Maryland gubernatorial candidate Larry Hogan on Thursday said nobody should tell a storied business such as the Washington Redskins to change its long-held name and called opponent Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown a “hypocrite” for refusing to speak the name.
Mr. Hogan, a Republican, blasted Mr. Brown for claiming to take offense at the name and yet regularly attending Redskins games in the state’s skybox at FedEx Field.
“He’s a hypocrite,” he said. “Anthony Brown went to every game with lobbyists and people he was trying to impress and big donors. And they were all wearing Redskins hats and Redskins jackets. They were all eating and drinking on the taxpayers’ dime.”
“Now he refuses to call them the Redskins,” Mr. Hogan told The Washington Times editorial board. “He calls them ’the professional football team in Washington,’ while he wears his Redskins hat and coat and he goes to the games.”
The team’s name has come under fire for being offensive to Native Americans.
Mr. Brown, a Democrat, has called the name “inappropriate” and called on Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to change it.
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State records show that Mr. Brown used the skybox tickets to entertain business leaders, union officials, state lawmakers, lobbyists, friends and family, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The Brown campaign did not respond to Mr. Hogan’s criticism.
Mr. Hogan said the backlash against the Redskins name was “political pandering.”
“I like to call them the Washington Redskins and I don’t think the government has any business whatsoever trying to tell a private enterprise what they should call themselves. There used to be a thing called freedom of speech,” he said.
He added: “I also understand a lot of people are offended by the name but a lot of people are offended by Washington. Maybe they should drop that from the name.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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