Time to rename “Hail to the Redskins.”
Better: “Hail to Trump’s Redskins.”
Either way, it’s still HTTR for old D.C. fans, who sing that fight song with fervor for the Redskins. And that team name could be back soon, thanks to President Trump.
He’s threatening to block Washington’s plan for a domed stadium on the old RFK Stadium site unless the Redskins return.
Dump Commanders. Resurrect Redskins, the real name NFL faithful in the capital recognize.
Only Donald Trump has the spine to tell ownership to lift the Washington Redskins to their rightful pantheon. Outside of fans clamoring for five years to restore that glorious name, a weak minority wilted amid the media heat.
TV/radio announcers and writers for years purported to find Redskins anathema.
Phil Simms, the old Giant quarterback, refused to say Redskins on CBS broadcasts. Max Kellerman, when he wasn’t dissecting boxing, avoided mentioning Redskins on his ESPN radio show. The sports author Jeff Pearlman did everything but barf at anything Redskins.
All white liberals, typical of the outraged set. They found Redskins a stunning slap at American Indians.
Oh, the insult! Oh, the humanity!
And Indians? Anyone ask them?
Why, yes. The Native American Guardians Association shouts on its website, “90% of Native Americans disagree” that it’s racist to say “Redskins/Redmen.” It cites polls from the past two decades.
That group isn’t messing around. It has filed a lawsuit against the team’s owners to resurrect the Redskins.
The group clarifies: “The historical Redskin actually has nothing to do with the color or race of the Indian at all. It is specific to those early, red-painted native warriors who were known for their bravery, skill and fighting spirit. The Red Men were Red-painted warriors ready for battle.”
Kind of like how ready the Redskins were in 1982, 1987 and 1991 — when they captured NFL titles.
Joe Theismann handing off to John Riggins for his iconic romp to the end zone against Miami in Super Bowl 17.
Doug Williams going bombs away to Ricky Sanders in a domination of Denver in Super Bowl 22.
Mark Rypien dishing to Gary Clark and Art Monk in a blowout of Buffalo in Super Bowl 26.
That was a Redskin dynasty full of color: the Hogs, the Fun Bunch.
Really, it started a decade before with the Over the Hill Gang, starring coach George Allen’s oldies of Billy Kilmer and Chris Hanburger.
Allen’s optimism rivaled Mr. Trump’s. Upon landing the Redskin job in January 1971, he promised, “We’ll win at once.”
Did they ever. Allen’s Gang started that year 5-0, reached the playoffs for the first time in eons and landed in the Super Bowl the next season.
Also in 1972, the Redskins sported a helmet logo that was the vision of Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, a leader of the Blackfeet Nation (who were so called for their footwear, not the soles of their feet). This was no white shot at Indians. It was to honor them.
Washingtonians reacted with Redskin Fever, packing RFK with wild enthusiasm.
President Trump knows it. He was a pro football owner himself, running the New Jersey Generals of the U.S. Football League in the 1980s, exactly when an Allen successor, Joe Gibbs, blazed through the NFL with the Redskins.
So Mr. Trump meant it when he posted on Truth Social, “I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington. The Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone.”
You can already feel it.
Team owner Josh Harris, wilting to lefty pressure, says, “The old name can’t come back.”
The heck with that noise, say true believers. Their drumbeat resulted in a comeback of the Redskin logo.
Now watch the team surrender to the commander in chief, a signal-caller impervious to blitzes from the left.
Bucky Fox is an author and editor in Florida.
Image: All-Pro Reels, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed
