially be retiring their team name, with the announcement of their new name to be set at a later date.
This news should come as little surprise to anybody, as the demands to get rid of the “Redskin” name have been growing for quite some time.
According to The Sports Business Daily, who was the first publication to break the story, a new name will not be announced on Monday morning due to copyright issues.
You may be asking yourself, why now? Well for starters, this announcement is well overdue and in many ways should have been made years ago. Secondly, on July 3rd it was announced that the Redskins franchise would undergo a thorough review of its 87-year old name.
It also came out that Dan Snyder, who is the majority owner of the Washington Redskins, had been in contact with leauge offices in reggards to changing the name for months prior. This piece of news comes to be particularly surprising, as Snyder has refused to budge on the name change for years, even once telling USA TODAY in 2013 to “Put it in all caps” that he would never make such a move.
This is a big day for not only Washingtons franchise, not only the NFL but for the progression of sports as a whole.