Washington's Merchandise Sales Are Down 35 Percent

According to a service that tracks the sales of NFL merchandise, nobody wants to own Redskins-branded apparel anymore.

SportsSourceOne compared Washington's sales over the most recent quarter to those from the same time period last year, and found that sales have dropped 35 percent, despite the fact that there was a three percent spike in overall NFL merchandise sales. An analyst from SportsSourceOne spoke to CNN and attributed the drop to fans becoming increasingly fed up with the team's racist name:

"People are having a second thoughts about wearing a T-shirt with the logo or name that it has now been called racist," said Matt Powell, senior analyst for SportsSourceOne.

It's likely that the increasing shift in public opinion has something to do with the drop, but it would be dumb to assume that this is the only reason nobody is buying jerseys anymore. For one, there's the fact that Washington went 3-13 last season, and at this time last year the D.C. area was still in the midst of RGIII mania, which no doubt moved a lot of jerseys. Powell also admitted that the Ravens suffered an even bigger drop in sales, but attributed that to the team's disappointing season following a surge in sales fueled by a Super Bowl victory. If there's one thing we know for sure, it's that NFL fans hate losing much more than they do racism.

[ CNN]