Tom Brokaw: ‘I’ve Felt for a Long Time that They Couldn’t Exist as the Redskins Forever’

EXCERPT:

BROKAW: “I’ve felt for a long time that they couldn’t exist as the Redskins forever. Look, I played on a high school team in South Dakota in which we were named after Indians and finally the community said look, this is not appropriate, so they changed the name and changed the logos, because it was frankly a kind of insult to the native tribes in our area about how they were referred to by a bunch white kids running up and down the football fields. There are lots of ways you can reconfigure the Redskins, the football team, and pay homage to what their heritage is as a football team but also to the people who were here long before we were. And we have to keep that in mind. Athletics, by the way, on the -- on the reservations themselves in the states like Montana where I am now, and South Dakota, all these areas, athletics on the reservation are hugely important. The kids are extremely good athletes for the most part. And we ought to honor that as well and find a way to pull them into the great American culture of sports, spectatorship, and fans.”