WATCH: Native American NFL Player Backs Trump’s Name Change Push

Retired Washington Redskins star Jason Buck, a Native American, told TMZ Sports that he fully endorses President Donald Trump’s plan to restore the franchise’s old name after it was rebranded at the behest of woke activists.

The Redskins changed their name to the Washington Football Team in 2020 after years of pressure from left-wing activists, who claimed it was offensive to Native Americans. The name was eventually changed to the Washington Commanders and has remained as such for the past few seasons.

President Donald Trump is calling on the club to revert to its old name, however, and is planning to use the ongoing stadium negotiations to force a potential change.

Buck, who won a Super Bowl with the team in 1991, praised Trump’s plan to restore “common sense” while speaking with TMZ Sports. “It’s like your grandma passed away, and your grandpa marries a new woman, and she comes in and takes all the pictures out of the house and puts hers up,” he said of the name change.

“It’s like, you just lost your family. It was devastating to everybody.”

In a follow-up interview with Fox News, Buck described President Trump’s willingness to listen to his suggestions on restoring the old name. “Just to see him get involved in something like that is just fantastic for us. I’m not giving in the world to be able to meet with President Trump from the redskin side. I mean I’m a native Native American so I’m a real redskin and a proud one. I’d give anything in the world to be able to meet with President Trump from the redskin side,” he said.

“And a proud Washington redskin from the glory days of Joe Gibbs.”

He went on to describe the history behind the name and dispelled the notion that it was offensive to Native Americans. “It’s nuts. I say the redskin is our names. The first written record of the use of the word Redskin was from a Native American chief from the Illinois tribe, actually, Chief Mosquito, writing to a British military colonel, talking about us, the Redskins. And it’s just it’s our word,” Buck explained during an appearance on “Fox And Friends.”

“The European words are Indian and savage, and now indigenous. And, you know, we’re sick and tired of the intellectual elite at the top of the university towers, you know, like they’re all in their own little Hogwarts telling us what to do with our names. 70 to 90 percent of Native American Indians, wherever you go, love the name.”

A Washington Post poll from 2016 found that nine in ten Native Americans did not take offense to the team name. Despite this, the team name was changed by previous owner Dan Snyder during the George Floyd riots.

Current owner Josh Harris has stated that the team is not looking to revert to its old name. “The Commanders’ name actually has taken on an amazing kind of element in our building,” Harris said when asked about the matter by Fox News’ Bret Baier.

Buck was not satisfied with that answer, stating that it “breaks the hearts” of fans, alumni and Native Americans across the country. “When I played for the Redskins, people, Native Americans would find me in airports and everywhere fully dressed in Redskins gear getting autographs. I’ve never heard a negative word about it in my life, until the progressives got hold of it as a issue So no, we’re gonna stay with this and I’ll tell you the Native American, people all of those with common sense, just Americans that love America will fight for this even if we have to find other solutions.”

Commanders team owner Josh Harris previously joined Trump, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in the Oval Office when a deal was announced at the old RFK Stadium site earlier this year. Any final agreement would need to be approved by the D.C. City Council, while President Trump has expressed openness to stepping in if an agreement cannot be reached.

Trump has publicly indicated he might intervene if the D.C. Council blocks or delays the deal, citing federal leverage over the site. The stadium site was transferred from federal to D.C. control via the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act (H.R. 4984), signed into law by President Joe Biden on January 6, 2025, though Trump has cited residual federal authority.