As a Washington Redskins fan here is my biggest concern about the controversy over their obviously insensitive, racially charged name. The new name will suck.
I have good reason for this concern.
My favorite basketball team once had a memorable name – Bullets – tied to the team’s history in Baltimore, a town where actual canon balls and bullets used to be made. Now my team has a name with no tradition, no ties to Washington, D.C. and does not inspire fear in any opponent – Wizards.
No sports team that has changed its name to get away from similar disputes over American Indian imagery has ever lost a dime.
If the Washington football team gets a new name it has got to be better than ‘Wizards.’
Changing the name is not a big deal to me. I like football. I have lived in Washington, D.C. for over 30 years. So, the team based in the Washington area is the team I am going to follow even if I often call them a bunch of “Under-performing, Can’t Run, Can’t Throw or Catch, Over-Paid and Silly People.”
But I know that is not the official name of the team.
No sports team that has changed its name to get away from similar disputes over American Indian imagery has ever lost a dime – including major college sports teams such as Stanford, Marquette and St. John’s.
Their name changes aggravated some alumni and traditionalist but it had little impact on fans. They root just as hard for the Stanford Cardinals and the St. John’s Red Storm. In fact, sport business agents point to a surge in sale of shirts, jackets and stickers with the new name and logo.
And my instinct is to oppose anything being championed by the Politically Correct (PC) Police.
In my 2011 book, “Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate,” {http://www.amazon.com/Muzzled-Assault-Honest-Juan-Williams/dp/0307952029/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360962235&sr=1-2&keywords=juan+williams+enough} I argued that Political Correctness (PC) is corroding our democracy by preventing people from saying what...