A Whispered Slur

Growing up in sports-enthusiastic Washington D.C., dad occasionally brought me to professional football games at RFK Stadium. The pride surrounding the local Redskins team was infectious and most autumns, it seemed healthier to talk about our cherished pigskin team, more so than it did to speak about political pork-barrel projects. Indeed, one year Richard Nixon even sent in a suggested play to Coach Allen- an optional play, which they ran in the playoffs, for a thirteen-yard loss!

The team had a marching band, some of whom would dress up in Indian garb and make corresponding war-whoops. The loud music drumming into children’s brains led us to celebrate to the point where we believed most everybody in the metro area adored the competitive Redskins.

Imagine my shock as a ten-year-old sports enthusiast, when I heard that some Native Americans thought that the term “Redskins” was not honoring Indian’s, but rather derogatory. Then my further dismay when a potential local baseball team started a contest actively searching for new names. I called up to suggest ‘The Washington Crackers’, which mom promptly informed me was also a racist term, this one meant for whites.

This stuck in the back of my head for years. Moving out to Idaho with another fair-weather Washington fan, it was hard to determine what new football team to root for. From a geographical standpoint we went as far as determining that, the center of the Shoshone Railroad Tracks was trilaterally equidistant between the Seahawks, Bronco’s and 49’ers.

However, my friend remembered what had been drummed in my head as a kid. Deep down, I still held allegiance to the old Washington team, although all the king’s coaches and all the kings’ men couldn’t break their curse and make them a winning team again. So one year for Christmas he bought me a jersey from NFL shops. The order he made was for a jersey with former XFL star Rod Smart’s nickname ‘He Hate Me’ emblazoned on the back. Soon his order arrived. He opened the box to inspect the jersey and on the back in three inch block letters stood out surprisingly, ‘He Help Me.’

So, he called up NFL stores to make a complaint. They told him that their official position is to not sell any hate-oriented products. Yet right on, the front of the same jersey in ½-inch letters- smaller letters than you would ordinarily expect- there it was ‘Redskins’ NFL stores eventually replaced the jersey with a different nickname.

After replacing my Redskins hat with a thinking cap it looks like NFL shops is whispering racial epithets from behind a dirty alley rather than shouting them from the grandstands.

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I’ve also been wondering about this proposed stadium for Salmon, Idaho. It’s certainly nice that lottery winner Brad Duke is proposing to construct this, rather than practically disappearing like many lotto winners do. Mr. Duke could ante it up yet another notch by informing the school board that he will build the stadium only after the public has a contest to determine a better name than the derogatory “Salmon Savages.”

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