NFL Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy said he won’t say the Washington Redskins name in full on-air because it’s “offensive.”
“It’s not hard to change the name,” Dungy told ESPN’s William C. Rhoden, per ProFootballTalk in a piece published Wednesday. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
“When I’m on the air, I try to just refer to them as Washington,” he added. “I think it’s appropriate. If the team doesn’t want to change, the least I can do is try not to use it.”
NFL’s Tony Dungy Won’t Say Washington Team Name On TV, ‘It’s Offensive’ https://t.co/dYqlyGlqTw
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Dungy continued, “you can say, ‘this has been a historic name and we’ve used it for this team for X number of years, but in this day and age, it’s offensive to some people, so we’re going to change it.’ I don’t think that’s hard.”
The former Indianapolis Colts coach is an analyst for NBC’s “Football Night In America” which airs before the primetime Sunday night game.
It all comes following comments by current Redskins coach Ron Rivera who said it’s a “discussion for another time.”
“I think it’s all about the moment and the timing,” Rivera explained. “But, you know, I’m just somebody that’s from a different era that when football wasn’t such a big part of the political scene.”
“You know, that’s one of the tough things for me, too, is I’ve always wanted to try to keep that separate,” he added. “People have wanted me to get involved in politics, you know, when I was coaching and I kept telling them, ‘It’s not for me to get up here and influence people.'”
The Washington team’s coach continued, while explaining that “I have my beliefs, I know what I think, you know, I support the movements, you know, support the players. I believe in what they’re doing and, again, you know, I think that there are certain elements to certain things that it’s all about the timing and the best time to discuss those things.”