Snyder Inadvertently Putting a Fork in His Team’s Racist Nickname
By Ken Reed
I’ve written several times in the past that the Redskins nickname is dead in Washington. It’s not a question of if, but when.
But thanks to Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder, that time could come sooner than later.
As Colin McGowan wrote in a recent SportsOnEarth column, “It’s genuinely astounding that every damn time the Redskins try to sway public opinion on this issue, they embarrass themselves further. They could not be worse at this.”
Washington’s NFL franchise recently launched a #RedskinsPride campaign, asking fans to let Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — an outspoken opponent of the Redskins nickname — know how much they support the Redskins nickname. The team tweeted: “Tweet @SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride and tell him what the team means to you.” The team also emailed fans asking them to contact Sen. Reid.
As McGowan tells it:
“the Washington Redskins recently did something spectacularly dumb, so let’s talk about that. Two weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent a letter signed by half the U.S. Senate to the NFL, urging its leadership to put pressure on Dan Snyder to change his franchise’s racist nickname. Someone in Snyder’s stable of demonstrably overpaid flacks thought it would be a good idea to counter that letter with a hashtag campaign, which would allow Washington fans to — the logic gets fuzzy here — publicly express their support for a slur.”
One thing’s for sure: Snyder’s bonehead PR strategy is speeding up the process that will ultimately result in the demise of a racist nickname.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world, with over 150 camps in 30+ U.S. states and Canada. We discuss problems in youth sports today, including single sport specialization, the growing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” the high drop-out rate in competitive sports, and the growing mental health challenges young athletes are dealing with today.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
Follow on Facebook: @SportsForumPodcast
More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Episode #23 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Olympian Benita Fitzgerald Mosley Talks Title IX, Youth Sports and the Olympics.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
Books