Redskins Name Is Not A Political Issue

I was going to start this blog with the sentence "Unbelievably people are trying to turn the Redskins name into a political issue" but it's not "unbelievable". It's what happens these days and it's out and out stupid. How can anyone, think for even one second, that the President woke up and said "I'm gonna mess with the Redskins today"? Puh-leeze.

The U.S. Trademark office has a rule that you can't patent derogatory terms. The Redskins trademark was  canceled for the first time in 1999 WHEN BILL CLINTON WAS PRESIDENT and was ruled on again in 2003 WHEN GEORGE BUSH, JR. WAS PRESIDENT. The push to remove the name continued in 2006 (once again Bush, Jr turf) as the result of a petition brought to the U.S. Trademark Office  by a group of Native Americans. The ONLY comment I can find from President Obama came a year ago when he said something to the effect of "if it was my team, I'd think about changing the name". That's all. That's it. Sorry Rush, sorry knuckleheads, you can only point your fingers so many times before people call bullsh@t on you.

Now, take politics out of the picture. Here's the real situation. If you don't like the law, change it. Right now you can't have a WNBA team called "The Hackensack Sluts" or a baseball team called "The Wetbacks" or any other derogatory term. I was pretty proud as America stood behind attempts to make Donald Sterling sell the Clippers. Now, you may be "used to" the term "Redskins", but Native Americans equate that to calling a team the "Blacks" with a picture of an African-American mans face on the helmet.

Next up is the idea that this somehow takes something away from you or the team. It doesn't take away their name. They can continue to do whatever they want, they just can't trademark it. Also, they could be making TONS OF MONEY by selling off all their old gear with their old name and introducing new gear with a new game. They don't lose on this deal, and don't let anyone tell you they do.

I'd like to really scuttle this issue off to "who-gives-a-sh!tville", but when you're talking about an NFL team, you're talking about something kids see and hear almost everyday (that's part of why you don't "get" why it offends others). But if you want to continue this debate keep this in mind you're going to lose, you're doing it at the expense of a race of people and lastly, drop the politics. It just makes you look silly.