GoBlue

December 18th, 2014 at 4:41 PM ^

Anyone else find it interesting that NFL.com is willing to publish this, suggesting that a coach who is still in-season, who still has a signed contract with a current team which runs through next year, should go work for another organization?  

I guess the NFL would not opt to accuse itself of tampering.

Joined: 07/24/2008

MGoPoints: 1267

Erik_in_Dayton

December 18th, 2014 at 4:01 PM ^

The NFL is the greatest institution that has ever existed and that could ever exist, as Leibniz demonstrated in Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil (and the badassery of the NF-fuckin'-L).

Joined: 12/03/2008

MGoPoints: 59161

Soulfire21

December 18th, 2014 at 4:24 PM ^

Sometimes sports and politics intersect.  Besides the name of the Redskins, which has been discussed on MGoBlog beore, there are things like player unions also being discussed.  I think, as long as people can be adults about it, it's a non-issue most of the time.

Joined: 03/18/2010

MGoPoints: 22716

speakeasy

December 18th, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^

Player unions are polticial because of the nature of unionization and are material to the structure and organization of college football in a way that the name of an NFL team is not to the league. Unions would fundamentally alter the structure of the game.

The name, though political in some sense, is a far more visceral and emotional issue which elicits reactions that player unionization discussions tend not to. And in general people have calmer conversations about issues on which they disagree, even very strongly, on the substance but from which they are emotionally detached.

I agree that adults should be able to discuss most any topic in a civil manner, but the reality is that it never works out that cleanly.

(And I say all of this as a long time DC sports fan who hates Snyder and supports a name change.)

Joined: 04/24/2009

MGoPoints: 1059

JonSnow54

December 18th, 2014 at 5:18 PM ^

Regardless of the mascot controversy, I just want to point out that your analogy is all wrong.  The name "Vikings" is an official historical name given to a people group, and it would be analogous to "Native Americans", which is the official historical name given to the indigenous peoples of North America.  

The term "Redskin" is a slang term used to refer to Native Americans, and would be analogous to a slang term used to refer to Vikings.  I am not aware of any slang terms for Vikings, though, so I can't give an example.

Joined: 08/26/2011

MGoPoints: 852

Cromulent

December 18th, 2014 at 5:29 PM ^

You missed the point entirely. The Vikings were slavers. White slavers. The NFL honors the memory of slavers by allowing a team to be named after a people famed for taking slaves. If you think naming a team "Redskins" is evil - I don't - then naming one after slavers is a heckuva lot worse.

Joined: 01/06/2011

MGoPoints: 4542

Erik_in_Dayton

December 18th, 2014 at 5:42 PM ^

As someone else pointed out here a few months ago, "Viking" isn't even a reference to an ethnic group.  It means something along the lines of "expeditioner." 

As to the idea that vikings took slaves, that's true, but that was a long time ago.  Icelanders (descendants of vikings and their slaves) are over it. 

Joined: 12/03/2008

MGoPoints: 59161

TheLastHarbaugh

December 18th, 2014 at 5:30 PM ^

Come on man, really? Really? I mean, really? You can't use some critical thinking skills to logic this one out? Really?

First of all, I've only ever heard the term "Viking" used in a positive manner in terms of being an adjective. Secondly, the Vikings were an actual group of people. The term is not, and has never been used as a perjorative.

Redskin, on the other hand ,has never been anything but a racist term used against Native American people.

If they were the Washington Algonquians or something, that would be more akin to "Vikings."

I'm Irish, and this is the difference between having an Irish team from an Irish Catholic school calling themselves "The Fighting Irish" and some pro team calling themselves "The Drunky McO'Hooligans."

Joined: 08/06/2008

MGoPoints: 10710

CooperLily21

December 18th, 2014 at 4:12 PM ^

Other than money - which I've read might not even reach the Michigan amount offered - I can't for the life of me figure out why he'd want to coach the Raiders.  That team is absolute garbage and the owner is a nutjob.  What's the appeal??

Joined: 03/05/2013

MGoPoints: 2262