OPINION:
Another NFL regular season has ended for the Washington Redskins in humiliating fashion, with a record of just three wins and 13 losses, following a 47-16 thrashing by the hated archrival Cowboys in Dallas on Sunday evening.
That the dispiriting 2019 season concluded with a battle between cowboys and Indians surely annoyed leftist historical revisionists, regardless of the game’s outcome. And it likely irked the small but vocal gaggle of Washingtonians and others who continue to claim — “falsely” and “without evidence” (to borrow descriptors in vogue with the Never-Trump media) — that the Redskins’ name is “racist” and a “slur” that another season has passed without the team changing its moniker. (More on that anon.)
The bright side, if there is one, as Redskins players prepare to watch the playoffs from their couches is that, with the second-worst record in the NFL, the Redskins will get the second pick in the college-player draft, behind only the 2-and-14 Cincinnati Bengals.
The Redskins have made the NFL playoffs just three times since 2006, and in all three cases, they lost in the first (wild-card) round. They haven’t won the Super Bowl since 1991, long before Dan Snyder bought the team in 1999.
How bad was the 2019 season? So bad that ahead of the team’s Nov. 24 home game at FedEx Field, against the equally hapless Detroit Lions (3-12-and-1), tickets could be had for as little as $4, albeit in the nosebleed seats.
Long-suffering fans who wanted team President Bruce Allen, a close ally of team owner Dan Snyder, fired by Mr. Snyder got their wish on Monday, but Mr. Allen’s ouster will do nothing to silence one set of the team’s harshest critics.
Social justice warrior (SJW) liberals — most of whom probably don’t care about football — remain on the warpath over the team’s name of more than 80 years’ standing. Despite editorial cheerleading by a number of Washington Post columnists, who at least once a season decry the team’s moniker, the SJWs have yet to persuade more than a handful of others that “Redskins” is a racist, offensive pejorative and demeaning to Native Americans.
No doubt to The Post’s dismay, its own May 2016 poll showed the name-change cause had gained little traction, even among American Indians, 90 percent of whom said they were “not bothered” by the name. That’s likely because its premise is false, for a reason that should be self-evident: Why would a team select as its name something derogatory — in effect, insulting itself? The simple answer is: It wouldn’t.
Having failed to persuade anyone to ascribe racism where there is none, some of the SJWs are now ludicrously suggesting a new name could help give the team a fresh start and mojo to turn its fortunes around.
In a column headlined “Changing coaches won’t fix it. Change the name,” Post Metro columnist Courtland Milloy wrote on Oct. 8, when the Redskins were 0-and-5 and had just fired head coach Jay Gruden: “There is no escaping the curse of that team’s name.”
Many of the same sorts of SJW do-gooders pressed the NBA’s Washington Bullets to change the team’s allegedly offensive name in 1997. How did that work out for the Washington Wizards? They haven’t come close to winning the NBA championship since, and currently languish with a 9-and-22 record.
To borrow a line from rapper Jay-Z, the Redskins “got 99 problems, but” the team’s name “ain’t one.” Not the least of those problems is a leaky defense that allowed opponents to score an average of 27.2 points per game this season. The team also needs a proven quarterback and playmakers at wide receiver and running back.
Many longtime fans want the team to return to Washington in a new stadium some would like to see built on the site of decrepit RFK Stadium. The Redskins played their final game there after 36 season on Dec. 22, 1996, before departing for the Maryland suburbs. The Redskins’ lease on FedEx Field runs until 2027.
Not surprisingly, the SJWs in the D.C. government — of which there are many — want the team to change its name as a precondition for helping it relocate back to the city.
But Mr. Snyder is, rightly, equally emphatic in his refusal to do so, famously telling USA Today in May 2013: “We’ll never change the name. … It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”
So, if Washington, D.C. — which fancies itself the “District of Champions” because of the World Series-winning Nationals, Stanley Cup-winning Capitals and WNBA champion Mystics — really wants the Redskins back and to someday see another Super Bowl championship, officials will have to ditch their baseless demand that the team change a proud, nonracist name.
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