http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2014-08-19/nfl-redskins-mike-ditka-name-debate-stupid-appalling-honor-pride

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ignorant on this subject.  Incredibly ignorant in fact.  

First let's deal with the name being in honor of Native Americans.  That is not true.  As originally founded, the team was founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves in large part due to sharing stadium with the then Boston Braves National League team (now the Atlanta Braves).  The Boston Braves baseball team, which had been called that since 1912 (previously called the Red Stockings, Red Caps, and Beaneaters) when then owner James Gaffney selected it.  Gaffney did not choose the name to honor Native Americans, or the Revolutionaries who dressed as such during the Boston Tea Party (which has often been the fable), he did so because he was a memeber of Tammany Hall in NY.  While I won't go into a lengthy discussion of Tammany Hall and its history, it took its name from Tamamend, a Lenape Chief, but the organization was not set-up for the benefit or admission of Native Americans (as we define them).  Gaffney gave the Braves a new logo, which was a Native American in headdress, similar to that of Tammany Hall.

When the Boston Braves football team played at Braves Field, it too assumed a Native American head logo for itself.  However, when the team moved from Braves Field to Fenway Park it could no longer use the Braves name but its owner, George Preston Marshall (a noted bigot), did not want to change the logo, so he merely changed to Redskins.  It coincided with the Red Sox who played at Fenway but also utilized a term long used (not in a positive manner) for Native Americans.  At the time though, we were clearly a much less aware nation than we are today (segreation was still alive and well, women had only had the vote for approximately 15 years, and we were still 9 years away from interning Japanese-Americans in camps).  Then, nobody really thought using an offensive term for Native Americans was such a bad thing.  Make not mistake though, George Preston Marshall, who only integrated his team when effectively forced to, did not select the name to honor Native Americans.  Nor was it to honor Native American players and coaches on his team at the time.  Indeed, Marshall himself explained as much in an AP story that the Hartford Courant ran in July of 1933:

So let's be clear here, the team name has NOTHING to do with honoring Native Americans.  It was originally selected by a devout segregationalist for economic convenience.  It was a disparaging name then, and is now.  Look in any dictionary and you will see that it is defined as a hateful slur.  Just like you probably wouldn't call an African-American a negro today, despite the use of that term 50-60 years ago, you sure would not call a Native American a Redskin today (I hope).

Now let's deal with the view that the team name has always been that.  As noted above, the team name has actually changed once before, so it hasn't "been the name of the team since the beginning of football." Second, if Ditka hasn't noticed, football in and of itself is different today than it was in 1933.  The game has evolved substantially.  To say that something is the way it has always been and therefore it shouldn't change is to bury ones head in the sand and ignore improvements and enhancements.  Football is a better game today than when the team took on this moniker and there is nothing wrong with the team name evolving too.