Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Wednesday called on Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder to follow the NBA’s lead and change the team’s name.
Reid applauded NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s “work to swiftly move to stamp out bigotry in its ranks” by banning Los Angeles Clippers owner Roger Sterling from the league after he made racist remarks.
He said that Silver’s move “set the standard for how professional sports organizations should act in the face of racism,” before pivoting to rail on Snyder and for refusing to change the name of his team and the NFL for its inaction.
“How long will the NFL continue to do nothing — zero — as one of its teams bears a name that inflicts so much pain on Native Americans?” he asked.
He then criticized Snyder’s defense that the name is part of the team’s “tradition.”
“Tradition? What tradition?” Reid asked. “A tradition of racism is all that name leaves in its wake. Mr. Snyder knows that in sports, the only tradition that matters is winning. So I urge Daniel Snyder to do what is morally right and remove this degrading term from the league by changing his team’s name.”