The Navajo Nation Has Announced Its Preferred Choice For Washington’s Name Change

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Leave it to the Washington future Hogs (wishful thinking) to finally concede to changing the team’s name in the wake of a totally unrelated civil rights movement as opposed to, ya know, decades of unrelenting pleas from the people trivialized.

The name change is a good thing, but if Dan Snyder and the Hogs top brass were really enlightened, the word “Redskins” wouldn’t have appeared on their statement SEVEN damn times.

As the name change saga has reportedly hit a copyright snag, the Navajo Nation have offered their preferred choice for the team’s re-brand that would avoid all the copyright hoopla.

The Navajo Nation occupies over 27,000 square miles of territory, the largest retained by an indigenous tribe in the United States (larger than 10 states), and consists of a population over 175,000. I think their opinion may matter a smidge.

“July 13, 2020 is now a historic day for all Indigenous peoples around the world as the NFL Washington-based team officially announced the retirement of the racist and disparaging ‘Redskins’ team name and logo,” Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez wrote. “This change did not come about willingly by the team’s owners, but by the mounting pressure and advocacy of Indigenous peoples such as Amanda Blackhorse, and many other warriors who fought long and hard for this change.”

The statement continued: “We strongly encourage the NFL Washington organization to rename their team in such a way that truly honors and respects the First Americans of this country. Renaming the team ‘Code Talkers’ to honor the Navajo Code Talkers, and other tribal nations who used their sacred language to help win World War II, would set the team on a path to restoring its reputation and correcting the historical misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples.”

The Code Talkers are the epitome of unsung heroes. They were vital in front line operations during World War II and weren’t even recognized until after the de-classification of their work over 20 years later, and it took another 15 years after that for given a Certificate of Recognition by Ronald Reagan.

Code Talkers. Good humans. Questionable football team name.

HOGS, on the other hand…

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.