AS owner of the Washington Redskins, Daniel Snyder’s position on his team’s long-controversial name has been clear. “We’ll never change the name,” he told a reporter seven years ago. “It’s that simple. never—you can use caps.” He and other defenders claimed the name honored Native Americans—a view not shared by many Native Americans themselves.
Now in 2020, Dan Snyder is changing the name of his NFL team not because of sudden racial awareness or altruism. He did it because of money–when FedEx, Nike, Pepsi and Bank of America all threatened to pull their sponsorship ($8 million per season), Snyder capitulated. This should be chilling. Networked corporate extortion. Emergent corruption unchecked by anything. Able to destroy value, tradition, history, brand, and liberty through coercive cooperation.
But, it’s a done deal now, the cow has left the barn. So what name should Washington choose, and will Washington, who is almost as hated by the left as the Redskin logo, even be in the name? Maybe, the CAPITAL AREA Hairballs?
As far as naming, I would say just skip the mascot and the name, and go the way of some soccer clubs, such as DC United, Chelsea FC (football club), Real Madrid, or Liverpool FC.
Just go with Washington FC and be done with it. They’ve been the Redskins 85 years, anything you come up with now will totally lame, an epic fail (see Baltimore Bullets to Washington Wizards).
Maybe go the route of North Dakota University, which for many years was ‘The Fighting Sioux’, but had to drop the name after the NCAA threatened sanctions. The university actually never chose another name, but does have some stupid wolf logo on the football helmets…however, the fans still chant “SIOUX!!!” at the games, and ND State still responds with “SIOUX SUCH SHIT”. Some traditions die hard.
The good old days when the NFL was just a sport are behind us now, and just another boring social justice battleground.
So it goes.
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How ignorant. The Native Americans like it, so you still change it? Since when all these demands and we say ok. No, it is wrong. We boycotted the NFL before. NFL can fail. All the entitled cry babies
Your article on the Washington FC is awesome. Whatever they come up with will be lame. I do hope I am wrong. What could ever be more lame than Wizards.While DC is at it how about giving the Capitals a real logo.