Two Washington Post contributors want the Redskins to change their team name to honor an Indian chief that defeated the United States in a war.
Bob Drury and Thomas Clavin suggest that the Redskins should change their name to “Red Clouds,” and doing so would “go a long way toward repairing the relationship between the NFL and American Indians. And it would involve minor alterations to the team’s logo and even its famous fight song, which could be sung, without missing a beat, as ‘Hail to the Red Clouds.'”
Seriously.
The authors have written a book titled, The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend, and note that “there is precedent for naming an NFL franchise after an individual — the Cleveland Browns took their name from their first head coach, Ohio coaching legend Paul Brown.”
According to the authors, “Red Cloud was one of the most famous American Indians of the 1800s” and “his trips to Washington to represent the interests of the Sioux and other tribes were covered by newspapers from Chicago to New York to Boston. These same newspapers gave prominent position to his obituary when Red Cloud died in 1909, at age 88”:
He was treated as a head of state, given tours of the Capitol and the Washington Navy Yard — where he witnessed a gunnery demonstration — and was feted at a White House reception hosted by President Ulysses S. Grant. The former commander of the Union armies may have recognized the significance of Red Cloud accomplishing in two years what Robert E. Lee could not in four: defeating the United States in a war.And that is something for Daniel Snyder to consider.
“What football team would not be honored to bear his name? And what general manager and coach would not use Red Cloud’s personal story as a template for creating a winning franchise?” they write. “Named after such a proud and powerful winner, the Washington Red Clouds would be a lock to emulate their namesake and rout 49ers, defeat Raiders, humiliate Cowboys, pluck Eagles, turn back Texans, break Broncos and generally leave quivering the remaining would-be Giants and Titans of the National Football League.”