Washington Redskins Owner Dan Snyder Needs Help--and He's Getting It

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder is no stranger to being under fire from the press. Usually it is for his wild spending on free agents that never seem to pan out (right, Albert Haynesworth?), but lately it has been something that he had nothing to do with deciding.

His team's name--the Washington Redskins.

From advocacy groups to members of Congress he has come under a lot of fire to change the team's name.  Snyder has made his stance on the issue pretty clear, that it isn't going to happen (NEVER), but that hasn't stopped the critics from bashing him.

So he decided to enlist some help.

from @Redskins

He's hired a consultant.

Snyder has hired Luntz Global, the firm run by political consultant Frank Luntz, to help him figure out how to spin the controversy surrounding his team's name so that--well, it isn't a controversy anymore. A focus group has already been held (which paid people $100) to help get to the heart of what the perceived problem is.

Ummm...you don't already know what the issue is with the name? Don't you read the papers?

There has already been public support for Snyder to go ahead and keep the name as is which makes his decision to hire a consultant a little interesting. From a business standpoint, if the majority of people don't care then why bother?

It's not like the NFL could ever force him to change the name. According to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello:

"The league defends trademark matters on behalf of all clubs, per longstanding league rules and policies. There is no provision in league rules whereby the league could require a team to change its existing name."

So what's Snyder doing with a consultant?

One can only guess as to why he has hired Luntz. His franchise is one of the highest valued in the NFL ($1 billion) and with Robert Griffin III expected to take the team to new heights it is only going to become more valuable. Any controversy over the name of the team will do little if anything to derail that.

My only guess is that the billionaire owner of the team is concerned that the politicians-- who are possibly grandstanding themselves by speaking out against something they know will likely never change--might actually do something to affect his other business ventures (i.e. Dick Clark Productions, Red Zebra Broadcasting, and more).

But that means the politicians would be taking on other giants in those industries so that brings me back to the original question--

Why?