The Washington Redskins’ response to Adidas is the organization’s latest public relations misstep.
When the Washington Redskins get a new name, it should be the Washington Dysfunction. It has a built in chant (“Who Dys?”) and perfectly reflects the state of the organization. The latest example of dysfunction is the unsollicited, unnecessary response to Adidas’ move to incentive high school teams who choose to drop Native American mascots in favor of more respectful alternatives.
As Barack Obama (yes, president Barack Obama) praised Adidas’ decision, the Washington R-words took it upon themselves to criticize the move, saying in a statement from team spokesman Maury Lane:
"The hypocrisy of changing names at the high school level of play and continuing to profit off of professional like-named teams is absurd. Adidas make hundreds of millions of dollars selling uniforms to teams like the Chicago Blackhawks and the Golden State Warriors, while profiting off sales of fan apparel for the Cleveland Indians, Florida State Seminoles, Atlanta Braves and many other like-named teams."
While the Washington team is busy whining and expressing indignation over Adidas’ offer, the Oneida Indian Nation leader Ray Halbritter called the move a “tremendous display of corporate leadership.” He also expressed hope that FedEx, who has naming rights to the Washington football team’s field, would follow suit.
Team owner Dan Snyder from his residence in a parallel universe (that’s the only explanation. It’s either that, or he’s terribly out of touch), has sworn he will never change the team’s name, and stands by his opinion that the name honors Native Americans.
Meanwhile on planet Earth, Adidas explained their rationale in encouraging schools to move away from offensive mascots. Eric Liedtke of Adidas said, “Today’s announcement is a great way for us to offer up our resources to schools that want to do what’s right.”
I suppose from that we can infer that the Washington football team is doing what’s wrong.