At opener, Chiefs take big 1st step
Chiefs fans who filed into Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night for a masked and socially distanced start to the NFL season weren’t wearing headdresses or war paint amid a nationwide push for racial justice following the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The move by the reigning Super Bowl champions pleased Native Americans as a good first step, but frustrated some of the 17,000 fans who were in the stands as the team became the first to take the field in front of a crowd — albeit a smaller than normal one — during the coronavirus pandemic. Enforcing the new restrictions also comes as the team tries to require masks, which has proven challenging at some public practices.
NFL teams with Native American mascots are facing increased scrutiny after the team in Washington chose to drop Redskins as its nickname. The Chiefs also made a subtle change to the tomahawk chop celebration amid complaints that it’s racist, with cheerleaders using a closed first instead of an open palm to signal the beating of a drum.
“We’ve started to work and started some discussions about trying again to educate and make people aware of the sacred position of the drum in the American Indian culture, but also that it’s seen as sort of the heartbeat of that culture,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan said during a news conference Thursday. “And when you hear things like that, it’s easy to latch onto that, say, ‘OK, it’s kind of the heartbeat of the stadium too.’ ”
Calls to address racial issues have become more prevalent since Floyd died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into the handcuffed Black man’s neck for nearly eight minutes during an arrest over counterfeit money. Four officers were fired and have been charged in Floyd’s death.