ANOTHER RACIST TEAM NAME BITES THE DUST.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: EDGE OF SPORTS

He said it would never happen. He taunted those in the Native American and activist communities who demanded that he get with the times. He told USA Today: "Well never change the name. It's that simple. NEVER. You can use caps."

His name is Daniel Snyder, the billionaire owner of an infamous professional football team in Washington, D.C., and he has been officially humbled by forces beyond his plutocratic control.

Dan Snyder's great passion over the past twenty-one years in which he has owned the team hasn't been winning football or creating a fun fan experience. It's been clinging to what the dictionary defines as a "contemptuous term" for Native Americans as the team's moniker.

Snyder belligerently ignored the dozens of Native American groups, tribal councils, and individuals who urged him to change this name. "Many people need to understand that mascots are meant to be ridiculed, tortured, laughed at, and demonized," commented Amanda Blackhorse, a leading fighter against the name. "Native people have been victims long enough. We are done with that. Our culture isn't a free market."

But now Snyder, kicking and screaming, publicly agreed to change the name--in a statement on a corporate letterhead that used the racist slur seven times. This team owner, who gave $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee, made it official in language more suited to a child being forced to eat their vegetables than someone who actually grew to understand what they were doing.

Knowing what we know about Snyder, the question of "why" becomes paramount. Why did this petty man finally decide to make a change he had fought for decades?

A popular analysis holds that he did so entirely because of the money. As Eugene Robinson noted in The Washington Post, the announcement came one day after "the team's most visible corporate sponsor, FedEx--which holds the naming rights for the team's home stadium, FedEx Field--requested that the team's name be changed." Other major sponsors, including PepsiCo, Nike, and Bank of America, joined in asking for this change. Nike even stopped selling Washington football gear through its website.

Credit is also due to the fifty-state national uprising against racism that has followed the police murder of...