According to reports, the new name will not be announced immediately.
Some insiders say Snyder couldn’t decide between “Injuns,” “Hostiles,” “Wagon Burners” and “Savages.” I’m kidding about that, but just barely. Snyder really wanted to keep all the racist iconography and rename the team “Warriors.” As I’ve noted in the past, this is roughly equivalent to Evil Roy Slade’s decision to start his new law-abiding life by changing his name to Evil John Ferguson.
Snyder also hoped to offend a different ethnic group for a while but, as we all know now, it is evil to offend any race or ethnicity except the Irish.
Wait a sec! Why doesn’t Notre Dame’s racist Irish caricature have red hair? Another minor point – I spent quite some time in Ireland working with the Shell people there (great place, by the way), and I never saw anyone wearing yellow shoes.
To be serious for a sec, the new name seems to be contingent on registering the trademarks, sealing all the licensing deals, and other legal folderol. Nobody seems to be spilling the beans about which name the team is attempting to lock down, but the coach said “he wanted the new name to honor both Native Americans and the military, saying that many native people join the military.” Personally, I would have suggested that the team stay away from ethnic identification altogether, but I’ll hold off until I see what he has in mind.
75% Irish?
Me? Yup. Three of my grandparents were Irish and one was German. Though I do also consider myself 100% American. There are a number of reasons to despise Woodrow Wilson, one of which was his claims that any American “who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready.” Combine that with the Sedition Act and (I saved the worst for last) bringing Segregation to DC and the federal government and it makes Donald Trump seem like a decent human being.
Do you know why there are so few Irish lawyers? Because they can’t pass a bar. John Kennedy Jr. actually failed the NY Bar a couple of times before he passed. On one of those occasions the NY Post ran a full front page headline “The Hunk Flunks.” I passed the NY Bar the first time I took it. It must have been becaise I’m 1/4 German.
Always thought “Fighting Irish” was just one step removed from “Drunken Micks”
The Drunken Micks would be a pretty cool name for a team. Drop the plural, and it’s a great title for a Mantle biography.
Seriously, I agree with you. The little Notre Dame Irishman logo is approximately equivalent to Chief Wahoo. I don’t know why it survives. It is amazing that this bizarre ethnic stereotype/caricature gets perpetuated and nobody seems to raise a stink about it, especially with such a high percentage of Americans claiming some Irish heritage.
The Washington Whiz! They can get Roger McGuinn to come in and do the new fight song, “Take a whiz on we”.
What’s the difference between an Irish wake and Irish wedding? One less drunk! My mom was pretty much 100% Irish. Erin Go Bragh …
Warrior is just as bad as Redskin? Warrior is not an ethnic slur. It isn’t an ethnic anything. It’s a yoga pose for crying out loud.
The word “warrior” is not a problem. The Golden State Warriors use it without offending anyone. It just means they are fierce combatants. That word has been in the English language since the 13th century, some two centuries before English speakers had ever encountered Native Americans, so the word is generic.
The reason I was joking is that Snyder wanted to change the name, but not all the racist iconography, so it would still be 99% as racist. Plus in that case, it would obviously not refer to a yoga pose or a generic mighty combatant, but simply a war-like Native American – exactly the image the First Nations are trying to dispel. Now if he chose “Warriors” and chose a generic image of a knight in armor, or Conan the Barbarian, or something like that, he’d be fine, although Golden State uses no such symbols. If Snyder wanted his team to be the Washington Warriors, he could follow Golden State’s lead and use the name, but have the symbol be the Washington Monument or the Capitol Dome, for example. (The Golden State Warriors use the Bay Bridge, and it looks way cool.)
But of course it would be better if he simply chose something that had nothing to do with humans or ethnic groups. There are plenty of fierce animals to choose from. Nobody gets offended if your team is the Wolverines (or other fierce beast).
The Golden State Warriors’ logo depicts the eastern span of the Bay Bridge (not the Golden Gate). It’s meant to symbolize the team’s connection of their old home in Oakland to their new home in San Francisco.
Thanks. Comment amended.
They have to contend with trademark squatters too.