Giant statement just an illusion
This story is supposed to be different. It was all worked out in my head Friday morning, when we all wanted to believe that the Giants were making a powerful statement against the racially charged nickname of the NFL’s Washington franchise, when they tweeted out their 2016 schedule listing every opposing team’s nickname except the racial slur used in DC. This was supposed to be a story celebrating the Giants as the first franchise to take a bold stand against Daniel Snyder and Roger Goodell.
But no, the Giants say that it was just an accident, not an eloquent dissent to an offensive moniker. So now, the only thing we can hope is that some other team noted the positive feedback that came from Thursday night’s accidental activism — and is finally ready to make the bold move from which the Giants have run from.
Because it’s time. Consider this a call for some NFL franchise — or any sports franchise — to finally start a concerted push for a name change in Washington. Because if Thursday night proved anything, it is that NFL fans — and many others — are desperate for somebody to take that first step toward eradicating the team nickname that disrespects a nation. We are ready to embrace the team that’s willing to do this, and own a stance in support of all Native Americans.
We all wanted that so badly on Thursday, didn’t we? So when the Giants tweeted out a social media graphic of their schedule that listed Washington only as “Washington” at 8:33 p.m., it seemed like the landmark move everyone wanted. The Giants were the team standing up to the flawed company line, no longer awaiting tone-deaf Snyder’s change of heart.
But it was all an illusion, created by a nation that wants the NFL to embrace racial sensitivity instead of conveniently forgetting about it. You hope some team saw how badly we all wanted the illusion to be real, how much, for a few hours, the Giants seemed like heroes, much like last week, when ESPN’s Bomani Jones donned a “Caucasians” T-shirt to call attention to the same issue and was universally celebrated on social media.
Accident or not, the Giants had the power to push change here, but they chose to run. A team spokesman stressed that the club uses “Washington” and that other name “interchangeably,” even pointing out that the team had tweeted the graphic earlier with the league-mandated correct name for Washington.
The Giants had very little interest in social justice on Thursday: In their press release about the regular-season schedule, it used Washington’s nickname four times.
So no, the Giants aren’t truly interested in this issue, even if the rest of the nation is so attuned to the gross injustice done by that Washington name that we all picked up on the botched schedule. Heck, the last thing the Giants wanted to do, sadly, is stand against their sport and stand for the Native American population.
And that’s a shame, because Thursday should have been the start of a change in the league’s mindset, a change that simply must come from the inside. The only way the tone-deaf Snyder and the megalomaniacal Goodell will ever change Washington’s nickname is if the change starts inside the NFL Owners Country Club. For years, there’s been outcry, from the Native American community, from numerous publications (including the Daily News), from President Barack Obama even suggesting that this matter needed discussion.
And for years, Goodell and Snyder have ignored the noise. The only way they’ll have to stop ignoring: If an NFL team has the bravery to break league solidarity to address the problem, if an NFL team is willing to transform this into a storyline for an entire offseason.
No, it won’t be easy. It’s never easy to call out your filthy-rich brethren, even when you know they’re wrong. That is precisely why it’s not all that hard to believe that John Mara and Steve Tisch had no intention of making a statement, and that it was all an “accident.”
But you have to hope that some team paid attention to how things played out, how the stories and the tweets that came out of a mistake were largely positive. The Giants were the good guys, backing up the little guys and standing up to the bad guys.
On Friday, the Giants were just guys, just another team looking to fall in line with Goodell and the league office that’s made them billions.
And the story about the NFL team that made a powerful statement against its league, and was willing to own its stance, will have to be written another day.