Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder continued to defend the team's name during an interview with ESPN that aired in part yesterday on several different programs. Asked by ESPN's John Barr what a "Redskin" is to him, Snyder said, "A Redskin is a football player. A Redskin is our fans. The Washington Redskins fan base represents honor, represents respect, represents pride. Hopefully winning. And it’s a positive. ... You can take things out of context all over the place, but in this particular case, it is what it is. It’s very obvious." He added, "The name really means honor, respect. We sing ‘Hail To The Redskins.’ We don’t say 'hurt anybody.'" The full interview will air Sept. 2 as part of a special episode of "Outside The Lines" (ESPN, 8/5). Barr said of Snyder, "He is very mindful of that criticism. He is very sensitive to it, and he believes that criticism will go away over time. Snyder said today that he is in it for the long haul. Yes, he created this foundation fairly recently when the talk about the team name intensified. He knows how it looks to the public, but he insisted today that his heart is true." Barr indicated that Snyder has not heard any concerns about the name from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell or his fellow team owners. Barr: "There hasn’t been one dissenting view, he said, within the NFL community. If anything, I think Snyder is more resolute in large part because of his visits (to Native American reservations). One could make the case that these are Native American communities that are taking large checks from Daniel Snyder and therefore their opinion might be swayed and they may be more inclined not to raise a ruckus, if you will, about the name. Clearly, there are many disparate groups. There are 566 Native American tribes in this country. Not all of them speak with one voice and clearly there are people on the other side of this debate” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 8/5).
SAVE THE RHETORIC: ESPN’s Michael Wilbon was not buying the argument Snyder tried to make in the interview, saying, "I just wonder if anybody has ever said to Dan Snyder, 'You're not Native American. Shut up and listen.'" Wilbon: "You are so historically inaccurate in much of what you say. And you are so self-absorbed that it appears that anybody who's not one of his sycophants who would dare sit in his room and say, 'Listen, what are you reading? What are you listening to?' You can pay people to hear your point of view and come to your side, but this is not the context of this topic historically and culturally. What are you doing? And you wonder if there is any opposition to Dan Snyder ever expressed to his face because what he is doing is willfully ignorant and it’s time after time after time. The only thing I find more offensive than Dan Snyder's continuing defense of this is the commissioner's defense of it. It's one thing to have a team owner doing it, but another entirely to have a commissioner of a league that plans to get rid of the use of the 'N word,' saying it is okay to have Redskins" (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 8/5). Meanwhile, in Baltimore, Michael Dresser reports Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is now among a "list of prominent Democrats who want" the Redskins to change their name. O'Malley said, "It probably is time for the Redskins to change their name" (BALTIMORESUN.com, 8/5).
DAN'S DRESS REHEARSAL: USA TODAY's Erik Brady notes Snyder, who "rarely speaks on the issue, made some of the same points" that he made on ESPN during an interview Monday on ESPN Radio 980 DC, the team's flagship station which is owned by Snyder (USA TODAY, 8/6). Monday's interview was conducted by Chris Cooley, who played for the Redskins for nine seasons and is on the steering committee for the team-launched RedskinsFacts.com. ESPN's Keith Olbermann said, "If that sounds to you as if 'Interviewer Cooley' was sitting on Snyder's lap while Uncle Dan told him some stories that's only because, yeah pretty much" ("Olbermann," ESPN2, 8/5).
