Bob Costas was on his soapbox (again) Sunday night during the Cowboys-Redskins game over this never ending "controversy" regarding sports franchise so called racist logos. I thought about this and I wanted to take a look at some in question and some not actually in question.
The Cleveland Indians and the Washington Redskins are facing the most heat...but really, the Braves alternate logo isn't really any better and look at the Chicago Blackhawks! I mean, honestly, the Kansas City Chiefs have the only tame logo. I don't find anything really bad about 3 of these. The problem with the Washington team is apparently the name, leading one of my friends to observe "no NFL team currently has a Camo uniform. The NFL is really missing out." My response was "maybe they can change the Redskins to the Rednecks. It is an easy fix.
Still, this isn't the end of the story! After this story came out a writer of Irish decent started calling for the University of Notre Dame to ditch the Leprechaun because it is insulting to Irish-Americans. Really? Is it anymore insulting than say Celtics? Let me show you what I mean:
Forgive me Irish-Americans if I fail to see a huge difference here. Oh, the Notre Dame leprechaun is supposed to be more violent..he is showing his fists. I don't want to be picky here but the team IS called the FIGHTING Irish. It's meant to be a tribute to the spirit of the Irish people. They aren't known as a culture that just lays down and gives up. That's not exactly a bad thing.
I'm not trying to discount the importance of respecting culture in the US but sports is also a part of our culture and our tradition and in cities like Atlanta and Cleveland they have things like the Tomahawk Chop and Chief Wahoo. Those things are not meant to disrespect American Indians any more than the Texas Rangers team and fans tried to endorse deer hunting (the team has no formal opinion but this is Texas) or clawing anyone's eyes out (I may personally support this given the right situation) during the 2010 playoff run.
The question becomes where does it end? If those teams are offensive how can this not be to people of Norse decent? How stereotypical can you get?
What about teams who have names that have religious significance? I can't pray in schools or say the "under God" in the pledge anymore. So how about teams that allude in one way or another to God or the Devil?!?!
You think that is silly? Nobody would ever change the name because say...the word Devil was negative. Nah, that wouldn't happen!
With all the things we have to worry about. With government shutdowns and companies that are either still not giving raises or having layoffs or families with unemployment. With all the problems in the country and the world and with gas at $3.00 and whatever a gallon who really cares that much about the Redskins, Irish, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Oh, if everyone else is going to have to change their name I am going to insist the Cardinals change theirs! They nearly ruined my favorite birds for me. The state bird of Indiana, that has a deep personal significance. If a small percent of loud Native Americans get their way, a very loud Strawberry blond American wants hers. That's how this works, right? We all make our own rules because we don't like something no matter how thin our skin or how grown up we should be?
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