Washington's team name focus of controversy

As the NFL season gets underway, football won't be the only thing taking up the radio airwaves.

Over the weekend, a 60 second spot paid for by the 'Change the Mascot' campaign will be heard on radio stations in our area. It asks fans to stop promoting a 'dictionary-defined racial slur against Native Americans.'

Joel Barkin, VP of Communication for 'Change the Mascot,' said, "Washington plays Houston this weekend so we wanted to take that opportunity to educate those Houston fans as to why this name still needs to be changed to something else."

The new ad comes on the heels of a letter sent to nationwide radio and TV broadcasters, including Eyewitness News. It urges those in the media to stop using the Washington mascot name-the redskins calling it a disparaging racial slur.

"No newscaster in the world would use common slurs and this has to be added to that lexicon of words that we don't say on the air," said Martin Cominsky with the Anti-Defamation League.

Cominsky believes the name change is long overdue. Earlier this year, he helped lead the charge locally as HISD considered and ultimately voted to retire mascot names including the redskins from four of their schools.

"A word that is offensive that really labels and stereotypes a group of Native Americans is really unfair use of their name," he added.

Fans we talked to say they didn't care either way.

The Houston Texans have said they will follow the NFL's lead and refer to the team as the Washington Redskins. Eyewitness News, which has been contacted by the campaign, has decided to call the team 'Washington.'