Redskins Name Change Debate: Washington Post To Stop Using 'Slur'

More members of the media have announced that they will no longer refer to the Washington Redskins by their team name. Just days after NFL analysts Phil Simms and Tony Dungy said they would only use “Washington” when discussing the team, the editorial board of The Washington Post has expressed the same sentiment.

“The matter seems clearer to us now than ever, and while we wait for the National Football League to catch up with thoughtful opinion and common decency, we have decided that, except when it is essential for clarity or effect, we will no longer use the slur ourselves,” wrote the Washington Post Editorial Board. “That’s the standard we apply to all offensive vocabulary, and the team name unquestionably offends not only many Native Americans but many other Americans, too.

The Washington Post has called for the team to change its name in the past when the team was owned by Jack Kent Cooke, and the issue has gained even more national attention in the last year. Current owner Daniel Snyder has stated that the name "Redskins" will stay, though the team did have its trademark registration cancel by the U.S. patent and Tidemark Office in June.

Earlier in the week, former NFL head coach and current broadcaster Mike Ditka sounded off on the name debate.

“What’s all the stink over the Redskin name?” Ditka said in an interview on Redskinshistorian.com. “It’s so much [expletive] it’s incredible. We’re going to let the liberals of the world run this world. It was said out of reverence, out of pride to the American Indian. Even though it was called a 'Redskin,' what are you going to call them, a 'Proudskin?' This is so stupid it’s appalling, and I hope that owner keeps fighting for it and never changes it, because the Redskins are part of an American football history, and it should never be anything but the Washington Redskins. That’s the way it is.

“Its been the name of the team since the beginning of football. It has nothing to do with something that happened lately, or something that somebody dreamed up. This was the name, period. Leave it alone. These people are silly — asinine, actually, in my opinion.”

The NFL season starts on Sept. 4.