Washington's NFL Team Dropping Redskins Name.
BLITZER: After mounting pressure and years of controversy, the NFL's Washington Redskins announced today they are dropping the team name and logo which so many people considered offensive to Native Americans. For more, let's bring in Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Costas. He's now a CNN contributor. Bob, how significant is it that after all of these years of pressure, the Redskins finally deciding to drop the name?</s>BOB COSTAS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, I think it is significant. I wish they had done it of their own accord instead of under all of this pressure from FedEx and Nike, Pepsi, and other entities. But I think they'll wind up in a very good place, Wolf. Ron Rivera who had been the long time coach of the Carolina Panthers is the new head coach of the Washington franchise and apparently even before FedEx and Nike and the others weighed in, he had made it clear to owner Daniel Schneider that he thought rebranding the team would be a good idea, and the best guess now, Wolf, is that the name they intend to use going forward is Red Tails. The reason we included that is that while they haven't announced the name yet Ron Rivera was quoted as saying we want to be sure it is something respectful to both Native American and the military. Red Tails as you know was the nickname of one of the units of the Tuskegee Airmen, the fabled World War II fighter pilots, African-Americans during a time when the military was still segregated and they painted the tails of their fighter planes red. They were nicknamed the red tails. So, this accomplishes a number of things. It rebrands the team. They can also keep their essential color scheme. It ties in with social justice at an appropriate time. I just wish they had come to this conclusion earlier.</s>BLITZER: How long do you think it will be before we see the new name, the new logo, we see it on jerseys and all that?</s>COSTAS: If they play in 2020 and that is a big if because of the implications of the pandemic but if they play in 2020, I think we'll see it then.</s>BLITZER: And how do you think it's going to be received by the players? So many have been advocating as we all know for racial justice in our country. Do they believe there's more that still needs to be done?</s>COSTAS: Well, of course they believe there is more work to be done overall, but I think among the players there will be significant approval of this change among long time Washington fans. I think there would be more acceptance than there was a few years ago but there will still be many, many hold outs whose only view of this, they can't see any of the other implications, they only see, this is my team. I root for my team. This has always been the name. I am not a racist. Don't insult me by saying so. I root for this team and leave me alone and leave the name alone. It is going to take a while before those people are convinced.</s>BLITZER: And does this put -- does this put added pressure, you know, Bob, on other teams, the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Blackhawks, to start considering changing their names as well?</s>COSTAS: You know, we talked about this last night, Wolf. I think that each of these has to be taken on a case by case basis. In some cases, in college sports, for example, the Florida State Seminoles have an arrangement with the Seminole Tribe. The Ute Tribe in Utah same thing, they approved of the symbols and the use of the name. So, I think we have to go case by case and as I said to you previously, the Redskins were always in a different category. Dictionary defined insult and slur. They were separate and apart from everything else and that name should have been gone a long time ago.</s>BLITZER: It's gone right now and we'll see what the new name is. Good reporting as usual, Bob Costas. Always appreciate you joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM. We'll have more news, more coronavirus news just ahead.