Back in 2020, after decades of pressure, the Washington NFL franchise retired its “Redskins” name and changed to the temporary “Washington Football Team.” This February, they changed the name again, this time settling on “Washington Commanders.”
But ahead of the Commanders’ game against the Green Bay Packers Sunday (their 90th Anniversary and Alumni Homecoming Weekend), co-owner Tanya Snyder (seen above at the name change press conference on Feb. 2) gave a speech introducing team legends Art Monk, Doug Williams, and Mark Rypien. Snyder (who has reportedly been taking a more hands-on role with the team following the numerous accusations against her husband and co-owner Dan and the league investigation of those) wrapped that up with a “Hail to the Redskins,” as per video tweeted by Sam Fortier of The Washington Post:
Here’s the end of the video of Tanya Snyder, which includes her “Hail to the Redskins” (:20). https://t.co/XpIqKP9z3T pic.twitter.com/H5tSIWht6V
— Sam Fortier (@Sam4TR) October 23, 2022
“Hail to the Redskins, and let’s beat Green Bay.”
Referencing the team’s old name can be written off as just a slip, or it can be seen as an intentional move. considering that these players played for the team when it bore that name. Regardless of the rationale, this is interesting considering the extremely high-profile debates over the past few years around that name change. And it’s notable to see that coming from Tanya Snyder, who has generally been the less controversial member of that family. (There’s significant debate around if her husband was actually as “hands-off” as claimed during the period NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he was, but that period certainly saw Tanya Snyder playing a larger public role with the team.)
A “Hail to the Redskins” from Tanya Snider isn’t necessarily going to become a huge thing. But it is certainly interesting to see this kind of reference to the team’s controversial former name from one of its owners, and to see that in such a public setting.
[Sam Fortier on Twitter; photo from Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports]
