Can you believe that Washington is really changing the name of the Team?
I have lived threw the days when RFK shook and we really did want Dallas. For those of us who remember George Allen, as the coach, all his conspiracy theories rang true to the 12-year-old me. How prophetically paranoid was he? Just look at the cheating in football and the World Series last year.
I had an epiphany when Washington won it’s first Super Bowl in 1983, with John “The Diesel” Riggins rambling for daylight in a time of desperation. I thought the universe as I knew it would be forever altered. That lasted until the next day when I realized I still had to go to work, just like always. Turns out not that the victory was not a far-reaching as I had imagined.
Now we are on the brink of a new name and mascot. I have thought the old name was wrong for a long time. I advocated having a weekly drawing for that week’s ethnic community, with a big spinning wheel to select the ethnic slur with attendant uniform and pendants for that week, There would be multiple jerseys, helmets, and memorabilia to market, and new groups to select and inspire into protesting the action. The marketing possibilities lost are mind-boggling.
The killing of George Floyd and unfolding public upheavals it has brought, with heightened sensitivity and less tolerance, require this change. Its more than time for changing the name of the team.
There are so many joys and heartaches in my memories as a Washington football fan. But it is a franchise with some awful history, the last to integrate, which fought for ole Dixie. There were also many great victories, admirable players, and coaches. My Dad, siblings, and I spent many Sundays in the joy of victory and the agony of defeat, with some ranting and curse words occasionally featured.
Sports are for men the great soap opera. We follow the player from college or before, through their rookie year, and onward until they are old men at say 33, and even long after. With that much background information, the highs are higher and lows sometimes lower when we see our heroes succeed or fail.
As we enter training camp for this Coronavirus season, we all are wondering just how things will go. As I’ve gotten older, I feel for the many young men who are injured in a normal season. Live altering injuries don’t seem real to a 25 or 30-year-old. I have lots of friends now coping with the aftermath of past glories on the field.
We now have the overlay of a pandemic to view the season through. Should they play? Are our entertainment and the economy worth it? Far-reaching questions. I just hope they’ll be safe.
One problem with changing the name of the team: Will we still want the Cowboys when we are no longer Indians?
