NFL faces pressure from Congress to change Redskins’ name
Source: Washington Post
Two members of Congress have written a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell urging Goodell and the league to take a formal position in support of a name change by the Washington Redskins.
The letter by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Ok.) is to be sent Monday to Goodell.
The NFL can no longer ignore this and perpetuate the use of this name as anything but what it is: a racial slur, Cantwell and Cole write in the letter. It is clear that you havent heard the leading voices of this country and not just Indian Country. Virtually every major civil rights organization in America has spoken out in opposition to this name including the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, the Rainbow Coalition and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
The letter mentions the leagues tax-exempt status and says the league is on the wrong side of history. It is not appropriate for this multibillion dollar
tax-exempt organization to perpetuate and profit from the continued degradation of tribes and Indian people. It is time for the National Football League to formally support and push for a name change for the Washington football team.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/football-insider/wp/2014/02/09/nfl-faces-pressure-from-congress-to-change-redskins-name/
From changethemascot.org
Doc_Technical
(3,526 posts)The question is, what name should take its place.
Seeing that this is Washington D.C. I recommend that
the team should be called, "The Kickbacks."
olddad56
(5,732 posts)Wolf Frankula
(3,600 posts)Who can object to a potato?
Wolf
christx30
(6,241 posts)I have trouble digesting starches.
giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)kwassa
(23,340 posts)The Washington Redskins are clearly cursed. Nothing has worked so far.
I think the curse is the toxic owner, however. Until he sells the team, which he will never do, because it makes him a lot of money. We are stuck for many, many years.
missingfink
(174 posts)of the team to the D.C. Redskins. Keep the pressure on this guy & he will fold.
MindMover
(5,016 posts)they will do it and you will pay to see them play ...
and cmon please, give me some more publicity by asking me to change my name ....
lib87
(535 posts)The original owner of the team was a segregationist and straight racist so the name was not one of endearment towards Native Americans. Synder and his team know this and don't care.
Change the name Snyder!
olddad56
(5,732 posts)bkanderson76
(266 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)For a quick recap:
The defunct Newark Tornadoes were sold to several investors to start a football franchise in Boston. The Boston (baseball) Braves (now the Atlanta Braves) were at the time the oldest professional sports team in the country and the football team was leasing stadium use from them (that stadium is now the amphitheater in Boston University's west campus and hosts its soccer and field hockey teams -- BU hasn't fielded a football team in over a decade because of one of the most petty and vindictive attempts to escape the spirit of Title IX in collegiate athletic history). To aid with marketing tie-ins, the football team called themselves the Boston (football) Braves (a similar thing happened with the New York Giants and the San Francisco (né New York) Giants).
After a few years, the (baseball) Braves wanted more money, and the football team didn't want to pay. So they joined up with an upstart new baseball team in Boston known as the "Red Stockings" (actually I think they were officially "Sox" by then; I'm just making a point) and agreed to play in their state-of-the-art new stadium, "Fenway Park". Obviously at this point the name "Braves" wouldn't be a good marketing tie-in, so they chose "Redskins". Red Sox, Redskins. And they could keep their logo. There were complaints even at the time.
Before anybody says anything along these lines: William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz, while one of the greatest football coaches in US history and justly a recent inductee into the Football Hall of Fame, was not Native American. The question of "who is and isn't Indian" is thorny, but the National Congress of American Indians, who at least in principle actually gets to adjudicate this question (on advisement from the various national councils), has ruled the answer is definitively "no".
The name "Redskins" was chosen as an ad-hoc marketing gimmick for a particular commercial relationship between the Redskins and the Red Sox that hasn't been operative for almost 80 years now. The rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys postdates the naming by three decades. (Ironically, George Preston Marshall was the most vocal opponent of the NFL expansion that led to the creation of the Cowboys, although that rivalry wound up being the most lucrative in American sports history.) It was not an attempt to honor Native Americans. It wasn't even an intentional attempt to slur them. It was just an attempt to tie in marketing efforts with their landlords.
The name was changed for marketing reasons once; it should be again. However, it will not be as long as it remains profitable to its sociopathic owner, Dan Snyder. I find it incredibly troubling that between Marshall and Snyder, I honestly can't decide which one is a worse person. And Marshall left money in his will with the stipulation that it can't ever be used for any racially-integrated charity.
I am a die-hard fan of Washington DC football, and I don't use my own team's name. I love football. I think (properly managed, particularly along the lines of Green Bay) it's an economic boon, as well as a great chance to see athletic excellence. It was also a key way a lot of my friends could pay for college (I grew up in the SEC). I'm going to leave the head injury issue aside for a second, though that needs to be addressed, yesterday, because that's somewhat tangential here. I just feel the need to keep making this point:
The name "Redskins" was chosen because of a commercial relationship with the "Red Sox", in a time when sensitivity about racial slurs was scandalously less than it is now. That is what it is. But the past does not excuse the present. I love this team and cheer for this team, and wish they had a name I could use when they cheer for them. The name is younger than the team. The name is older than the lucrative rivalry (and the alluringly appropriate "Bandits", as in "Beltway Bandits", works just as well against "Cowboys", as does "Rustlers", and for that matter as does "Federals" or "Marshals" . But I also have trouble believing that if we changed the name even to something unrelated that the rivalry would disappear, since we're still both in the NFC East and the Eagles-Giants rivalry is almost as longstanding.
But let's even say that a renaming would destroy the rivalry. Guess what? The Cowboys were 8-8 this season. Washington was 3-13. That's no longer a rivalry. Washington's football team has been too comfortable for too long, and hasn't had to produce the kind of results a professional sports organization in any sane system would be called upon to produce.
Yes, obviously in any league there will be winners and losers, but when a team with one of the largest revenue streams in the league can't at least consistently deliver a winning season, something is broken.
Hell, for that matter, don't rename the team: dissolve it. Have the rest of the League pay Snyder out, ban him from ever owning a football team again, and reconstitute a team in either DC or the Virginia or MD suburbs (I prefer DC; and for that matter I prefer "The DC Federals" or "The DC Bullets", which I think our basketball team should go back to).
Anyways, sorry, just had to get that sports geekery off my chest, because there's so much simply factually wrong crap being spread out there by Snyder apologists.
Wash. state Desk Jet
(3,426 posts)thanx for posting .
Recursion
(56,582 posts)I think English football has this right, ultimately.
Wash. state Desk Jet
(3,426 posts)The Buffalo Bison's an old farm team baseball ,why back when and than of course the Buffalo Bill's. Gotta go for history !
Oh and , of course it's long over due for a name change .
Very good geekery, indeed!
Give the team a name that fans can cheer.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)given on the Friday before Super Bowl, here's the response from the Oneida Indian Nation:
It is deeply troubling that with the Super Bowl happening on lands that once were home to Native Americans, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would suggest that the dictionary-defined R-word racial slur against Native Americans is somehow a sign of honor. Commissioner Goodell represents a $9-billion brand with global reach, yet insists that it is somehow no big deal that his league uses those vast resources to promote this slur. In the process, he conveniently ignores all the social science research showing that the NFLs promotion of this offensive word has serious cultural and psychological effects on native peoples. Worse, he cites the heritage of the teams name without mentioning that the name was actually given to the team by one of Americas most famous segregationists, George Preston Marshall. Mr. Goodell also seems unaware that the R-word is an epithet that was screamed at Native Americans as they were forced at gunpoint off their lands. The fact that Mr. Goodell doesnt seem to know any of this or is deliberately ignoring it suggests that for all his claims to be listening, he apparently isnt listening at all.
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/01/31/3233961/goodell-redskins-honor-native-americans/
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)is also offensive.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I won't hold my breath on those.
former9thward
(31,997 posts)The League is and it is a separate entity from the teams. The League loses money every year and would not pay taxes no matter what their tax status was.
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)He could recall all the old T-shirts/jerseys/caps/coffee mugs etc. and change the name to something honorable. Then sell the old "legacy" merchandise at 10 times the price to the racist collectors that want to keep it. Subtract the cost of the name change from those profits and give the rest as college scholarships to native american students. He would look good and everyone would come out happy.
CFLDem
(2,083 posts)to a red potato and be done with it.
It's even PETA approved!
olddad56
(5,732 posts)olddad56
(5,732 posts)a name change for this team is long over do.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Congress, get out of sports and get into helping this country....
countryjake
(8,554 posts)who SHE represents, that issues which concern them are of no importance?
They should just get over it and accept that vile racist slurs are what they must expect as citizens of this nation?
Bullshit!