Washington Redskins

The Washington Redskins announced the franchise is officially going to change its name to the Washington Football Team, pending adoption of a new name. The decision to use 'Washington Football Team' for the 2020 season is to give the franchise some time to undertake an in-depth branding process to properly include player, alumni, fan, community, and sponsor input.

The Redskins name and logo will officially be retired by the start of the 2020 season.

Washington Redskins team staffers have been accused of sexual harassment and verbal by 15 former female employees and two journalists. The Washington Post reported Thursday that Richard Mann II made sexual comments to a female employee. He was fired last week. Also a video of Larry Michael, former senior VP of content, appeared where he talked about the attractiveness of a college intern. He retired on Wednesday. The Washington Redskins have hired attorney Beth Wilkinson and launched an internal investigation.

After years of pressure from both Native American leaders and major retail brands, the Washington Redskins American football team announced it would retire "the Redskins name and logo upon completion of a review." The use of the term "redskin", considered a slur against Native Americans, has long been seen as controversial but it has taken major sponsors such FedEx, Pepsi and Nike to threaten to pull funding for the team to take action.

"Dan Snyder and Coach Rivera are working closely to develop a new name and design approach that will enhance the standing of our proud, tradition rich franchise and inspire sponsors, fans and community for the next 100 years," so the team's statement published on Twitter.

Adweek reported Wednesday that Washington Redskins' sponsors FedEx, Nike and PepsiCo received letters signed by more than 80 investment firms and shareholders asking the companies to sever ties with the team unless it changes its controversial name.

FedEx, which holds the naming rights for the NFL team stadium, told in a statement: "We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name,".

Nike, on Thursday night, appeared to remove all Redskins gear from its online store but declined to comment about it.