Re: Distracted by anime and cookies and forgot. Life sure is rough.
Isnt Redskins a derogatory term? How can that name still exist?
That is like a team here being called the... Leicester Pakis, or the Brixton Golliwogs.
It's very controversial, even here. Some of the local sports radio stations will not even refer to them as Redskins anymore. The team original played in Boston, and were named after the (now Atlanta, then Boston) Braves baseball team. When they moved to DC in the 30's the owner changed the name to the Redskins. Sooner or later the team will change it's name. It is hard though, the Redskins are one of the oldest, most traditional teams in football. Racist though the name may be, changing it would require going against 80 years of tradition.
Because...logic. It also doesn't help that they were the last team to be integrated, but no one remembers that.
Not entirely forgotten here. Do not forget that until Dallas joined the NFL in 1960, the Redskins were the southern most team. To this day they have a strong fan base in North Carolina, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is a vocal Redskins fan. The Redskins fought so hard to maintain a monopoly on the south that they are part of the reason the AFL came into existence. They successfully blocked Lamar Hunt's bid for a Dallas expansion team, to which he responded by forming his own league in 1959. He moved his Dallas Texans to Kansas City after the AFL's inaugural season, renaming them the Chiefs, due to the Cowboys also beginning play in 1960. The Cowboys succeeded in joining the NFL because they bought the rights to "Hail to the Redskins" directly from the song writer, angry that notoriously cheap Redskins owner George Marshall was unwilling to pay him. The Cowboy's perspective owners refused to sell the rights back to the Redskins unless Marshall dropped any attempt to block expansion. That is how the Redskins - Cowboys rivalry started, and should demonstrate how important the south was to the Redskins, at that time. Even into the 60's, the final line of Hail to the Redskins was "Fight for Old
Dixie", since amended to "Fight for Old D.C.". The Washington Senators also were the last baseball team to integrate. D.C. was a different city then, much smaller than it is today, and without extensive suburbs. Back then this was a small, transient city, more southern than northern. Now we have little in common with the south, more in common with the big northern cities.
