By: Brianna Zhang

Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona believes the Indians should change their controversial name.

Francona said this two days after the Indians released a statement saying that they are “committed to engaging [their] community and appropriate stakeholders to determine the best path forward with regard to [their] team name.”

The announcement made by the team came two hours after the NFL’s Washington Redskins said that their name and logo would be going under review. Many sponsors of the franchise, including FedEx, urged the group to change their racially insensitive branding. Their coach, Ron Rivera, also gave his support for a name change.

In a Zoom meeting, Francona said that he will not avoid the subject of a name change for any longer. Since last year, the Chief Wahoo logo has been removed from jerseys and caps and the nickname may be gone soon as well.

“Even at my age, you don’t want to be too old to learn or to realize that, maybe I’ve been ignorant of some things, and to be ashamed of it, and to try to be better,” said Francona, currently 61-year-old. “I’m glad that we’re going to be open to listening, because I think that’s probably the most important thing right now, is being willing to listen, not necessarily just talk.”

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