On Tuesday, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) stood on the Senate floor like a boss in sunglasses (he’s still recovering from a January injury) and shamed the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell over their refusal to address the racist antiquated name of Washington’s football team: the Redskins. “I find it stunning that the National Football League is more concerned about how much air is in a football than with a racist franchise name that denigrates Native Americans across the country,” Reid said.
Many teams have embraced Native American heritage to represent their teams, including the Seattle Seahawks, who adopted their logo from a wooden mask of the Kwakwaka’wakw tribes of Alaska and British Columbia. Some have just done it more respectfully than others. And some have acknowledged the need for change (i.e. the Kansas City Chiefs, St. John’s University, Marquette, to name a few). As for Washington, the history of the team’s name goes back to 1933, when the team was originally the Boston Braves. George Preston Marshall, who became sole owner of the team shortly after the franchise was awarded, was rumored to have changed the name to the “Redskins” to honor Coach William “Lone Star” Dietz’s and other players’ Native American backgrounds. However, an article unearthed from 1933 debunked that defense of the mascot as Marshall himself explained it was simply to avoid any confusion with the Braves baseball team while still keeping the “native connotations” as well as the logo.
In a year filled with some of the League’s most embarrassing and mishandled events, it makes sense for Reid to beat it while it’s down. Reiterating the Senate and some 77 First Nation’s wishes that Washington abandon this disparaging term, Reid simply yet calculatedly assaulted the Brady debacle knowing Goodell and company are in the toughest spot they’ve ever been. For example, the League gave in and finally relinquished its tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(6) organization (though as the Atlantic aptly noted, it was mostly a symbolic gesture, as most people don’t understand that the majority of revenue come in through the teams and not the NFL itself). And it has been walking on eggshells with the country ever since the Ray Rice incident.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark office refused at least 12 applications to register “redskins” as a trademark since 1993 because of the offensive name. Twenty-two years later, there’s no room for discussion about it with owner Dan Snyder. Reid’s comments speak to a larger issue at hand with the NFL, not just the bizarre pony show that Deflategate became: that it bocks real issues that matter to its audience. And it is not about putting the onerous on its players to make domestic violence PSAs or starting some Starbucks-style #RaceTogether campaign, but the actual adults running this ship accepting responsibility for what they know is wrong. I’m fairly certain I’ve witnessed U.S. Presidents admit more mistakes in their terms than Goodell ever has.
In my opinion, the odds are probably better than not that Goodell will (if he hasn’t already) put the pressure on Snyder to at least entertain the idea of a team name change. Even though it’s Washington’s responsibility, I’m guessing the last thing Goodell wants is another media bashing on the docket. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, because I shared my opinion on this matter before, just because something is established per se, doesn’t mean that it is good or right (read: most of American history). Washington’s fans have staunchly defended the name in the face of Native Americans, yet insist they’d support their team no matter what.
Whatever your opinion on the matter, Reid’s callout is warranted. We will hear about Tom Brady’s appeal day-in and day-out until the matter is resolved, then however long afterwards people need to reflect on it. Because it’s easy to talk about cheating, it’s something we all agree is a bad thing to do. But when it comes to issues about race, class, education, health (you know, the things that define us and really matter in our lives), nobody wants to touch it with a ten-foot pole. But as the League approaches 100 years, it’s time they take responsibility for conversations that must be had: cultural diversity and interaction exists in professional sports unlike anywhere in actual life, so accept it and talk about it.
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