The pressure from the business world led to the Washington NFL team retiring its offensive nickname. Now, there are reports from North of the border the CFL team in Edmonton will follow suit.
While Edmonton has not confirmed anything, and as recently as July 3, said it would keep its nickname, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported a change is coming possibly as soon as next week.
A spokeswoman for the Edmonton club, though, said the team had no update Friday. Pressure has mounted in recent weeks for sports teams to eliminate racist or stereotypical names.
The CFL season, meanwhile, has been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its status is uncertain for 2020. It is unclear when Edmonton would play its first game with a new name, if the change goes through.
There have been repeated calls in the past for the Edmonton team to change its name.
Canada’s national Inuit organization in 2015 said it was time for a change.
“It isn’t right for any team to be named after an ethnic group,” said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which represents Canada’s 60,000 Inuit. Obed has said that Inuit people are not mascots.
Although American Inuit continue to use the word Eskimo, Canada’s northern people left that name behind about the same time they began negotiating their land claim in the 1970s.
Aaron Paquette, a city councillor in Edmonton, tweeted that he met with the CFL club on Thursday and, was “very impressed with the potential coming out of our conversation.”
I had an extremely productive meeting with #Yeg’s own football team today after they accepted my invitation to share ideas & perspectives
I was very impressed with the potential coming out of our conversation.
I can’t say any more but we’ll see what develops.#yegcc #CFL
— Aaron Paquette (@Ward4Aaron) July 16, 2020
Insurance provider Belair Direct said last week it is rethinking its premier partnership with the team. A spokeswoman said the company “will need to see concrete action in the near future, including a commitment to a name change.”
Boston Pizza, another sponsor, said “as part of a larger shift in our overall marketing strategy, Boston Pizza recently ended its sponsorship of Edmonton’s CFL team.” It tweeted the statement as a response to someone asking about whether it plans to follow the lead of Belair Direct.
A former club executive believes current management knows what it has to do.
“I am so proud that I took the initiative to launch consultations with the Inuit, I felt it was very important for me to head north to experience the culture firsthand,” former club president Len Rhodes, who accompanied the team contingent on various visits to the Canadian North beginning in 2018, told Postmedia on Friday. “It was one of the most enlightening experiences in my entire life. The trips that I made were important steps in building a long-term relationship based in respect and understanding. Inuit are very respectful people. I met with cultural, business and political leaders in Inuvik, Yellowknife, Iqaluit, and Ottawa. I spent time speaking with people everywhere.
“The decision is now one that is in the hands of the organization. I have the confidence that they will make the right one. The team has always been a community leader.”