Gaffe reveals Redskins manning ‘fan’ Twitter account

The Washington Redskins have outdone themselves this time.

The team that brought us incredibly sexist comments from the GM’s wife directed towards a female ESPN reporter, catastrophically bad handling of the Robert Griffin III situation, and astoundingly awkward decision to criticize Adidas’ efforts to encourage high schools to use not-racist mascots, has outdone itself.

This time, after a mid-game gaffe on Twitter, it became embarrassingly clear that the Washington football organization is running an Twitter account in support of the Washington Redskins mascot, called “Redskins Facts.”

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post was the eagle-eyed reporter who caught the mistake. Basically a game update was tweeted out, and summarily deleted, from the Redskins Facts account. Seconds later, the same exact tweet appeared on the Redskins official Twitter feed.

It doesn’t take much sleuthing to figure out what that means. The Redskins social media person was tweeting on Redskins Facts, the allegedly fan-run account.

The controversy over Washington’s mascot is not an entirely new one, though it has reached a fever pitch in recent years, with even President Barack Obama weighing in on the mascot, which many consider to be racist. In addition to the presidential opinion,  St. Paul, Minnesota has considered banning Washington Redskins gear in their schools, while Native American advocacy groups have long opposed the name, despite owner Dan Snyder’s repeated assertions that Native Americans aren’t offended by the name.

Though the organization cannot hide behind their “fan” Twitter account anymore, than will likely continue whining that the Chicago Blackhawks and Golden State Warriors are disrespectful to Native Americans as well. Because, you know, if one team is offensive, all other teams have a right to be as well.