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Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa on preseason playing time
Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa on preseason playing time
The Miami Dolphins and Washington Commanders will hold a joint practice Thursday in Miami Gardens. They also play an exhibition game Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
What’s that? You don’t know who the Commanders are?
How about if we said … Washington Redskins?
Why did the Washington Redskins change their name?
Yes, the NFL’s Washington franchise switched its name two years ago, but many NFL fans still call them by their former name, which was part of the movement to get rid of all offensive sports nicknames. In 2020, the team retired its name and logo in response to economic pressure in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests. Washington did not have a nickname for the 2021 season – going by the awkward “Washington Football Team” – before unveiling its new name in 2022.
Native American groups and individuals had pushed for Washington to change its offensive name for decades, but team ownership refused – until sponsors and advertisers started threatening to pull out. Fans then were asked to come up with a new nickname – and 40,000 suggestions led to the Commanders, a “homage to the U.S. capital’s connection to the military.” The team’s helmets now consist of a huge gold W with a burgundy background.
Here are some others in the sports sphere who switched their names and are now politically correct:
Cleveland Guardians
The team formerly known as the Indians followed Washington’s lead and ditched that nickname and logo. But in Cleveland’s case, it was not money but discussions with fans, stakeholders in the franchise and Native American groups that led to the switch in 2022.
Who are the Guardians? According to the team, they are named for “the Guardians of Traffic, eight monolithic 1932 Art Deco sculptures by Henry Hering on the city’s Hope Memorial Bridge, which is adjacent to Progressive Field” where the team plays its home games.
Chief Wahoo, the team’s mascot, actually was retired in 2018. The new mascot – Slider – certainly is not offensive. Just strange, a poor cousin to the infamous Phillie Phanatic.
St. John’s Red Storm
The Johnnies went by Red Men for many years, the school insisting it signified the red uniforms worn by all its athletic teams.
However, that nickname came to be linked to a Native American slur and American Indian groups pressured the school to change it. Perhaps that’s because the team logo and mascot was a Native American warrior, complete with St. John’s sports jackets sporting a headdress on the back as the team logo. The mascot was changed in 1991 and Red Storm arrived for the 1994-95 school year.
The current mascot, Johnny Thunderbird, came out of fans’ voting and explained in this way: “A mythological spirit of thunder and lightning believed by some Native Americans to take the shape of a great bird.”
Miami of Ohio Redhawks
Once also known as the Redskins, the university changed its nickname in 1997.
According to the campus newspaper, The Miami Student, “the Miami Tribe sent Miami University a resolution that said “the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma can no longer support the use of the nickname [a derogatory term for Native Americans] and suggest that the Board of Trustees discontinue the use of [a derogatory term for Native Americans] and other Indian related names …”
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A year later, the name was changed to Redhawks.
Chiefs, Blackhawks, Braves still are around … Seminoles, too
Despite pressure, Kansas City’s NFL franchise, Chicago’s NHL franchise and Atlanta’s MLB franchise still retain their nicknames and logos. Florida State remains the Seminoles, but FSU has the blessing of the state’s Seminole tribe. In 1995, the Tribal Council passed a resolution that supported the university’s continued use of the Seminole name and associated images.
