Thread: Obama wades into NFL’s Redskins controversy

Obama wades into NFL’s Redskins controversy

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...=all#pagebreak

WASHINGTON — President Obama says that if he owned the Washington Redskins, he would “think about changing” the team name, wading into the controversy over a football nickname that many people deem offensive to Native Americans.

Obama, in an interview with The Associated Press, said team names like the Redskins offend “a sizable group of people.” He said that while fans get attached to the nicknames, nostalgia may not be a good enough reason to keep them in place.

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SEE ALSO: Roger Goodell: Redskins nickname a ‘unifying force,’ says NFL commissioner

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“I don’t know whether our attachment to a particular name should override the real legitimate concerns that people have about these things,” he said in the interview, which was conducted Friday.
An avid sports fan, Obama said he doesn’t think Washington football fans are purposely trying to offend American Indians. “I don’t want to detract from the wonderful Redskins fans that are here. They love their team and rightly so,” he said.
But the president appeared to come down on the side of those who have sharply criticized the football team’s name, noting that Indians “feel pretty strongly” about mascots and team names that depict negative stereotypes about their heritage.
Other professional sports teams have Indian nicknames, including football’s Kansas City Chiefs and baseball’s Atlanta Braves and Cleveland Indians.
Numerous colleges and universities have changed names that reference Native Americans. St. John’s changed its mascot from the Redmen to the Red Storm, Marquette is now the Golden Eagles instead of the Warriors and Stanford switched from the Indians to the Cardinal.
The Redskins‘ nickname has attracted a fresh round of controversy in recent months, with local leaders in Washington calling for a name change and some media outlets refraining from using the name. The name is the subject of a long-running legal challenge from a group of American Indians seeking to block the team from having federal trademark protection.

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PHOTOS: Washington Redskins 2013 Football Headshots

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Congressional lawmakers have introduced a bill seeking the same goal, though it appears unlikely to pass.
Opponents of the Redskins nickname also plan to hold a protest Monday outside the NFL’s fall meeting in Washington.
Team owner Dan Snyder has vowed to never abandon the name. But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said last month that the league should pay attention to those offended by the nickname — a subtle change in position for Goodell, who had more strongly supported the nickname in his previous statements this year.
Despite the controversy, an AP-GfK poll conducted in April showed that nationally, “Redskins” still enjoys wide support. Nearly 4 in 5 Americans don’t think the team should change its name, the survey found. Only 11 percent think it should be changed, while 8 percent weren’t sure and 2 percent didn’t answer.
Obama said he doesn’t have a direct stake in the Redskins debate since he’s not a team owner. But he hinted that might be part of his post-White House plans.
“Maybe after I leave the presidency,” he joked. “I think it would be a lot of fun.”
He added: “I’d probably look at a basketball team before I looked at a football team. I know more about basketball than I do about football.”
• AP Sports Writer Joseph White contributed to this report.

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This guy just doesn't quit does he, he is an AH

Since The Fuhrer @BarackObama is trying to Dictate to the Owner of the Washington Redskins about his team we offer up the following for him to use as a name to piss off the Tyrant!




Hit'm with a Love Bomb in the End Zone Timmy

NEXT: KANSAS CITY CHIEFS ..

PITCHING POLITICS

REDSKINS' NEW NAME: THE WASHINGTON LEECHES

Exclusive: John Rocker's surprised 'PC Gestapo' hasn't demanded new moniker for Patriots

JOHN ROCKER
Published: 1 day ago

With our government at a standstill and the debt crisis looming ever closer to a national catastrophe, our president made time to address an issue that truly affects every American – what the professional football team of Washington, D.C., calls itself.
Yes, while you’re worried about the government collapsing, Obama is worried about the “insensitivity” of a football team calling itself the Redskins.
Last week, Obama let America know that if he were the owner of the Redskins and he knew the name “was offending a sizable group of people, I’d think about changing it” – even though the “sizable” amount of individuals who are offended constitute less than 20 percent of American Indians polled and only 10 percent of Redskins fans.
God forbid if any person in America is ever offended! Trotting out the unholy crime of being offensive as a reason to change a name that has over 80 years of history seems good enough for our liberal friends. But if liberals get up in arms about the Redskins, I think there’s another team name they might hate even more than the ‘Skins.
That mascot is none other than the New England Patriots. But wait, who in America could possibly be offended by the name “Patriots”? Aren’t Patriots synonymous with everything good about this nation we call ours? Aren’t the Founding Fathers, the very Patriots the nickname suggests, some of the best men America has ever produced?
Not in today’s America. Those very founders aren’t considered heroes anymore by our education system; they’re now seen as evil, slave-owning white men who simply didn’t want to pay taxes. Kids today no longer learn about the great achievements of the men who founded this country. They instead learn about all the atrocities we committed against American Indians, slaves, women, Hispanics, cross-dressing transvestites and any other minority that is now granted angelic status by the liberal powers that be.

Read Rocker’s firsthand account of his public battle with the PC thought police: “Scars and Strikes,” at the WND Superstore

Don’t believe me when I say we now demonize our founders? Just take a look at the teaching materials the Department of Homeland Security produces. The DHS labeled the colonialists who sought independence from the British Empire in 1776 as “extremists,” and they are listed in the section that described ideologies that promote terrorism.
Yeah, it’s a real shame our founders couldn’t have been more like the pathetic specks of human life who produced these manuals. Sitting in an air-conditioned office all day, doing junk work, gulping down high-fructose corn syrup and depending entirely on the tax money of hardworking Americans is a lot more admirable than fighting and dying to create the greatest nation in world history – right DHS?
Even worse than the founders being crazy extremists who wanted to stand up for what they believe in, they also happened to be almost exclusively white, male, Christian and heterosexual. The horror! The mascot of the Patriots acknowledges this fact by depicting a white male, decked out in red, white and blue colonial garb. I guess he could still be a bisexual Wiccan, but his depiction right now would certainly not meet the standards of the PC Gestapo that polices our culture.
The left hates our past, due to that very homogeneity and unity of culture that is embodied by our founders. They didn’t have to worry about the construction of mosques on hallowed ground, “transgenders” demanding free sex changes and illegal immigrants expecting citizenship despite breaking the laws of our land. We had a unified culture that allowed us to band together to create an independent nation that would allow for liberty and freedom to flourish, not be stifled. Or as Charlton Heston put it: “Those wise old dead white guys that invented this country knew what they were talking about.”
The Patriot mascot celebrates that controversial legacy, and so far, it hasn’t elicited any calls for a name change like the Redskins have. We can all be thankful for that, but how long will it be before the Professional Anti-Racists come after them, especially considering the Patriot looks like one of those government-hating tea partiers?
The sad fact is that the Redskins and other teams with controversial names will be forced to change those names to placate the demands of the PC Inquisition. When you have the full force of the media and the political elite demanding that you do something, it is hard to hold out against that tide. Just look at the issue of gay marriage. The American media pumped out an endless series of TV shows and movies designed to promote the normalcy of homosexuality and same-sex marriage and eventually won the propaganda war. If they can win on an issue as sacred and time-honored as marriage, do you really think a lousy football team has a chance of beating them?
But in all honesty, a city like Washington doesn’t deserve to have a team with a name that evokes noble warriors who fought for something bigger than themselves. They should get a name that is more appropriate – like the Leeches or the Parasites – that better represents the people that make our nation’s capital the city that it is today. Washington doesn’t deserve to tarnish the Redskins name anymore – and Chicago, with all its corruption and broken communities, doesn’t deserve to sully the Blackhawks name anymore, either.
I look forward to the day when I can turn on ESPN and hear that the Washington Leeches lost big and the Chicago Community Organizers aren’t bringing the Stanley Cup home this year.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/redskins-...ngton-leeches/