Wednesday, February 18, 2004

The Passion of Joe Gibbs

By Mark Hand

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Posted 02/18 | Add a Comment

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  1. Dear Mark:  Once again you’ve provided an interesting, insightful piece on something that’s unlikely to get much attention elsewhere. Thanks.  Although many people, I’m sure, appreciate, the heartfelt gesture you make at the end of the article in italics --I do-- respecting the use of the name “Redskins,” I have one serious reservation (no pun intended, of course).  That is, as many have tried to relegate Indians to being a footnote in history, it might be helpful, to say the least, to put a comment like that in the body of an article such as yours.  And, it’s noteworthy that a major local newspaper in Portland, Oregon has chosen to refer to the team as “the Washington team” until such time that the “franchise adopts an inoffensive moniker....” As a footnote, sales haven’t declined for the newspaper.  Thanks for your kind consideration, Richard, your fan.

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  02/17  at  01:53 PM

  2. It’s nice to read something a bit more informative than the average sports section’s fluff piece about the new coach in town, or in this case the returning coach.

    I wonder, however if football fans are only a slightly less homogenous political group than NASCAR followers.  Assuming the latter can be accurately portrayed by the god fearing Christian southern white male who votes Republican in the face of the continued loss of mill/manufacturing jobs endangering his family, can football fans be as clearly defined?

    I think football fans run the gamut from the same southern males to billionaires playing games with fortunes built on shipping jobs overseas, from a disenfranchised urban populace that seeks distraction from its plight to anti-establishment writers who document that plight and on to the broad spectrum of the middle class that ring the NFL’s cities with suburbs of contentment where their team provides weekly entertainment. From the pulpit, into the temple, in the warehouse, in the stacks, at the office, on the construction site a diverse group of football fans wear the colors and cheer or bleed for the team.

    Granted the ones that end up attending the pinnacle of the NFL’s season, the Super Bowl, could properly be described as a homogenous group of white male mid-level and higher executives, but even then, included in the 80,000 are thousands of average folks and contest winners who will make their way there as well, if only to remind the former of the need for a velvet rope.

    Posted by Jeff Gates from  on  02/21  at  04:14 PM

  3. You raise some good points, Jeff, about whether NFL fans are as homogeneous as one might think. Given the diversity of the fan base that you accurately describe, I think it would be a shrewd political move for President Bush to continue courting Joe Gibbs who is beloved by all Skins fans—of all political stripes and economic backgrounds—in the Washington area. As for whether NASCAR fans are as similar in nature as many think, this is also open to debate, as you indicate. The American Prospect provides an interesting perspective on that issue. Here’s the link ... http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/webfeatures/2004/02/thompson-m-02-17.html

    Richard, I think if more newspapers and news media outlets adopted the Oregonian’s policy on not using “Redskins” in sports stories, then maybe the team would come to its senses that it’s on the wrong side of the issue. My story was about Joe Gibbs’ ties to the political establishment in D.C. so that’s why I didn’t raise my concern with the team moniker in the body of the story. And I think if I had the fortune to become publisher/editor of a daily newspaper, I’d continue using the team’s nickname in sports stories while at the same time editorializing and writing news stories about the inherent racism in the name.

    Posted by Mark Hand from  on  02/21  at  04:43 PM

  4. Thanks, Mark.  I know your heart is in a good place with respect to the moniker issue. And, of course, I realize what the body of your article was about...and could not be about.  However, bringing up the mascot matter is to underscore how it’s not a peripheral issue, that it is something that must be put to bed definitively.  I am writing this because I plan to submit an article which touches upon the urgency to come to grips with what’s generally considered a minor problem --if a problem at all-- by the general public.  In the article I make reference to your piece, and I have tried to make it clear that you are not racist, that my concern is one of what to do about misuse of Native American symbols, when...and how.  I might note here, in closing, that Stanford University --for all their faults in other areas-- did make a major contribution of the kind I’m concerned with...and are not suffering as a result any more than that paper from Oregon.  We need more of the same, and we need the general population to get creative with how to stop the mindless misuse of Native American images, to finish with appropriating anything and everything that is theirs...with arrogance...without apology...without respect whatsoever. 
    Thanks for listening, Richard

    Posted by Richard Oxman from  on  02/22  at  01:41 PM

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