What’s in a name?
Well, to mix allusions, that is the question on the lips of every football fan around these parts after the Washington Football Team began asking supporters for feedback on a host of potential new names.
This odyssey began last July when owner Daniel Snyder finally relented to enormous external pressure to do what he said he would never do: Drop the team’s previous nickname “Redskins.”
Of course, the outside lobbying from Native American groups who said the previous name reinforced negative stereotypes about American Indians, demeaned their heritage, appropriated their ethnicity for the team’s logo, and said the name itself was a racial slur had been going on for over 50 years.
While many of the suggested names have been ridiculed by many Washington fans (Rising, Monarchs, Wild, Rubies, Swifts), three have emerged as clear-cut fan favorites: Redwolves, Warthogs, and Warriors.
However, the name Snyder and many fans have a soft spot for is likely a non-starter. The problem with Warriors is that it is too closely associated with Native American imagery in the sports world to be considered, Chris Russell argued this week on The Team 980.
"This team has to do everything it can, everything it can, to separate itself from two things: 1) the old name and the old shield and logo and 2) anything potentially controversial, whether it is intended to be or not intended to be,” Russell said Thursday.
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While the word ‘warriors’ often does not have any connection to Native Americans, in the sports world, from high schools to colleges to the professional ranks, the name has almost exclusively been paired with Native American imagery and culturally insensitive mascots.
Most notably Marquette University used a student dressed as a Native American named, at different times, "Chief White Buck,” "Willie Wampum," and “First Warrior” for decades. The school removed all references to Native Amerian imagery in 1994 when they dropped the name Warriors for Golden Eagles.
Because of that association, Russell argues, Washington would be unable to convince the world the transition from “Redskins” to Warriors had nothing to do with attempting to continue to allude in some way to Native American imagery.
"Again you [would be using] a name that [Marquette] found offensive based on Native American protests,” Russell said. “And you’re doing it for a second time. You have the chance to clear the deck here.
“You have the chance to totally and completely disassociate yourself with anything offensive and anything, potentially, with Native American imagery or connections. You can’t do Warriors. You can not.”
Listen to the conversation from Russell & Medhurst here:
While Washington wouldn’t be the only Warriors in professional sports, the NBA’s Warriors ended their use of Native American imagery in 1969 after the team used a logo similar to Washington's previous logo from 1946-1962 while playing in Philadelphia.
Because Washington used imagery and a name considered to be a racial slur for 70 years and for many years the owner vehemently defended that use, they have not earned any leeway.
“The problem is,” Russell said. “If you’re the Washingon Football Team, this organization after such a controversial past, to choose a new name that was already discarded by a college program [27] years ago because of Native American imagery, even if you don’t have a spear or an Indian [headress] or whatever. Even if your intention is great, what I’m saying is you are begging for trouble. You are begging for controversy.”
The Team 980’s Pete Medhurst disagrees.
“I disagree, completely disagree. If you do [Warriors] and salute the military, the United States military, who the hell is gonna protest that?” Medhurst said, adding if there is no use of Native American imagery in any of the new branding the Washington Warriors would be controversy-free.
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But Russell counters by saying history matters: “You're a team that had an 88-year history and fought tooth and nail, what was defined as a racist nickname or a racially offensive slur. I’m not offended, I’m telling you I like Washington Warriors. What I’m telling you is from a business and a common sense and a practical standpoint, it would be dumb for them to acquiesce to what Dan [Snyder] wants, which is Warriors… it would be dumb for them to open up Pandora’s box.”
Luckily for Washington, there is still time to be some other name. What's in a name? That which we call now the Washington Football Team, by any other name will play the same.
Follow @Benkrimmel for the latest.
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