Around the NFL
Leonard Pitts Jr., the columnist for The Miami Herald, has put together a nice piece, pointing out the ridiculousness of Daniel Snyder suing the Washington City Paper for $2 million.
Snyder in particular doesn’t like the artwork that went with the story, which featured a photo of him that’s been defaced by a scribbled moustache and devil horns. Snyder, Pitts points out, has gone as to contact the Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Writes Pitts:
But there is an obvious irony here. The team Snyder owns is, after all, called the Redskins. It is called that despite long efforts by American Indian leaders to get it changed. They invoke the freighted history of that word, the blood that soaks it, the tears that drench it, the genocide it justified, and they say, this is no fit name for a football team.
Snyder always responds as he did in a recent radio interview with Washington Post columnist Mike Wise: "The name is not meant to be offensive whatsoever." Which is, as it happens, the same argument the City Paper has made; the image had no anti-Semitic intent. But Snyder, hypocrisy blind and irony deaf, said it was "silly’’ to compare that photo with the racial slur that is his team’s name.
Pitts raises some good points, and it’s worth a read if you’re into that kind of issue.
I think Snyder is wading into a public relations disaster on this one. When you start complaining loudly about a newspaper or magazine article, you simply draw more attention to it. Had he ignored the article, it would already be largely forgotten by this point.
—Ian Allan
- Comments [4]
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Posted by Brian Grzybowski | Feb. 13 at 03:45 AM
That's the first time I've ever seen you publish the name of the Washington team. Granted, it's in a quote. I always thought it was very forward thinking of you guys to not use it. I can't believe that public opinion hasn't forced a change yet. Maybe Snyder has inadvertently started a chain reaction that brings this issue to the forefront. Keep up the good work!
Posted by DAVID DIGREGORIO | Feb. 13 at 06:31 AM
Too much political correctness enables victimhood.
Posted by DAVID DIGREGORIO | Feb. 13 at 06:40 AM
On another matter, Fanball is closing. I called and was told that they weren't making enough money to stay open. I've been playing their rotisserie for years. My fantasy year begins when the publish their players salaries. Do you know any other web sites that run such games? And then we have the lock out. Not good.
Posted by PETER DEBIASE | Feb. 15 at 04:43 AM
I played in a FFB league on Real Time Fantasy Sports two seasons ago and had a bad experience in the public league I was in. That may have just been an isolated incident, so I won't diss them too much but they also have some rather archaic rules regarding player adds and drops at the end of the season. Payouts were fair though. I'm really gonna miss Fanball for baseball and the FFB challenge contests. Web address for RTFS is rtsports.com.