Let me be clear…. I hate the Redskins with the intensity of a thousand white hot suns. I hate Dan Snyder. I hate RGIII. I hate Mike Shanahan. I hate Joe Gibbs. I hate Joe Theismann. I hate Sonny Jurgensen. I hate Billy Kilmer. I hate RFK Stadium. I hate the Hogs. I hate their dumb fight song. I even hate Doug Williams. Yes I HATE DOUG WILLIAMS. The only Redskins that are a notch above co*ksucker to me are John Riggins, and Jack Kent Cooke, the former just a good ole boy that speaks his mind, and the latter maybe the greatest sports franchise owner that ever lived. If he still owned the club none of this name change bullshit would have life.
The elephant in the room is the utter disdain and contempt people have for the current Redskins owner Dan Snyder. In the spring of 2013 he came out and said he would “never change the name.” Yes, it was a brash statement but he was only saying what every football LOVER or intelligent person was thinking. It would be stupid to change the name of a 1.1 billion dollar business; a business with supreme name recognition and, who holds a monopoly in the Mid-Atlantic part of the country, just to appease drive-by fans. I’m the first to admit you’d be hard pressed to find 10 people that really like Dan Snyder, but is that reason enough to go after his team, the city’s team?
To a lesser extent social media is driving this stupidity. Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, make it so convenient for dummies to press a button and register their dumb thoughts. No time for logic, nuance, balance; clicks and page views are more important than prudence, and judgment. People under 30 probably think this is the first time the question of name change has ever come up. I’m 41 and I remember at least 3 times the winds blew for name change in DC. Real journalist, real thinkers, real intelligence weighed in every time and every time the name was kept. We weren’t savages in the 80’s and 90’s. Political correctness was around. There was sensitivity to the matter, but at the end of the day the name stayed. Now I’m hearing its “inevitable” “a matter of time” that the name will change. How can this be? People in 2013 are not wiser than people from 1983. In fact the very opposite is true.
I hate the Nigger argument. You know the one where a white man says “What if the team was named the Washington Niggers” how would people feel then? They say this as if Redskin and Nigger are fungible terms, as if they are synonyms. Really think about it; have you ever heard someone being called Redskin in a derogatory/racist way?
The hypocrisy of it all is so mind-blowing. You have sports writers like Peter King, Mike Wise, and Bill Simmons refusing to use the full name of the team. These people have lived off the tit of sports their entire adult lives. Listen don’t fall for the banana in the tailpipe. Wise is a fading voice in the DC markets and needed something to make him relevant. Simmons wants to be en vogue because the dumb young people on twitter think the name should change. But I’m most disappointed in King. A guy that was the beat reporter for the NY Giants for years, covered the NFC East for decades. Wrote about all the epic battles between the Giants and Redskins in the 80’s and 90’s never said boo shit about the name being offensive, but now in 2013 when he launches his new MMQB website he decides it’s the time to take a piss on the one that brought that him to the dance. I hate parasites, but there is a special place reserved in hell for parasites that act like they hate the organism that they feed off. Ironically I was watching PTI a few months back during the launch of MMQB.com and Tony called the site MMQB.com, and King corrected him and said it was actually “theMMQB.com”. He corrected him because A NAME is fu*king important!
The Redskins are a flagship member of the NFL. They are only 2nd to the Cowboys in franchise value. They have rabid fan support and their team has won 3 Superbowls. It’s not like you’re asking the Jacksonville Jaguars to change their name. It’s the fu*king Redskins for Christ sake.
The other argument that dummies bring up is public funding. How can a team that takes public funding have a racial slur in the name? First of all I’m still not sure Redskin is a slur, and secondly, the people saying this need to grow up. Tax breaks are given to every major company that is vital to the community it’s located in; see Nike, Lockheed Martin, Google, Ford, and Coke. This is the American way. Job/Commerce creators get perks. It’s that simple. Bank of America, FedEx, Toyota, are all lining up to be in business with the Redskins. Do you think that would be the case if the team was called the Niggers?
Look there are a lot of names I hate, like stupid made-up names that parents give their children, but at the end of the day I respect their right to ruin their child’s life. Where is the uproar against the Blue Devils by religious folks, where is the outrage about the Saints by atheist, where is the disdain for Pirates that rape, pillage, and steal. Fake outrage can be manufactured for just about any one of those teams.
I love football. I’m of the opinion like GOD if football didn’t exist, it would have had to be invented. Stop this madness. Don’t let drive-by fans who really don’t care decide the name of the Washington Football Team. Just please…please leave the Redskins alone.
