Blog: Former Redskins player wants Indians to change name

While the current round of Redskins name-change stories may have run its course, I promised several readers that I would be as aggressive in recording defenses of the team name as I was in recording attacks on the team name.

And so: Jeff Bostic. The longtime Hog — one of the greatest offensive linemen in team history — was playing in Mark Rypien’s charity poker tournament on Thursday when Jake Russell asked about the team name issue.

“Let’s get down to the core. This is a game,” Bostic told Russell. “Everybody we’re talking about is a sports organization. It’s a team. It’s a game. They’re nothing more than mascots. That’s all we’re trying to represent. Good bad and indifferent, the Redskins have had that identity since 1937 so it’s been there for a long time. Why don’t we change the name of the Indians? Why don’t we call them ‘The First People That Inhabited America’ and take the Indian out? And then we won’t have any conflict. How do we always go to the organization and tell them to change? Why don’t you tell the people to change?”