Beginning with Colin Kaepernick’s anti-American national anthem protest during the 2016 season, woke politics infected the National Football League.
Now the pendulum is swinging in the other direction.
And that’s because the NFL got confronted by this demand that will make the woke mob go ballistic.
Back in 2020, former Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder was feeling the heat from a Congressional investigation into allegations Snyder ran a toxic workplace environment where cheerleaders and female employees faced sexual harassment.
Snyder thought he could get Democrats and the media off his back if he went woke and gave in to the longstanding demanding by leftists that he drop the Redskins nickname as politicians and journalists in the sports and political media claimed the name insulted Native Americans.
Snyder seized in the George Floyd insurrection to announce the franchise would drop the Redskins name and play in 2020 as the Washington Football Team.
The franchise later adopted the Commanders nickname.
The only group not consulted on the name change was Native Americans.
Polls showed that 90 percent of Native Americans had no problem with the Redskins nickname and many considered it a point of pride.
But now that Snyder sold the team to a group led by Josh Harris that includes NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson, the Redskins name could be making a comeback.
Both Harris and Johnson used the name intentionally as a test run to gauge public reaction.
And restoring the Redskins nickname could be a way to eliminate all vestiges of the disastrous Snyder era.
The Native American Guardians Association is trying to show new ownership that there is popular support to bring back the Redskins nickname by touting that their petition to drop the Commanders nickname and call the team the Redskins again has over 100,000 signatures.
NAGA adviser and Kiowa Tribe member Billy Dieckman explained that the Redskins nickname and logo paid tribute to the history of Native American warriors as elite and noble fighters.
“The deep, rich history behind the name, the myth that it means bloody scalps or something derogatory is what we’re trying to dispel,” Dieckman said in an interview on Fox News. “It’s a status symbol for elite warriors.”
“Our fight is to reinstate this because it was taken away without consulting us, without any of our approval,” Dieckman added.
Diekman explained that the Redskins logo was not some racist caricature of Native Americans but was instead the likeness of a real tribal chief that the Blackfoot tribe gifted to the franchise and thus not an offensive depiction.
“The imagery that you see is that of Chief Two Guns White Calf,” Diechman added. “That’s a real person. There’s a lot of times they say you need to get rid of your mascot. We don’t have a mascot. That’s a real person that was gifted to the Redskins in the NFL by the Blackfoot tribe as a forever gift. That’s one of the greatest warriors of all time.”
Dropping the Redskins nickname was a concession to the woke mob that won Snyder nothing as he still got drummed out of the league within three years.
Bringing back the Redskins nickname would be a way for the franchise’s new ownership to put that sorry chapter behind them and honor the legacy of the team and the Native American tribes who contributed to the team’s traditions.
