The name of the Washington Redskins has come under fire and it has even led some announcers to say that they’ll avoid saying the team name altogether, including Phil Simms.
However others plan on using the team’s name as they have in the past. Mike Ditka went so far as to call the whole controversy surrounding Washington’s name “stupid” and “appalling”.
“What’s all the stink over the Redskin name? It’s so much [expletive] it’s incredible. We’re going to let the liberals of the world run this world. It was said out of reverence, out of pride to the American Indian. Even though it was called a Redskin, what are you going to call them, a Brownskin? This is so stupid it’s appalling, and I hope that owner keeps fighting for it and never changes it, because the Redskins are part of an American football history, and it should never be anything but the Washington Redskins. That’s the way it is.”
Yes, what else could one possibly call an American Indian but a “Redskin” or a “Brownskin”? How about an American Indian or a Native American or any other term that wasn’t found to be disparaging to those it referred to?
Ditka would go on to blame political correctness for Dan Snyder’s current predicament.
“It’s all the political correct idiots in America, that’s all it is. It’s got nothing to do with anything else. We’re going to change something because we can. Hey listen, I went through it in the 60s, too. I mean, come on. Everybody lined up, did this. It’s fine to protest. That’s your right, if you don’t like it, protest. You have a right to do that, but to change the name, that’s ridiculous. Change the Constitution — we’ve got people trying to do that, too, and they’re doing a pretty good job.”
Trying to parse this, it gets even stranger. Mike Ditka “went through” the Civil Rights movement where people “lined up, did this” and that makes him an expert on what is pertinent to minority interests and what should be considered “ridiculous.”
It should come as no surprise that Ditka had nothing but praise for Snyder and how he’s handled the controversy:
“I admire him for it,” Ditka said.
