Redskins Tackle Titans

Another Sunday, another opportunity for Dan Snyder's hapless 1-5 Washington Redskins to lose, this week against the 2-4 Tennessee Titans, at 1 PM in Fedex Field in Landover.  Kickoff happened while I was putting this together

Also, another opportunity to review the progress in the liberal war on football, and uh, elbows.

Have the people spoken?

I guess this is where I'm supposed to fall in line and do what every other American sports writer is doing. I'm supposed to swear I won't ever write the words "Washington Redskins" anymore because it's racist and offensive and a slap in the face to all Native Americans who ever lived. Maybe it is.

I just don't quite know how to tell my father-in-law, a Blackfeet Indian. He owns a steak restaurant on the reservation near Browning, Mont. He has a hard time seeing the slap-in-the-face part.

It's interesting that he acknowledges the pressure within his own industry to conform to the liberal media/government war on the Redskin's name.

"The whole issue is so silly to me," says Bob Burns, my wife's father and a bundle holder in the Blackfeet tribe. "The name just doesn't bother me much. It's an issue that shouldn't be an issue, not with all the problems we've got in this country."

 Ungrateful Redskins.

And I definitely don't know how I'll tell the athletes at Wellpinit (Wash.) High School -- where the student body is 91.2 percent Native American -- that the "Redskins" name they wear proudly across their chests is insulting them. Because they have no idea.

Clearly they're in need of more indoctrination.

Oh, the Redskins just fumbled the ball away.

"I've talked to our students, our parents and our community about this and nobody finds any offense at all in it," says Tim Ames, the superintendent of Wellpinit schools. "'Redskins' is not an insult to our kids. 'Wagon burners' is an insult. 'Prairie n-----s' is an insult. Those are very upsetting to our kids. But 'Redskins' is an honorable name we wear with pride. … In fact, I'd like to see somebody come up here and try to change it."

Boy, you try to help some people …

And it's not going to be easy telling the Kingston (Okla.) High School (57.7 percent Native American) Redskins that the name they've worn on their uniforms for 104 years has been a joke on them this whole time. Because they wear it with honor.

"We have two great tribes here," says Kingston assistant school superintendent Ron Whipkey, "the Chicasaw and the Choctaw. And not one member of those tribes has ever come to me or our school with a complaint. It is a prideful thing to them."

You can't have pride in that; a bunch of white liberals insist.

"It's a name that honors the people," says Kingston English teacher Brett Hayes, who is Choctaw. "The word 'Oklahoma' itself is Choctaw for 'red people.' The students here don't want it changed. To them, it seems like it's just people who have no connection with the Native American culture, people out there trying to draw attention to themselves.

Three to nothing, Redskins

"My kids are really afraid we're going to lose the Redskin name. They say to me, 'They're not going to take it from us, are they, Dad?'"

Too late. White America has spoken. You aren't offended, so we'll be offended for you.

I'm reconsidering my stand against changing the name of the Redskins. Not because I'm offended, but because I'm beginning to think the name might be bad luck. I know, as a scientist, I shouldn't believe in luck, but the alternative is to blame the players, and that would be racist.

My proposal would be to rename them the "Beltway Bureaucrats." Their uniforms should be a dull gray worsted wool suit, with a red "power tie." For away games, they could wear a white seersucker suit with a bow tie, ala Tom Wolfe.

Seizing a populist moment Larry Hogan blasts Anthony Brown as hypocrite over objection to name ‘Redskins’

Maryland gubernatorial candidate Larry Hogan on Thursday said nobody should tell a storied business such as the Washington Redskins to change its long-held name and called opponent Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown a “hypocrite” for refusing to speak the name.

Mr. Hogan, a Republican, blasted Mr. Brown for claiming to take offense at the name and yet regularly attending Redskins games in the state’s skybox at FedEx Field.

The state has a skybox? And I wasn't invited?

Oh, and 3-3 at the end of the first.

“He’s a hypocrite,” he said. “Anthony Brown went to every game with lobbyists and people he was trying to impress and big donors. And they were all wearing Redskins hats and Redskins jackets. They were all eating and drinking on the taxpayers’ dime.”

“Now he refuses to call them the Redskins,” Mr. Hogan told The Washington Times editorial board. “He calls them ‘the professional football team in Washington,’ while he wears his Redskins hat and coat and he goes to the games.”

The team’s name has come under fire for being offensive to Native Americans.
Mr. Brown, a Democrat, has called the name “inappropriate” and called on Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to change it.

Hypocrisy in a politician? I'm shocked, shocked.

UPDATE: The Redskins won, 19-17, with a last second (literally) kick after switching out second string QB Cousins for third string McCoy. It struck me more that the Titans lost than the Redskins won. Also, not enough cheerleaders on TV.

Wombat-socho has the father of all Rule 5 posts "Rule 5 Sunday: Ricochet"  posted at The Other McCain.