The skinny: amidst pressure from large corporate sponsors who have likely been pressured themselves by myriads of influences, the Washington Redskins have acquiesced to “thoroughly reviewing” the name of the franchise AKA changing the name may actually be happening after multiple decades
Pretty much my entire life after realizing that I was someone who enjoyed sports, the Washington Redskins have been under fire for their name. In all fairness, “Redskins” is probably the most offensive of names out in professional sports that borrow from Native American culture, because it’s basically the equivalent of if there were a team named after Africans called “Blackskins.”
But for all intents and purposes, the Redskins were the closest thing in my life I’d ever have to a home team, and when I was really started to develop interests in sports, the Washington Redskins were a powerhouse and were on the cusp of winning the 1992 Super Bowl. Fewer things make it easy to become a fan than immediate success, and seeing the Redskins topple the Buffalo Bills for a championship made it really easy to become a Redskins fan.
And through and through, I’d supported them throughout the passage of time, even through shit like Gus Frerotte injuring himself headbutting a wall, Adam Archuleta, being the team that broke the Detroit Lions’ winless streak, and other maladies, because I’d always wanted to see them return to the type of glory that I enjoyed as a kid back in the early 90s.
Typically, whenever the topic of protest towards the Redskins name bubbled up every few years more fervent than the last time, I would dismiss it, mostly coming from a place that’s just my inherent personality that’s resistant to change, no matter how inconsequential it may or may not be to the grander spectrum of my personal life. I guess it’s just that the Redskins were a good childhood memory for me as a kid, and I frankly didn’t really care to see the team bother changing their name, completely ignoring the feelings of the culture(s) that the name’s very existence bothers.
But it looks like in light of current events, AKA the dumpster fire that’s known as 2020 America, the whole debate appears to finally be catching some traction, leading to the Redskins franchise announcing that they’re going to “thoroughly review” the name of the franchise.
Make no mistake, Redskins owner Dan Snyder isn’t doing this because of the societal pressures of racism, he’s doing this because some of his team’s chief corporate sponsors (FedEx, Nike, Pepsi) are caving to societal pressures to disassociate themselves from the Redskins, and the threat to his wallet and investors is making this all happen.
Regardless, it looks like the Redskins name has finally gotten off the highway, and is on the home stretch to the retirement home. Although, there’s always the possibility that Dan Snyder will go super heel, double down and say some shit like “okay, we’ve thoroughly reviewed the name and it turns out that everything is all good” and keep the name, or The Onion had the best take with how the name will still change, but only in a technical manner, but there’s still no guarantee that the Redskins are going anywhere just yet.
But given the pressures from big business, I think it’s almost a safe bet that it’s going to change. So much, to the point where CNN and other outlets have already collated potential replacement names, and there’s literally odds out on them already.
I really like that among them, are the Washington Generals, and the Washington Capitols; nothing would be more apropos for the woeful Redskins to just become the Generals, and go from metaphorical losers to the literal losers that lost to the Harlem Globetrotters a million times. And then there’s the Capitols with an O, as if that would be more than enough to differentiate themselves from the Washington Capitals with an A hockey squad, that actually won a championship in the last lifetime.
However, one thought that’s been swirling in my head now is that the timing of all of this seems like it’s convenient, whether deliberate or not, at drawing attention away from the, in my opinion, more important matters of police brutality, the status of their general funding, and the plight of black equality in America. This isn’t to say that the feelings of Native Americans comes secondary at all, but I get this niggling feeling that the timing of this is almost tactical, like a strawman side quest of an issue, that’s drawing attention away from the heavily and publicly politicized matters of black lives matter and police brutality.
Sure, renaming sports teams is important to Native Americans and their supporters, but the last time I checked, the existence of the Redskins, Cleveland Indians and all other Native American names like the Braves, Illini and Seminoles wasn’t resulting in people getting killed.
Ultimately, I’m not too thrilled about the Redskins changing their name, because the Redskins were my gateway into football fandom, but the world will still move on, no matter what their name ends up being. I lived through it once when the Washington Bullets changed their name, citing the violent connotation of bullets, and the Wizards are here now as a result. Whatever the Redskins will change their name to will be what they change their name to, but I honestly think that at the current juncture of American culture, there are more pressing matters that should be getting the national attention and scrutiny over the names of sports teams.
