The Washington Washington Football Team are one of the most beloved franchises of the National Football League, with a largely African-American fan base. Currently embroiled in a fight with prominent Native American groups over its racist nickname, the team’s past was also marked with controversy.
George Marshall was the founder and owner of the Washington Football Team, starting the team as the Boston Braves in Massachusetts in 1932. The team moved to Washington, D.C. in 1937 changing its name to the Washington Football Team just prior to the move. Black players were banned from playing in the NFL until 1946 when the league began signing individual Black players.
Marshall would have none of it, and was pegged by professor Charles Ross as the leading racist of the NFL. Marshall was staunch in his views, even stating that he’d sign Blacks as soon as the Harlem Globetrotters signed whites.
But everything changed for Marshall in 1962, when then Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered Marshall to sign a Black player or have the federal lease to the D.C. Stadium revoked.
Reluctantly, Marshall signed Syracuse University standout
Ernie Davis, who immediately asked to be traded.
Davis, who unfortunately died a short while later at age 23, was sent to the Cleveland Browns for standout wide receiver Bobby Mitchell. Mitchell starred for the team for seven seasons, then worked in the team’s front office from 1969 until 2002.
Ironically, the addition of Black players to the team bolstered its popularity in the league and that loyalty and legacy continues to this day. The Washington Football Team former home arena is named after Kennedy though the team currently plays in nearby Prince George’s County, Md.
Current team owner Dan Snyder, a White Jewish man, has resisted all efforts to change the Washington Football Team nickname.
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