Dan Snyder keeps digging.

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

Dan Snyder won't give it up--yet.

One of the most specious arguments that the owner of the Washington football team has used to justify keeping a dictionary-defined racist slur as the moniker for his team is the idea of "tradition."

"When I consider the Washington Redskins name, I think of what it stands for. I think of the Washington Redskins traditions and pride," Snyder said in an open letter to fans earlier this year. "I want to share with my three children, just as my father shared with me--and just as you have shared with your family and friends."

In his twisted mind, the "tradition" of the word "Redskins" has nothing to do with racism and has not even the most gossamer connection to centuries of displacement, genocide, and marginalization of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Tradition is about the champagne-soaked championship legacy of the football team he dearly loves above all else. Since honorable players and laudable coaches use the Redskins moniker, how could it possibly be offensive?

But Snyder's desire to see "tradition" and "history" solely in the hermetically sealed bubble of a football franchise is coming under assault. One of Snyder's tributes to tradition is to pay constant homage to the man who came up with the name Redskins, the person Snyder has lovingly called "the patriarch"--George Preston Marshall. There is a whole section of the Washington football stadium, FedEx Field, named after Marshall. There is also a massive museum-style wall display of George Preston Marshall's history on exhibit at its playing facility. This history mentions his role as team founder and "pioneer" of the National Football League.

It does not mention, however, that George Preston Marshall was a proud segregationist and the person who is seen as largely responsible for the NFL instituting a ban on African American players in 1933. It certainly does not mention that Marshall ruled over a...