Activist group executes stunt changing Washington nickname to 'Redhawks'
One of the major talking points in sports media Wednesday was what appeared to be an elaborate hoax - that the Washington Redskins had changed their name to the "Redhawks."
The hoax surfaced with fabricated news releases from fake ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and Washington Redhawks outlets.
There's an elaborate hoax going around about the Washington Redskins changing their name to the Redhawks. Someone made fake WaPo, ESPN, SI and Bleacher Report pages for it (the urls are all wrong) pic.twitter.com/KoadRYdwjX
— Eric Morrow (@morroweric) December 13, 2017
It turns out the stunt wasn't simply a hoax, but a planned move by Native advocates "Rising Hearts" to try and get the name changed to "Redhawks" permanently.
"We created this action to show the NFL and the Washington Football franchise how easy, popular and powerful changing the name could be," Rebecca Nagle of Cherokee Nation said in a statement. "What we're asking for changes only four letters. Just four letters! Certainly the harm that the mascot does to Native Americans outweighs the very, very minor changes the franchise would need to make."
Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and the team have come under fire in recent years for their refusal to change the name despite complaints from various Native American groups. Despite the protests, Snyder has been unwilling to change the nickname, telling ESPN it means, "honor, respect."
The group behind the stunt plans on holding a press conference Thursday afternoon to further discuss the matter.