NCAI wrote a letter, set to arrive Wednesday, to Smith, asking for his help in getting the team to drop its name. Smith is a partial owner of the NFL team, and FedEx currently owns the naming rights of FedEx Field where the Redskins play. By targeting Smith, the NCAI is expanding its efforts beyond the National Football League franchise to now include the team’s corporate sponsors.
“At FedEx Field, your company is allowing its iconic brand to be used as a platform to promote the R-word — a racist epithet that was screamed at Native Americans as they were dragged at gunpoint off their lands,” NCAI writes in its letter, which was obtained by USA TODAY Sports. “FedEx’s brand is being leveraged to promote some of the most divisive messages ever conceived — the messages of segregation and hate.”
