Burgundy and hold: What's next for the RFK stadium site bill?

WASHINGTON — Coming off Thursday night’s loss in front of 65,000 raucous Philadelphia Eagles fans, the Washington Commanders may face an even more unreceptive crowd in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The panel is slated to consider a host of bills Tuesday, including one that would grant the District of Columbia a 99-year lease for the old Robert F. Kennedy Stadium site, which is owned by the National Park Service.

Some hope such a plan could be a first step toward luring the Washington football team back within city limits after three decades in Landover, Md. But at least one senator on the committee is unimpressed.

Republican Steve Daines of Montana took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to signal his continued willingness to block the bill, which passed the House in February.

At issue is the Commanders’ logo. Washington dropped its old name, the Redskins, in 2020 after years of pressure from those who consider the term a racial slur, as well as corporate sponsors. The team also stopped using its old logo depicting the profile of a Native American man.

That logo was designed with the help of Walter “Blackie“ Wetzel, a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana who served as the tribe’s chairman. It is based on an image of Blackfeet Chief Two Guns White Calf, and Wetzel, who died in 2003, felt it honored him. On behalf of Wetzel’s family, Daines has been fighting for the NFL and the Commanders to do more to recognize his legacy.

“I’m not the first senator to come to this floor to draw attention to Washington’s football franchise or make demands in the context of extending the lease for RFK Stadium. Sens. Harry Reid and Ben Nighthorse Campbell, among others, used this platform to demand that the team change its name,” Daines said on the floor Wednesday. “Well, today, on behalf of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana, and no doubt with the support of millions of football fans across the country, I come to the Senate floor to say our culture overcorrected in 2020. The NFL overcorrected. The team’s previous ownership overcorrected. Sponsors overcorrected.”

Like the Commanders after Eagles running back Saquon Barkley scored a second touchdown in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s game, time is rapidly running short for any legislative push. With Republicans set to control Congress and the White House next year, Senate Democrats are rushing to confirm as many nominees as possible in the lame duck session. In theory, the RFK bill could quickly sail through the Senate floor, but that would require unanimous consent, meaning any one senator could block it. And its chances of hitching a ride on a larger package are unclear.

The legislation had been set for a Senate markup earlier this fall, but the committee postponed it until now.

In response to the effort that Daines and others have made, the Commanders unveiled a plaque honoring Wetzel in September, which the senator praised on Wednesday. But he also said that gesture wasn’t enough.

“The National Football League and the Washington Commanders must do more to honor the Commanders’ Native American heritage as powerfully symbolized by the team’s former iconic logo. And they must commit to never again censor or degrade it,” Daines said.

Daines did not specify exactly what actions he’d like the league or team to take, but did “strongly encourage” letting the team sell vintage merchandise with the old logo and allowing players to sport it on throwback uniforms.

Daines’ office did not respond to a request for further comment, and the Washington Commanders declined to comment.

RFK Stadium hosted Washington’s NFL games until 1996, when the team moved to its current home in Landover. D.C.’s current lease for the site expires in 2038. Any plans for a new stadium to replace the rusting eyesore on the Anacostia River, which is already cleared for demolition, are a nonstarter unless Congress extends that timeframe, while also adding the option of commercial and residential development.

Even if the bill passed, it’s not guaranteed that the city would use it for another stadium. While Mayor Muriel Bowser supports repatriating the Commanders, other local officials are leery of using public tax dollars to subsidize a stadium, and point to the city’s needs for more housing and public space as better uses for the land.

Daines’ grandstanding has frustrated Paul Strauss, one of D.C.’s shadow senators.

“Nobody seems to know what he’s really getting at except that he wants the old racist logo used again, which they’re not going to do because that’s not their name anymore,” Strauss said, adding that D.C.’s autonomy is caught in the middle of the dispute. “The city can’t do anything about a private logo.”

Daines might not be the only senator standing in the way, Strauss said. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has reportedly drafted an amendment that could force the District to pay a huge sum, which Strauss derided as unfortunate political football. “As we understand it, in conversations with his staff, there are a lot of people in Utah who have to pay to use federal land for various purposes, so he’s trying to make a point about parity,” Strauss said. “But there are really two different situations.”

Strauss also said he was unsure how the Maryland delegation, usually staunch supporters of D.C. self-governance in Congress, may approach the bill, given it could hurt their state’s chances of retaining the Commanders. House members from Maryland were vocally opposed when it passed that chamber in February.

Washington led the league in attendance for many years, even though the Landover site is relatively far from the metro area’s population center and lacks easy public transit. But under the management of owner Dan Snyder, who purchased the team in 1999, the once storied franchise fell into mediocrity. Fans stopped coming, and the team shuttered sections of the stadium, which started to deteriorate. Today, Northwest Stadium is considered one of the worst in the NFL, if not all professional American sports.

Washington started looking to move before Snyder sold the team in 2023, and the new ownership group continues to explore options. Bowser has made her hopes of repatriating the team no secret, while Virginians also see an opening and Maryland politicians have urged them to stay put. Without control of the RFK site, D.C. lacks a readily vacant location for a football stadium, as almost all of the District’s undeveloped space is held by the federal government or private entities.