Wednesday, September 29, 2004
To the despair of the forces of political correctitude, residents of the national capital are by and large happy with the name of their football team, the Washington Redskins, and the current owner says he has no interest in changing it.
Advocacy groups have had considerable success at pressuring college and high school teams into dropping Indian references from their names, but the usual mixture of threats of bad publicity and lawsuits has notably failed with the Redskins.
In 1999, a coalition opposed to Indian team names successfully sued to have the Redskins trademark canceled on the grounds the law gave no protection to trademarks that are "disparaging, scandalous or contemptuous." Last year, the team got the decision reversed on appeal. Sales of Redskins merchandise continued unimpeded.
One major newspaper loftily announced that it would refer to the team only as "Washington" in its sports reporting, but it remained alone at the head of that little parade and later quietly dropped that stricture.
Further confounding those seeking to take offense is that the name is regularly shortened in conversation and headlines to " 'Skins." And who, if you were brand-new on the block, do you suppose that would offend?
History
Except for a few years as the Boston Braves, the team has been the Redskins since it moved to Washington in 1937. Since then, it has become, along with the subway system and a preoccupation with the federal government, perhaps the most unifying factor in a large, diverse city. It would be a safe bet that more Washingtonians would recognize the team's endlessly played official fight song, "Hail to the Redskins," than the official fanfare to the president, "Hail to the Chief."
In a curious way, "Redskins" has changed its meaning and context. Mention the Redskins to any Washingtonian and many things come to mind: quarterback controversy, suspect defense, Joe Gibbs, three Super Bowl titles in five appearances, blown draft choices, the Hogs, Riggo, paralyzing stadium traffic, the bouncing stands at old RFK Stadium. One thing that will not come to mind is an American Indian.
And now it turns out that American Indians, on whose behalf all this fuss has been made, don't really care one way or another about the name.
Of course, that could change if the team continues to stink.
Scripps Howard News Service