The Washington football team has hired McGuireWoods Consulting, a K Street NW lobbying firm, to defend the team’s controversial name, according to a recently filed lobbying disclosure form. 

The new lobbyists were hired shortly after 50 Democratic senators sent a letter urging the National Football League to declare its support of a name change. (And the team’s subsequent disastrous PR campaign responding to the letter.)

According to the filing, first reported by Politico, the lobbying firm will work on issues related to “discussions of team origins, history and traditions, Washington [Pigskins] Charitable Foundation and youth sports, [and] activities of Original Americans’ Foundation.”

McGuire Woods aren’t the first spin masters on Dan Snyder‘s payroll: Democratic operative Lanny Davis and Republican pollster Frank Luntz are already working on the team’s image and Snyder’s quest to “NEVER” change the team’s name from a word that dictionaries define as “usually offensive.”

Photo by Darrow Montgomery