As NFL Season Kicks Off Tonight, Norton Introduces Bill to Strip NFL of Its Antitrust Exemption for Use of Washington Football Team Name

Statement

Today, on the first day of the National Football League (NFL) season, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced a bill to prohibit the NFL from receiving an exemption from federal antitrust laws as long as it allows the Washington football team to use the term "Redskins." In July, a federal judge upheld last year's decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board that the Washington football team's name, "Redskins," is disparaging to Native Americans and is therefore ineligible for federal trademark registration.

"The National Football League, a multi-billion dollar industry, and the Washington football team should not be benefitting financially from federal antitrust exemptions while they continue to promote a disparaging moniker that has been found by legal authorities to be a racial slur," Norton said. "The name of the nation's capital, Washington, should always be associated with pride, not with a moniker that mocks and insults Native Americans. Changing the name is not a question of if, but when. The sooner Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league's 31 other team owners get on the right side of the law and of history and use their leadership, the sooner Washington's football team will cease being an embarrassment to the league and to the country."

Last year, Norton introduced a bill to prohibit tax-exempt status of professional sports leagues that promote or allow a member club or franchise connected to that league to benefit from the term "Redskins." The Norton bill helped pressure the NFL into ultimately giving up its tax-exempt status voluntarily earlier this year. Norton's bill was the House companion bill to Senator Maria Cantwell's (D-WA) bill. In 2013, Norton and nine other members of Congress sent letters to Goodell, team owner Daniel Snyder, the 31 other NFL franchises, and Washington football team sponsor FedEx, urging a change in the team name.

The Norton bill would make all antitrust laws applicable to professional sports leagues that use, or promote or allow members teams or franchises to use, the term "Redskins."

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