The Redskins logo survived another challenge Monday but that doesn’t mean it’s not a marked target.
The last quarter century has seen the demise of hundreds of high school and college mascots offensive to American Indians.
“It’s going very well at the college levels,” said John Dossett, a lawyer for the National Congress of American Indians. “The hardest nut to crack has been at the professional level. I think it’s because there’s so much money involved.”
Forbes estimated this year that the Redskins made some $148 million from “brand management,” which helped make it the second most valuable franchise in the National Football League, behind the Dallas Cowboys but in front of the New England Patriots.
Dossett and others say that it’s only a matter of time. And they’ve had high-profile victories:
» In the early 1970s, Dartmouth — chartered in part to educate American Indians — dumped its nickname, the Indians. Without an official mascot, campus wags have tried to nominate “Keggy,” an anthropomorphic beer keg, as the team’s mascot
» In 1997, Miami University in Ohio, changed its mascot from Redskins to Redhawks.
» In 2005, the NCAA banned the use of “hostile” or “offensive” mascots, which put 18 mascots in the cross hairs and led to the death of, among others, the University of Illinois’ “Chief Illiniwek.” It’s not just American Indian sensitivities that are taken into account. In 2004, the Syracuse Orangemen and -women became the gender-neutral Orange. And in 1997, the Washington Bullets bowed to pressure from leaders of what was then perceived America’s murder capital and changed their name to the Wizards.
