The Patriot Post® · Redskins Surrender, Change Name

The debate over the name of the professional football team playing in Washington, DC, has been raging for a long time. It took a new turn on Monday when the team finally announced it would drop the offensive name “Washington.” Just kidding (we think). It’s not as if the team can adopt “District of Columbia” anyway — according to the mob, Christopher Columbus is even worse than George Washington. Under immense corporate pressure and after a “thorough review,” the team is actually dropping the 87-year-old name “Redskins” in favor of something to be announced later.

Before we go any further, let’s just say that the very idea of a “racist” team name is sort of a non sequitur. Who names a team something they hate or want to deride?

In 2013, team owner Dan Snyder insisted exactly that, saying, “Washington Redskins is more than a name we have called our football team for over eight decades. It is a symbol of everything we stand for: strength, courage, pride, and respect — the same values we know guide Native Americans and which are embedded throughout their rich history as the original Americans.”

And in 2002, Walter Wetzel, former chairman of the Blackfoot tribe and president of the National Congress of American Indians, described how in the 1960s he led the effort to design the team’s now-canceled logo. He said he told the team, “I’d like to see an Indian on your helmets,” and he gave officials photos of Native Americans in full headdress. A composite logo was created from his portrait and others. “It made us all so proud to have an Indian on a big-time team,” Wetzel said. “It’s only a small group of radicals who oppose those names. Indians are proud of Indians.” His sentiments were shared by the overwhelming majority of Native Americans and three-quarters of all Americans.

Nevertheless, the 2020 “cancel culture” zeitgeist was too much for the team to withstand, as white leftists are once again telling minorities how to feel about things.

The NFL is itself becoming increasingly “woke” in bowing to the “social justice” mob. The harsh truth is that no concession will ever be enough.