With a new NFL season underway, an Oklahoma businessman from the Osage Nation labeled Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder an "idiot" on
Newsmax TV Monday for clinging to a professional football team name with a history as a racial slur against Native Americans.
Ryan Red Corn, co-owner of the communications firm Buffalo Nickel Creative, also slammed the other "MidPoint" guest discussing the Redskins controversy: Bryan Preston, the Austin, Texas-based editor in chief of PJ Media's political wire, The Grid.
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Asked by "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner whether Snyder is "a racist or just clueless," Red Corn responded, "He's an idiot, like my esteemed colleague from Texas, Ed."
Preston laughed off the insult and fielded the same question, calling Snyder "a terrible owner" who, "one way or the other," will probably have to change his NFL team's name to quell the furor.
Preston disagreed with the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for stripping the franchise of federal trademark protection in June, saying, "They shouldn't have done what they did."
The office's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled 2-1 that the team name is "disparaging of Native Americans" and rescinded the trademark's federal protection, leaving Snyder with no legal recourse for unauthorized use of the Redskins name and logo.
Preston noted that the patent office isn't the only entity
pressuring the franchise.
"They'll end up being forced to change the name because that's where we are in this country — when a few people get together and decide that they're offended by something," he said.
Snyder, whose team lost its season opener on Sunday, recently
defended the name on ESPN as a term of "honor" and "respect."
Red Corn disagreed.
"What he's really asking for is to be in charge of a term that has a long history of racism," he said. "The term — the origin of it — can be linked to the fact that people went and got bounties, and those bounties were called 'redskins.'"
Red Corn was referring to 'redskins' as an early American slang term for the
severed scalps of slain Native Americans, which bounty hunters turned in to collect reward money from local governments that wanted Native Americans killed.
He said, "I don't think if you were walking down the street and you saw a Native American person, you would say, 'Hey, Redskin.' … You'd either get laughed at or a confrontation would ensue."
Red Corn said that if Snyder does relent someday, "it will probably be because it's a business decision."
He noted that
sales of Redskins' merchandise are dropping even as overall NFL-licensed product sales climb.
"Changing the name and changing the brand at this point is not only a good PR decision but also a good business decision," Red Corn said.
Preston said Snyder wants to keep the name in order to "protect the brand" of a team that has existed since 1932.
But, he said, "If you established an NFL franchise now … you wouldn't call them the Redskins. I don't think anybody would create that brand now."
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