Okay, this three times a week thing isn’t going to work with a baby in the house. I literally have been trying to write this blog entry for three days. So much for turning the ‘Skins thing into a podcast. That just ain’t happening any time soon. So while it may be many days after the fact now, I have some stuff to say about last Monday night’s game:
Once again, Mark Brunell showed that he was a mediocre quarterback, getting sacked 5 times, throwing an interception, and failing to drive the Redskins to as much as a field goal. That is, for the first 56 minutes of Monday’s game against Dallas at Texas Stadium. Then, two extraordinary passes to Santana Moss and a narrow 14-13 win against our arch-rivals, and suddenly he’s the belle of the ball. There is nothing that man can do in this town right now that wouldn’t be looked upon with reverence and awe.
But I’m not ready to jump on the bandwagon just yet. There’s a long season left to go, and Brunell has to show more than two great passes in the closing minutes of a game to prove that he’s worthy of the price the Redskins paid for him. Sure, a win against Dallas on the road is great, but we’ve got to play them again this year, plus tough games against a seemingly improved Giants team and a still-great Eagles team. (It pains me to call the Eagles “great.”)
Wilbon is still in love with Brunell, for reasons I just don’t understand. I mean I get one thing, Patrick Ramsey is done in this town. But if Brunell is the Quarterback of the Present, well, I don’t think the 2-0 start is going to be indicative of the rest of the season. I just hope that Jason Campbell is worth all the draft picks we traded away to get him.
On other Redskins notes, Mike Wise has written a column last Saturday that I thought for sure would send this town into a rampage. Basically, he states that anyone who’s a Redskins fan and who isn’t screaming and hollaring to change the team’s name (or, specifically, dresses their children and babies in Redskins garb) is a racist against Native Americans. But I’ve heard nary a mention of this in the local media, either radio or TV. The article goes into details about how the term “redskin” came about (which I knew) and that the man for whom the Redskins were named lied about being Native American (which I didn’t know). He also seemed to suggest that the players were against the name as well. And most of the bloggers that linked to his article seemed to agree with Wise. He went onto suggest (like the NCAA feels) that any team named after Native Americans is guilty of some sort of insensitivity towards a population that European invaders razed over on their insatiable quest for the sea. I’m not going to argue that people from my culture basically destroyed Native American culture, but how does changing the names of sports teams begin to rectify past injustices? Why are Native American references suddenly taboo? Is ignoring that Native Americans are a part of our history (not to mention our present) really the solution to the problems that currently plague Native American tribes, such as poverty, alcoholism, and poor schools? I don’t think so. Can we stop arguing about sports teams’ names and maybe focus a little of that energy on doing positive things to improve the position of today’s Native Americans in modern American society?
Besides, we can take this argument to absudum. For example, is it really appropriate for the University of Miami to keep its team named after a force of nature that just killed over 1,000 people along the Gulf Coast? What about the Chicago Bears? How do people who were mauled by bears or knew people killed by bears feel about having an NFL team named after such a dangers and viscious animal? We could go on and on with
So, Mr. Wise, I’m going to continue to dress my baby (and myself) in Redskin-logo’ed apparel, and I’ll keep going to Redskins games, and I will take pride in the fact that I’m a Redskins fan. And I’m going to stay okay with their name because it’s all a part of the team I love.
Grr. Got that off my chest for now.