Commanders and Guardians don't need to revert to racist names to be great again | Opinion
Instead of focusing on the names of professional sports teams, maybe Trump should focus on releasing the Epstein files and lowering egg prices, as he promised.
- President Donald Trump is urging the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians to revert to their former names, which were considered offensive by many.
- Trump claims there's "big clamoring" from Native Americans for the name changes, despite criticism and a movement to remove such names and imagery.
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist James E. Causey argues against reverting the names and suggests the NFL should consider legal action if Trump interferes with the Commanders' stadium plans.
- Causey reflects on his own changing perspective on the use of Native American imagery in sports.
Help me out, Wisconsin. Please, no one tell President Donald Trump that Milwaukee used to have an MLB team called the Braves or that Marquette University used to be known as the Warriors. I don't want to jump into the way-back machine.
You might have heard Trump is urging the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Guardians to revert to their former team names, which included derogatory terms based on racist caricatures.
He even suggested that if the Commanders did not change their name back, he would obstruct the NFL team’s efforts to build a new $3.7 billion football stadium in Washington, DC.
This stance is part of Trump’s agenda to "Make America Great Again," even if it offends Native Americans who have criticized the previous names and images for decades. This can be seen as his latest attempt at what he believes is patriotism. I'm afraid he wants to take America so far back to a time when there was separate water fountains for Black and White people.
Trump claims Native Americans 'want this to happen'
In a July 20 post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump claimed that Native Americans want the names reverted.
"There is a big clamoring for this," wrote Trump. "Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen. Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago."
I'm uncertain how many Native Americans Trump consulted to conclude that "massive numbers" want the name changed back. Even if that were true – which I doubt – it raises the question of why they would like the name to be reverted in the first place.
Following George Floyd's killing by a Minneapolis police officer, there was a renewed effort to remove Confederate statues seen as symbols of slavery and racism and to eliminate racist sports team names. By the end of 2020, nearly 100 Confederate monuments had been taken down, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Efforts begun in the Biden administration to rename offensive and derogatory place names – including many in Wisconsin – were halted by Trump-appointed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
The Washington football team rebranded as the Commanders in 2022 following the controversy surrounding its original name. Similarly, the Cleveland baseball team changed its name to the Guardians in 2021 after going by the original name since 1915.
Neither Washington nor Cleveland appears willing to cave to pressure to revert to names used in the past simply to appease Trump, and both should firmly stand by this decision.
Furthermore, if Trump interferes with the Commanders' efforts to secure a new stadium, the NFL should consider legal action. This could prevent Trump from targeting other teams in similar ways. What would stop him from pushing teams to return to leather helmets or reinstating outdated rules intended to protect players?
Milwaukee Brewers, Marquette Golden Eagles changed names
Imagine what will happen if Trump discovers Milwaukee's past? Before moving to Atlanta in 1966, the MLB franchise used a logo with a laughing Native American with a mohawk and feather.
What about my alma mater, Marquette University? Will he pressure the school to change from the Golden Eagles back to “the Warriors,” which in 1961-71 featured Willie Wampum, a Native American with a giant cartoonish head and Indigenous clothing?
I must admit that I had a hard time adjusting to the name changes for Washington and Cleveland. The team change for the nation's capital was especially difficult for me because, as a football historian, I remember the great battles between the Washington (derogatory name) and the Green Bay Packers.
Do you remember the 1983 football game between Washington and Green Bay at Lambeau Field, which became the second-highest scoring game in Monday Night Football history? Washington's quarterback, Joe Theismann, and the Packers' quarterback, Lynn Dickey, combined to throw for nearly 800 yards. The Packers won the game 48-47 with a field goal by Jan Stenerud.
This game quickly made the Washington team my second favorite. Although its logo featured an image of Blackfeet Chief Two Guns White Calf, I didn't find anything wrong with the depiction of the Native American with a red face.
For years, I hadn’t fully understood the significance and racial implications of the derogatory name and imagery associated. That changed after a conversation with one of my former editors, Ricardo Pimentel.
He posed a thought-provoking question: "James, what if the Washington team was called the Washington N-words?" While no one would ever take it that far, his words made me rethink and recognize the impact of such imagery.
This is something that Trump should consider before interfering with professional sports. Instead, he might want to focus on delivering on promises he made to the American people ‒ you know, about releasing the Jeffrey Epstein case files and lowering egg prices.
James E. Causey is an Ideas Lab reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where this column originally appeared. Reach him at jcausey@jrn.com or follow him on X: @jecausey