Here’s something I had never considered. Apparently, you can’t trademark something that is considered a derogatory slur. Some clever folks realized that they could use this fact to try to force the Washington Redskins to change their name. If they can get the court to agree that “Redskins” is a derogatory slur, then the owner Dan Snyder wouldn’t be able to control the name and brand of his team anymore.
Snyder, who is the worst owner in football, says that he will never change the name of the team. He says he won’t change it even if he loses this trademark battle in court. I don’t believe him. He might hold out for a while, but the league honchos and other owners would bring him to heel.
I think the name should be changed, but I hope the team can retain its link to Native Americans in a way that honors them rather than insults them. The Dallas and Washington rivalry should retain its Cowboys and Indians character.
Bring to heel, like a dog. Not heal, like a doctor.
It’s tough out there for a blogger. You’ve got a hard road to ho’.
Homonyms never plagued me until I reached my 40’s.
Really?
Like what: The Cowboys could change their name to The Cavalry, and then ride into the home of the Washington Football Team and slaughter the women and children?
I never expect you to mythologize the brutal and genocidal history of native peoples in this land.
A good name would be the DC Piscataways.
Something that at least acknowledges they existed.
or reserved the Washington Warriors name as a backup plan. It is likely that they can adopt that name without changing their logo or uniforms. And the rivarly with the Cowboys would retain the Cowboy and Indian flavor.
Miami University in Ohio had the team representative Miami Indian, and they were called the Miami Redskins. While I was a student there, the mascot student wore an authentic Miami war costume, and studied with a panel of the existing Miami tribe to learn the tribal dance. It was all very respectful; we never had a “tomahawk chop” or cartoon Indian.
A few years after I graduated, the Miami tribed pulled their sanction and the Redkins became the Redhawks. No big deal.
And why should the Washington-Dallas rivalry maintain the cultural mythology of the mid-twentieth century? A mythology that coincided with McCarthyism. A mythology that bases itself on a history of genocide?
Why can’t they do like the Green Bay Packers, base the mascot on the local industry: the Washington Lobbyists.
When the Expos moved to Washington that was the exact name I suggested – I wanted the most fear-inspriring name possible. My second choice was the Kickbacks.
When the Washington Bullets changed their name, I wanted the Washington Fatcats. Picture a grinning cartoon cat that looks a little like FDR in the famous Inauguration Day photo.
Go ‘Cats!
Shades of the Stanford Robber Barons (proposed by the student body in the early 1970s to replace the nickname “Indians” – not surprisingly not supported by the administration or alumni).
I didn’t know about that bit of history; I just read up on it a bit. . Thanks. I live and work in the shadow of the Cardinal.
And tomorrow is the PowWow.
That’s a clever stunt.
If it works, does that make in incumbent upon progressives to manufacture and sell unauthorized gear emblazoned with the word “Redskins” in order to make Snyder feel the pinch in his wallet?
I like the suggested method of forcing change. Especially since the national media punditry has basically decided that anyone who thinks Redskins is derogatory or should be changed is just another DFH like those who opposed the Iraq War, torture, austerity, or global warming.
But I have to pick on a couple points:
who is the worst owner in football
Were that it were true. The Ford family, Mike Brown, and Jerry Jones all make good competition, for different reasons. True, Snyder does come up with especially horrible ways to fleece his loyal ticket buyers – something Brown and Ford don’t do because they don’t have such a loyal base – but Jones deserves a special place in hell for some of his special deals. The funny thing in the NFL is that every team lucks into the playoffs every now and again so you can judge “worst owner” based solely on team record.
The Dallas and Washington rivalry should retain its Cowboys and Indians character. Others have correctly asked why. Why do we want to celebrate this “character”? If we do I have some other ideas. We could restart the European American Football League and have, oh, I dunno, the Berlin Nazis. That would certainly generate some rivalry interest in games with teams in other countries! Or perhaps we could have the Carolina Slaveowners in a great rivalry against the Atlanta Blackskins? What character!
Beyond that, why the hell is there a Dallas-Washington rivalry anyway? Yes, they were stuck in the same division, mostly by accident, about 35 years ago. For reasons still not clear to me Dallas and the St Louis Cardinals were put in the east while Atlanta and New Orleans were stuck in the West. Yes, Washington and Dallas were both good teams for a lot of years so there was pressure to keep them in the same division during the reorganization in 2002, but c’mon, they now have something like 1 playoff win each over the last 15 years. Dallas no more belongs in the east than Tampa Bay belonged in the North.
I am an American Indian and the name offends me. The name "warriors" would also offend me. White people always envision American Indians as violent when all we did is try to protect our homeland.
Just as aside, is it more respectful or more qdisrespectful to continue to name US Army helicopters after Native American tribes?
Iroquois, Blackhawks, Apache, Chinook, Comanche,Cheyenne, Kiowa, etc.
Don’t forget what Charley Dryden said about the 1909 Washington Senators–First in war, first in peace, last in the American League.