About time! Washington Redskins announce intention to change nickname

[declansdad]

It's not really a "nickname", it's a "mascot" (I can't think of a better term).
Washington Redskins
Cleveland Indians
New England Patriots
San Francisco 49ers
Kansas City Royals
New York Knicks
Indianaopolis Pacers

For some reason US teams have "mascots". This is from professional level (in all sports) all the way down to middle school at least. Some organized youth teams have mascots.

What I've found interesting is (near as I can tell) professional and club soccer in other countries don't bother with mascots. FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester City, etc. Although Tottenham is the "Hotspurs".

They are nicknames not mascots; a mascot is any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name.

Those soccer clubs all have nicknames and mascots as well.

Man City - a few nicknames - The Citizens, City, The Sky Blues and the mascots are
Moonchester and Moonbeam

Man United - the Red Devils and Fred the Red

Tottenham - Hotspurs and Chirpy the Cockerel and Spurs Lily

Real Madrid have a number of nicknames Nickname(s), Los Blancos (The Whites) Los Merengues (The Meringues) Los Vikingos (The Vikings) La Casa Blanca but no mascot

FC Barcelona has Barça or Blaugrana as nicknames and the mascot is L'avi del Barça.

There are others.

 

[easyas123]

Man United - the Red Devils and Fred the Red

THIS I recognize! Husband is a massive Man U fan.

Well, thanks to everyone who explained (or tried!) to the use of the phrase nickname in reference to their actual name.

 

[Dead2009]

Serious question. who decides its offensive? Because everything I read, Native Americans overwhelmingly support the current name. and if it changes to the Warriors, I am seriously upset at Marquette for changing its nickname years ago.

It surely wasn't Native Americans who were offended by it. Also if you harass the crap out of a sponsor enough, they'll determine whether or not to take action. That's what happened here.

 

[declansdad]

It surely wasn't Native Americans who were offended by it. Also if you harass the crap out of a sponsor enough, they'll determine whether or not to take action. That's what happened here.

I guess all those stories were wrong then??

 

[Dead2009]

I guess all those stories were wrong then??

It surely wasn't just native american tribes that suddenly became offended by the logo. Also those same people (who arent Native Americans) probably dont even know the history of the logo to begin with, considering it was designed by a....Native American.

 

[declansdad]

It surely wasn't just native american tribes that suddenly became offended by the logo. Also those same people (who arent Native Americans) probably dont even know the history of the logo to begin with, considering it was designed by a....Native American.

The logo designer's family and tribe had no issue with the logo but the logo wasn't the problem, it was the nickname. Native Americans have been trying to get that changed for decades.

 

[pahoben]

The Kansas City Chiefs are not named in a reference directly to Native Americans though yes there are things here and there that are of Native American theme related to the team. The logo (which is also the name of the stadium) is an arrowhead but I'm not entirely certain that could be construed as offensive and has been changed for decades to not have a Native American to it.

I assure you that Kansas City Chiefs are highly offensive to very many Houstonians. Arrowhead Stadium (really-are you kidding me) is a health hazard do to the high noise levels directed at visiting players many of whom are minorities.

I am still smarting from the crazy defeat of the Texans in the playoffs.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I assure you that Kansas City Chiefs are highly offensive to very many Houstonians. Arrowhead Stadium (really-are you kidding me) is a health hazard do to the high noise levels directed at visiting players many of which are minorities.

um k?

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

They could change the name to Washington Protesters. That should make everyone happy

 

[pahoben]

Speaking of logos I really like these Disney themed NBA logos.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1278368072244527104

 

[pahoben]

No it wasn't. No nice words for it -- it was slavery.

Many of the Indian slaves in the Southeastern US were Africans bought from the Spanish or English/American slave traders. Contrary to the New York Times and conventional wisdom, the Spanish brought the first African slaves to North America in 1565, when they settled St. Augustine, FL.

Various Florida Indian tribes got African slaves almost immediately, and by the mid-1800's the Seminoles owned thousands of African slaves.

Yes. I can confirm these facts are TC.

 

[pahoben]

Does anyone know if the derogatory terms for residents of Newfoundland have been eliminated from Canadian speech? I don’t know if Newfoundland residents were offended by this or pretty much accepted it as true.

 

[starvenger]

Does anyone know if the derogatory terms for residents of Newfoundland have been eliminated from Canadian speech? I don’t know if Newfoundland residents were offended by this or pretty much accepted it as true.

I think it depends on the context of what is being said. Describing where someone comes from? Doesn't seem like an issue. As part of a joke? Not good.

Still, I try to use "Newfoundlander" as much as I can.

 

[pahoben]

Yes. I can confirm these facts are TC.

A study of a couple thousand skeletal remains concluded a life expectancy of 30 was representative for Indian tribes and about 20% of adults died from violence. The Indian mounds at Cahokia IL contain hundreds of human sacrifice victims. Skeletal remains also suggest general health of many tribes improved markedly after Columbus introduced Spanish horses to North America. He brought Spanish horses to the Virgin Islands during his second voyage of 1493 and then horses were transported to mainland NA in 1519. American Indians prior to introduction of Spanish horses were more or less typical hunter gatherer societies (some transitioning to primitive agriculture) with poor health and quite often violent inter-tribal conflicts over scarce resources.

I think the idyllic tranquil existence was mostly limited to Disney movies. I love Disney but probably not the best source for history lessons.

 

[bcla]

They have a temporary name now.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...-use-washington-football-team-now-sources-say

 

[JimMIA]

They have a temporary name now.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...-use-washington-football-team-now-sources-say

A LOT of people will object to them being called a "Football" team, because to many people "football" means what we Americans call "soccer."

So they may have gone from offending a few folks to offending the entire rest of the world!

Another blow for PC that missed the mark -- shocking!

 

[starvenger]

Would've went with "Washington Team Football". Use the initials, and the merch will fly off the shelf.

 

[littlejimmy]

They have a temporary name now.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...-use-washington-football-team-now-sources-say

ugh, they need to pick a name. this is messing up madden 21 football on ea sports.

 

[Dismrk155]

Will always be the Washington...

.

 

[bcla]

A LOT of people will object to them being called a "Football" team, because to many people "football" means what we Americans call "soccer."

So they may have gone from offending a few folks to offending the entire rest of the world!

Another blow for PC that missed the mark -- shocking!

There are a lot of different sports called "football". I've met a few Irish people who say "soccer" because they want to differentiate it from Gaelic football.

There are a lot of sports teams that don't use any kind of official nickname - at least not in a team name. Someone mentioned Manchester City. That sport is filled with tons of teams where they don't use a place name (like Juventus) or just the city name like Barcelona. I think they're all officially a "football club" and sometimes that becomes part of their name.