Reasons For Changing a Name

RUMOR HAS IT that the new name for the Washington Redskins will be the "Washington Bravehearts". You know what? That isn't a half bad name. Good idea. The word "braveheart" embodies the true spirit of native americans, without insult. Political correctness often goes beyond the bounds or reason in excess, but not this time. You cannot argue that the word "redskin" isn't pejorative to native americans. After all, the injured party says its injured, so its injured. There was never any need to change the name. There is a hybrid called the "redskinned potato", so there you go. Put a tater where the indian head now is, a sprig of grain for the feathers, replace the helmet with a plate, and you're back in business. The dirty little secret is that, assuming the name is in fact changed fairly soon, it will not have anything to do, or very little to do, with racism or political incorrectness. It will all be about money. Big money. The kind of money that comes to big business when millions of sheepish followers flock out to purchase a whole new set of clothing and other items with the team colors and logo. T shirts, jackets, ball caps, all the way to plastic mugs and bed sheets. The list is endless, the market huge. When Michael Joradn returned to basketball after a two year surrealistic stint in proffessional baseball, he did not put on his old number forty five. Instead, he started wearing number twenty three. At the time, reasons given for this were vague and flimsy; he wanted a fresh start, somebody else was now wearing number forty five, something cheesy, which we all seemed to buy into. The truth, of course, was money. The mega bucks to be made when millions of kids nagged their parents into a new "Jordan 23" T shirt, basketball top, jacket, bedsheet, whatever. Somebody must have made a fortune when that happened, including Em Jay himself. Some high priced corporate lawyer doubless phoned Jordan one day, sugested lunch, then, over salad, laid it out: "Michael we can all make a great deal of money if you change your number when you go back to basketball." So, the Redskins will choose to not continue insulting American Indians, not to remin redkins nor to become potatos, they will change their name to a similarly intended one, and start the cash registers ringing. Even though no sports team in history ever named itself with the intention to slander itself by slandering anyone (why would they?); redskins was always intended to indicate toughness, fierce warriorlike qlalities, like braveheart, not racial bigotry. The political correctness camd later. They actually named the team "redskins" in the first place for all the right reasons, not the wrong ones. Its just too bad that when they change the name this time, it will be for all the wrong reasons, not the right ones.