If Mike Holmgren plans to come out of retirement, he probably won’t be working for Daniel Snyder.
Holmgren, who coached the Packers and Seahawks before ending his NFL career serving as the surrogate for former Browns owner Randy Lerner, recently said that Snyder’s team should just go ahead and change their name.
“Absolutely,” Holmgren told Dave “Softy” Mahler of KJR radio, via the Washington Post. “Because of what it signifies and what it means to so many people. I’m not talking football fans; I’m talking about Native Americans and all that. Yeah. Just change the name. Big deal. Change the name.”
“Have you always thought this, or is it maybe just recently that you kind of came to that conclusion, that opinion?” Mahler said.
“No, I think I’ve always felt that way,” Holmgren said. “You know, I’m an old history teacher. And I think if you read enough of that stuff and you see how people were treated, I think it’s the right thing to do. Now, apparently 50 Senators also agree with me.”
While Holmgren doesn’t believe the 50 Senators will influence Commissioner Roger Goodell, Holmgren thinks that Congress can get the NFL’s attention by threatening the league’s broadcast antitrust exemption. If a serious threat to the NFL’s ability to sell TV rights not team-by-team but in a bundle ever arises due to the name of one of the teams, that name will change faster than you can say George Preston Marshall.