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Del. Norton continues push to change name of DC’s football team

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Amid protests against racial injustice, Dan Snyder, the owner of Washington’s football team, made a small move toward separating the team from its problematic past. Snyder renamed a section of the team’s stadium previously dubbed for a segregationist former owner.

But D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is repeating calls for Snyder to change the name of the Redskins, a move he has long rejected.

“[Fans] rally around the team. If you change the name, they will still rally around the team,” Norton said in a conversation with Jason Dick during this week’s Political Theater podcast.

Snyder said in 2013 that the team’s name would “never” be changed.

With a vote on D.C. statehood coming to the House floor Friday, Norton is hoping D.C. will have greater clout to change the name and eventually approve a bill to move the team’s stadium from Maryland back to the district.

[ For more on the history and future of D.C.’s RFK stadium, see CQ Roll Call’s 2017 documentary ]

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