FedEx has requested the Redskins change their team name. The franchise plays its home games at FedEx Field, and FedEx CEO Fred Smith is part of the team’s ownership group.
“We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name,” the company said in a statement.
This has long been an issue the Redskins have encountered, and owner Daniel Snyder has continued to come out against changing the team’s name — despite frequent calls to do so. Snyder said in 2013 the team will “never” change its name. The franchise has been in existence since 1932, when it entered the NFL as the Boston Braves. They became known as the Boston Redskins a year later, moving to Washington in 1937.
FedEx, Nike and PepsiCo have received dozens of letters from investment firms and shareholders — worth a combined $620 billion — with the purpose of the Redskins changing their controversial name, according to AdWeek.
While the Redskins play home games in Landover, Md., the Washington Post recently reported that Eleanor Holmes Norton — Washington D.C.’s nonvoting delegate in the House of Representatives — said the name needed to be changed if the franchise wanted to build a stadium in the district. The Redskins played in the district (at RFK Stadium) until 1996. The Redskins’ lease with FedEx Field expires in 2027, ESPN.com notes.
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