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Opinion: Washington's NFL club needs a new name. Here's why it can't be Warriors
Jul 08, 2020 1 min, 45 secs

Warriors, as a mascot in sports, has a long history of employing Native American tropes.

As the Washington NFL club conducts a “thorough review” of its existing team name — which really means buying time to figure out what the new name will be — one host on local sports-talk radio says he has it on good authority that “Warriors” is the leading contender. .

Warriors, though, was the intended name of an Arena Football League team in Washington that never came to be. .

It quotes Washington coach Ron Rivera as saying he would work closely with team owner Daniel Snyder “to make sure we continue the mission of honoring and supporting Native Americans and our Military.”.

Maybe it means the team wants to honor Wounded Warriors from nearby Walter Reed National Military Medical Center before home games while retaining some form of Native American imagery on team uniforms.

'NEVER': The anatomy of Washington team owner Daniel Snyder’s most famous quote.

But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the team jettisons all Native American imagery and still chooses Warriors.

Sorry, that won’t work either: Some Washington fans would see it as an invitation to continue dressing up as play Indians — more white guys in war paint.

That’s because Warriors, as a mascot in sports, has a long history of employing Native American tropes.

Then, in 1969, the Warriors eliminated all Native American imagery.

Warriors is a name that works well for an NBA team that shed all Native American imagery more than 50 years ago; it would not work at all for an NFL team that has clung to its current name and iconography for decades.

Once there were more than 3,000 colleges and high schools with some form of Native American team names.

The current name of the Washington football team is a slur in all contexts other than potatoes

The team names of certain franchises in other major team sports are proper names that are not in and of themselves pejorative: Indians, Braves, Chiefs, Blackhawks

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