Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Well, it looks like Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has turned salty towards the Washington Redskins. Now, along with his vision of the team returning back to the District, he’s joining the aged old fight of wanting the team to change their name.
According to reports he said, “I think it has become a lightning rod, and I would love to be able to sit down with the team…and see if a change should be made. There’s a precedent for this, and I think there needs to be a dispassionate discussion about this, and do the right thing.”
He’s had to watch from a spectator’s point of view the great season the Redskins has had and it’s eating at him. Why? Because he’s obsessed with having the team in his city. It’s not going to happen. I reported last year about how this pipe dream became a one-man push: Gray being the one man.
The community didn’t want it, his own commissioners were barely part of the conversation. Eventually, this idea fell on its face. Loudoun County and the City of Richmond will be the only places that will capitalize on the Redskins’ success. So when I read about how Gray now wants to join the long, drawn out fight for the Redskins to change their name, I shook my head.
He’s not doing this because he feels it’s the right thing to do. If there were a better name that could be used in place of Redskins, I’m sure everyone would be all for it–even if this name is the most recognizable football name in the world next to the Dallas Cowboys. Things are different now and we’re more educated on the world around us. However, I find it very interesting that he picks now to do this. Would we be hearing this if they had gone to the Super Bowl this year? No, he needed a window of opportunity to get some attention back on himself to secretly push his agenda: Go after the Redskins again. He has to know (I hope) that any dream of the Redskins going back to D.C. is over. He should just visit Richmond with the rest of us when they arrive.
This is about position. He knows that should the Redskins ever return to D.C., they’ll be eaten alive by the “United Political Correctness Police.” It’s a fight that would be nasty, politically charged, and so far from football, it’ll be more of a notch on his belt for re-election than a good cause.
Mayor Gray, you’ve joined this fight a few years too late. This, along with your other ideas will not change the fact you feel you’re missing out on great financial gain. Listen to your people, because you will never have a dog in this fight- a fight that doesn’t exist anymore.
Related:
- D.C. Mayor Making Moves for Washington Redskins Training
- Redskins Training Facility Idea Facing Early Opposition in D.C.
