By JIMMIE TRAMEL Sports Writer on Aug 15, 2013, at 10:45 AM Updated on 8/15 at 12:17 PM
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
Former Oklahoma State receiver Artrell Woods is down and out. He suffered a spinal injury (and temporary paralysis) due to ...
Former receiver Artrell Woods was a focal point in the final chapter of Sports Illustrated's five-part investigative series ...
On Friday, Sports Illustrated’s five-part investigative look (“The Dirty Game”) at the Oklahoma State football program focused ...
I have a strong opinion on whether the Washington Redskins should change the name of their team.
Here it is: If you are a caucasian, you don’t get to have an opinion about it.
Am I interested in the subject? Sure.
I’ll flash back to July 3, 1999. All the guys in my wedding party were of American Indian heritage. There’s no reason to read anything into that except my childhood friends are my friends, period, and who pays attention to race when everyone has more important things to do, like dragging main street or playing basketball at the park on Presbyterian Hill. (I once painted a 76ers logo on the concrete at midcourt in order to make it feel more like the Spectrum. It did not, however, help me play like Julius Erving.)
Back on the topic: Some media outlets are taking a stand and are refusing to refer to Washington’s NFL team as the Redskins. In elaborating about Slate’s recent decision to stop using the word, David Plotz wrote, “While the name Redskins is only a bit offensive, it’s extremely tacky and dated -- like an old aunt who still talks about ‘colored people’ or limps her wrist to suggest someone’s gay.”
Ouch.
Union High School sports teams are known as the Redskins. I once heard a caucasian fellow publicly defend the use of the name and he backed his stance with statements about honoring Native American heritage.
Political football? It was a divisive issue for Northeastern State, located in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, when the university made a decision to call its teams Riverhawks instead of Redmen. Johnny Allen, who quarterbacked the Redmen to a national championship in the 1950s, is in the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame.
Native American sports names are absolutely a source of pride in some communities. Go to Kenwood, a K-8 school in Delaware County, and you’ll have a fight on your hands if you try to make the Kenwood Indians be the Kenwood Tigers or the Kenwood Anything Else.
Otherwise, are Redskin-type names so offensive that they should be banned in collegiate and professional sports? You're asking the wrong person. I shouldn’t get to vote. Poll the people who have every right to be honored or offended.
