Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman does not believe the NFL would act as decisively as the NBA if a team owner were caught making racist comments. Sherman cited the controversial name of the football team in the nation's capital as evidence that the NFL would not have issued a lifetime ban to a team owner caught making bigoted remarks like those that earned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling exile from the NBA.
"No I don’t," Sherman responded when asked by Sean Gregory of Time.com if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would react to an owner's racist comments like NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. "Because we have an NFL team called the Redskins. I don’t think the NFL really is as concerned as they show. The NFL is more of a bottom line league. If it doesn’t affect their bottom line, they’re not as concerned."
The outspoken Stanford University graduate told Time.com that he hopes Sterling's lifetime ban from the NBA will help get the discussion about changing the Redskins name started again. Ever since Silver announced the punishment for Sterling, some have tried to start the conversation surrounding the name change.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) urged the NFL last week to respond to racism like the NBA did and force Redskins owner Dan Snyder to change the team name.
"I wonder today ... how the leadership of the National Football League, the NFL, that money-making machine -- I wonder if they have taken notice of the NBA's decisive action," Reid said. "How long will the NFL continue to do nothing, zero, as one of its teams bears a name that inflicts so much pain on Native Americans?"
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who helped the NBA players' union during the Sterling scandal, also joined the conversation. The former NBA player thinks a new name for the Washington football team "should strongly be considered."