WASHINGTON — The NFL is now so willing to meet with a Native American group protesting the Redskins nickname that the league is trying to push up a scheduled get-together by more than a month and is open to traveling to the Oneida Indian Nation’s New York reservation instead, sources told The Post on Tuesday.
A group of league officials had planned to meet with the group Nov. 22 at the NFL’s Manhattan headquarters, but the issue of the Redskins’ name has picked up so much steam in recent weeks that the league has said it wants to meet before the end of the month.
A source also said it’s likely the meeting will take place at the Oneida Nation reservation in Central New York.
The NFL owners are meeting here Tuesday, but don’t plan to press Redskins owner Dan Snyder about his team’s name. However, commissioner Roger Goodell — after strongly defending the name earlier this year — now says the league is willing to listen to the protesters’ concerns.
That’s probably because the protesters are starting to pick up some powerful friends. President Obama weighed in on the issue last week, telling an interviewer he would consider changing the name if he owned the Redskins.
A group called “Change The Name,” which is running a national radio advertising campaign to build support, met here Monday at a hotel close to where the owners are gathering to plot strategy and call for the owners and the league to act.
The group was not much of a presence at the owners meeting, though. Just one protester showed up and was escorted out while tossing documents about the oppression of Indians.
In June, Post columnist Phil Mushnick wrote it was past time for Washington to change its nickname. Read his column here.