Washington Metro Council Considers Changing "Offensive" Redskins Name

Washington Post ^

[GulliverSwift]

Die-hard fans would oppose the name change, she warned, "fans who wouldn't care if it was called the Washington Nazis,"

They're still called the Washington Redskins and it still causes arguments.

A renewed effort to push for a name change for the region's football team turned into a tense, prolonged discussion at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' (COG) monthly meeting this week. The tension subsided into an agreement to postpone the decision until January.

[GulliverSwift]

The quote from the top is taken from later on in the piece. It says it's a Republican, "Carol Schwartz (R-At Large)" who started the whole thing? Anyone know anything about this Rhino? (I know, it's supposed to be Rino with no h)

[drstevej]

Washington Democrats, Washington Moderates, Washington Media...

Now those are offensive names.

[Senator Pardek]

I've got an idea - change it to the "Fighting Irish"!

What Irishman doesn't fight after drinking a 5th of hooch?

[sinkspur]

They don't have the authority to change the name.

Only little Danny Snyder, the owner, can change the name.

[libsrscum]

If being named after a professional football team is so offensive, then football teams should be named after offensive things! Perhaps these idiots would prefer the name "Washington Terrorists," or "Washington Talibans." Although "Washington Democrats" would be just as appropriate.

[jackbill]

Excuse me, but do the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' own the Redskins? If so, they should change the name. If not, they should shut up.

[NC Conservative]

Do these people not have better things to do. Why don't we change the name of the Minnesota Twins that might be offensive to a set of Siamese Twins. Or the GB Packers. The name "Packers" could be offensive to homosexuals. What about the Syracuse Orangemen. That could be offensive to people who love to paint themselves orange. In other words, GET A LIFE Metro council.

[Neanderthal]

"The name is offensive, she said, derived from an era when American Indians were hunted for bounties and scalped."

Give me a break! The indians were scalping each other for centuries before the evil white Europeans showed up! And they were more than glad to try it out on the Euros when they got the opportunity. Any scalping done by the Euro side was negligible in comparison and done in response to Indian atrocities.

Most eastern indian tribes were extremely warlike and loved torturing prisoners. Scalping was the least (and last) thing they did to you if they caught you alive.

[WriteOn]

Maybe we can name them the TowelHeads or something less offensive like that. No that wouldn't do the Redskins were tough, which is why they named a football team after them. TowelHeads sounds way too effeminate.

[I15_To_ZZYZX_Road]

Driving on Arizona HWY 160 through the Navajo reservation you will see a high school with a large sign in front that says Home of the Red Mesa Redskins. PC NOT!

[scooby321]

The team isn;'t even in Washington DC

[South Dakota]

Y'all. I live next to the largest native american reservation in the US. A majority of these people follow the ,,skins,, and wear their colors. They follow the Chiefs and Braves,,not so much the Indians. I think its the stupid face on the Indians hat. The point is you do not hear these people screaming

[Taxman]

Your point is well taken. The only people who object to Indian names for sporting teams are people who have way too much time on their hands and who are looking for their 15 micro-seconds of fame. Screw 'em.

The Indian tribes in America should be honored to have sport's teams named after them. It is a sign of respect, not disrespect, as the PC crowd would have us believe.

[FreedomPoster]

So I take it that these liberal idjuts have solved all the problems of those living in Washington, D.C., and since D.C is now utopia, they have time for stupid quests like this. Sheesh.

[Still Thinking]

"They don't have the authority to change the name. Only little Danny Snyder, the owner, can change the name."

They may have the authority to stop the team from using "Washington" as part of the team name, but I'm sure that's about all they could do.

Personally, if I were the team owner, I'd hold a press conference and publicly and courteously invite the members voting for this to go pound sand. I would also consider moving to a less PC locality, and would take the opportunity to tell them so. Maybe the "Berkeley, CA Indigenous Peoples"!

[Dems_R_Losers]

Carol Schwartz is a Mike Bloomberg Republican, if ya know what I mean. The definition of a RINO. Serving in the DC government as long as she has has clearly rotted her brain.

Sigh. I wish these idiots in DC would spend just a liiiiiittle less time on BS like this and more time worrying about what to do in case of another terrorist attack. DC had literally NO emergency plan in place on September 11. The city government had 16 satellite phones but nobody knew which closet they were locked up in. When all the cell phone lines jammed nobody could communicate with each other, including the mayor and the FBI/Secret Service. We just learned last weekend that on Sept. 11 there were 90 freight cars full of liquid chlorine sitting right out in the open at the Blue Plains water treatment plant (controlled by the DC government, you got it) just down the river from the Capitol. Y'all have no idea how lucky we are that Flight 77 only hit the Pentagon and Flight 93 crashed. </end of rant>

[kristinn]

No, lets rename them after the most vicious, voracious vermin in D.C.--rats. Whether two-legged or four-legged, the Washington Rats are the epitome of this city.

The only ones who'll be offended are PETA and Hillary Clinton, for obvious reasons.

[TheDon]

Nice suggestion. I offer the "Whiteskins", "Saxons", or the "Wide Eyes".

[yahoo]

"The name is offensive, she said, derived from an era when American Indians were hunted for bounties and scalped."

Whether or not the name is offensive depends ultimately on the offendee, not the offfender. However, I do know that the derivation of the name had absolutely nothing to do with scalping people. The franchise came from Boston, where it was known originally as the Boston Braves (like the now-Atlanta baseball team), then changed to the Boston Redskins. I don't know the exact specifics, but during the American Revolution, a group of American soldiers disguised themselves as Indians in order to infiltrate and defeat the British. If someone knows more about this please correct or expand on what I'm saying.

This whole name thing is nothing new to this franchise however. Jack Kent Cooke never budged an inch on this issue, and even though I'm not a Skins fan (Go Eagles!!) I hope Snyder does not cave either. Changing the Bullets to the Wizards was bad enough.