Free Republic

LANDOVER, Md. -- The "Hands up, don't shoot" protest has made its way to the NFL. The Washington Redskins secondary emerged from the stadium tunnel during pregame introductions Monday night with hands raised and palms forward. It was a show of solidarity with the people in Ferguson, Missouri, who are protesting the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Eleven players took part as the team was preparing to face the Cleveland Browns. Safety Ryan Clark said Brown "could have been any one of us. That could have been any one of our brothers, our cousins. ... When you get an opportunity...

Earlier Wednesday Mike Ditka made the news with his brash comments in favor of the Washington Redskins keeping their controversial nickname.. Now it's time to meet his polar opposite, at least as far as this issue is concerned. Mike Carey, a recently hired rules analyst for CBS Sports, spent 19 seasons as an NFL referee but did not officiate a Redskins game for nearly all of the last eight years of his career. That was by request — because he disapproves of their name.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two influential NFL voices - including CBS lead analyst Phil Simms, who will handle Washington's Week 4 game - said Monday they likely won't use the term "Redskins" when discussing the franchise. "My very first thought is it will be Washington the whole game," Simms told The Associated Press on Monday. Simms will work the Thursday night package the network acquired this season and will have Giants-Redskins on Sept. 25. He isn't taking sides in the debate over whether Washington's nickname is offensive or racist. But he says he is sensitive to the complaints about the name,...

Johnny Manziel gives middle finger toward Redskins By Chris WesselingAround the League Writer Johnny Manziel's most effective throw of the night was the middle finger in the direction of the Washington Redskins sideline. The Cleveland Browns' rookie quarterback took an earful from Redskins players when he was forced out of bounds in the third quarter. As Manziel jogged away, he responded by casually flipping the bird with his right hand.

Though the Washington Redskins play for a city on the opposite coast, California lawmakers voted Monday to urge that the National Football League change its name because it is "believed by some to be a racial slur and to promote discrimination against Native Americans."

From nearly 1,000 miles away, several Redskins players used the Monday Night Football stage to draw attention to the situation that has been unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri by running onto FedExField with their hands up in the air.

Phil Simms may have self censored himself from saying the name “Redskins” but fans show no signs of abandoning the name.Link to song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPVfFzbRuc4&feature=youtu.be

A palate cleanser via Time, which notes that the “Redskins Facts” site is behind this and that the team itself is apparently behind “Redskins Facts.” (The anti-Redskins ad that inspired this rebuttal is also embedded below for context.) This is really just a taste of what they’ve got cooking; go to their YouTube account and you’ll find interviews with individual Native Americans defending the name. It’s an understandable counterattack — if your critics claim you’re victimizing a group, the natural response is to find members of the group who don’t feel victimized — but realistically we’re past the point...

San Fransico-based T-shirt company Headline Shirts has taken full advantage of the Redskins name controversy by introducing a new line of shirts based on the team logo. But instead of a Native American, a redneck, complete with raccoon tail and mullet -- is prominently featured. (No idea if this violates trademark law, but if it does, and a judge does not overturn the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's ruling canceling the Redskins' trademark registration, there's nothing the team would be able to do about it.)

You know, being a fan of the Minnesota Vikings is difficult enough just based on what happens on the field. We’re 0-4 in Super Bowls. We’ve got to deal with the stomach-curdling memories of the 1999 NFC Championship Game, not to mention 41-doughnut in the same game two years later, and the bounty-hunting Saints putting out a contract on Brett Favre in 2010. But on a cultural level . . . hey, what the heck did we do? We were just sitting here minding our own business. First we got stuck with a petulant, attention-mongering punter who couldn’t and can’t...

The University of Minnesota is working with the Minnesota Vikings in an effort to keep the Washington Redskins’ name from being used in “promotional and game date materials” during the NFL teams’ Nov. 2 game at the school’s stadium in Minneapolis, according to an Aug. 1 letter from university President Eric W. Kaler to U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.).

Former Washington Redskins tight end and Tea Party-backed candidate, Clint Didier, seeking to replace the retiring Congressman Doc Hastings in Washington State’s 4th congressional district, advanced against a crowded field of Republican hopefuls in Tuesday’s GOP primary. Didier, who won two Super Bowl rings playing in Super Bowl’s XVII and XXII under coach Joe Gibbs, is a farmer residing in Eltopia, WA. Because of Washington State’s somewhat unusual “top-two” primary system, which advances the leading two vote-getters regardless of party status, Dan Newhouse, a GOP establishment-backed candidate and top money fundraiser in the race thus far, will also advance to...

RUSH: Look, I want to make this point again because I really think I'm onto something here. I think it is a profundity. Young people, low-information people, are the ones who claim to hate politics. They don't like it. They don't like the arguing, right? The 25-year-old girls, they don't like loud voices. It all makes 'em nervous. They don't like it. "Can't we just all get along? Why do we have to argue about everything?" They hate politics. They do not understand how everything they are exposed to is political. They don't like politics, and so therefore the only...

The Washington Times and the Washington Redskins announced a unique partnership that will make the newspaper a content and marketing partner of the team. Under the partnership, the Redskins and the Times will collaborate on unique content offerings throughout the year designed to provide Redskins fans with compelling, timely and unique coverage. The offerings will include a weekly “Redskins Weekend Game Guide,” which will wrap the front page of the Times’ print edition each Friday during the NFL season and a new free digital magazine called “The Redskins Report,” which will showcase exclusive content about the Redskins. Both features are...

There’s no shortage of piling-on when it comes to the controversy over the name of the Washington Redskins football team. But too often overlooked is the government’s response to all the noise. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) created a fatal contradiction for itself when it announced on June 18 that it would cancel the trademarks of the Washington Redskins. In handing down the decision, the PTO claimed the name was disparaging. However, a Freedom of Information Act request showed that nobody complained to the PTO about being disparaged by the name, revealing the decision as entirely subjective....

The Redskins. Just the mere mention of the name is enough to bother some people. Well, one federal judge ruling on a case about the team had forbade any references to the name in court or in court documents, and aside from a footnote, “Redskins” is never mentioned once in his ruling. U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte wrote in that footnote, “Pro Football’s team is popularly known as the Washington ‘Redskins,’ but the Court will refrain from using the team name unless reference is made to a direct quote where the name appears.” And so, when he referenced the team...

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office isn’t the only federal authority that has taken a stance against the name of the Washington Redskins. A federal judge in Maryland issued a ruling last week that purposely did not contain the team’s name, which has been described as an offensive slur against Native Americans. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte, who is presiding over a lawsuit that former New York Giants linebacker Barrett Green brought against the Redskins, issued a 21-page ruling with this footnote on the first page: “Pro Football’s team is popularly known as the Washington ‘Redskins,’ but the Court...

The Washington Redskins professional football team is under growing pressure from Native American activists and politicians from President Obama on down to change its name. Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in a two-to-one vote canceled the team’s trademark on the grounds that it is “disparaging to Native Americans.” But most Americans nationwide agree with the team's owner Daniel Snyder that a name change is not necessary, and those who follow pro football the most are even more opposed. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 26% of American Adults believe the Washington Redskins should...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says that the Washington Redskins' name 'ought to be changed' and that it's 'an offensive name,' reports TMZ. Holder made the comments in an appearance on ABC News.

There was a time when you could afford to ignore insane ideas in America, but these days you can barely manage to blurt out, "Nobody can be that stupid," before some liberal starts calling for them to be made into laws on MSNBC. So it is with the demands that the Redskins change their name, but this time 50 Democrat senators and bureaucrats at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are tagging along with the Left-Wing loon patrol. That really shouldn't surprise anyone because it has become the standard modus operandi for liberals. Pick a group of people (In this...