British lawmakers write to NFL about Redskins nickname

[flowers]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b9d416f047a14e3eb6115f3c6953517f/british-lawmakers-write-nfl-about-redskins-nickname

LONDON (AP) — Two British lawmakers have written to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to complain about the nickname of the Washington Redskins ahead of the team's visit to London next season.

Ruth Smeeth and Ian Austin, who are members of the Labour Party, wrote in a letter dated Feb. 2 that the NFL "should consider changing the name of the Washington franchise or, at a minimum, send a different team to our country to represent the sport, one that does not promote a racial slur."

The NFL said it received a letter co-authored by Smeeth and Austin.

"A team's name is a club decision," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "We recognize there are strong views on both sides of this."
 

The NFL has been playing regular-season games in London since 2007. Washington is scheduled to play the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 30 at Wembley Stadium.

The letter from the lawmakers said that there is "deliberate insensitivity and apparent hostility to a prominent minority group" by using the Redskins name. It said the "exportation of this racial slur ... directly contravenes the values that many in Britain have worked so hard to instill."

[Wingnut]

Bloody wankers.  Don't they have any real problems to deal with over there? 

[Free Vulcan]

Look at the bigots! How dare you tell another culture how to run it's business!

Just more evidence that liberalism is nothing but a global cult religion out to push it's beliefs on everyone else in it's quest for global domination.

[flowers]

Look at the bigots! How dare you tell another culture how to run it's business!

Just more evidence that liberalism is nothing but a global cult religion out to push it's beliefs on everyone else in it's quest for global domination.

True!

[mountaineer]

Bloody wankers.

That would be a good alternative name for the Deadskins.

[EC]

Smeeth's a typical young Labour type. Earnest, family connections to the party (her parents were both union bigwigs), socially conscious and completely useless at anything that doesn't involve talking. Parachuted in to her borough on an all women shortlist. (not bitching about the parachuting so much in her case, she only lived next borough over, in Burton on Trent. Stood for the seat there in 2010.)

In person she's actually pretty nice. Met her a couple times - Mom and Dad still get out and about to the theatre, and Smeeth is a huge supporter of a couple of the local rep. companies.

Still, the sort of stunt she'd pull - sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Redskin isn't even a slur over here ..... it describes any English on exposure to that strange glowing ball in the sky. 

[rangerrebew]

War on Redskins Nickname Goes Global as Brits Whine to NFL About Racism
 
Donn Marten
February 27, 2016

Those hypersensitive Brits are at it again. After making a mockery of themselves by attempting to ban GOP front-runner Donald Trump from the UK , the Queen’s loyal subjects are now caterwauling about the racist Washington Redskins. In the opening shot of what will be yet another front in the US political correctness crusade that’s guaranteed to spill over into the Democrats’ fall campaigns, a couple of MP’s have sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wailing about the team’s derogatory nickname. The Redskins will be a participant in one of the league’s annual exhibitions across the pond when they play the thug infested Cincinnati Bengals.

As CBS Sports is reporting “Parliament members to NFL: Change Redskins name or forget London”:

    With the Washington Redskins set to play a game in London in 2016, the national controversy involving the team’s name is now turning into an international controversy.

    Five days before the Super Bowl, the NFL received a letter from two members of British Parliament in regards to the Redskins name.

    In the Feb. 2 letter, which was obtained by ESPN, parliament members Ruth Smeeth and Ian Austin asked the league to have Washington change its name or “at the minimum, send a different team to our country to represent the sport, one that does not promote a racial slur.”

    The Redskins are scheduled to play the Bengals on Oct. 30 at Wembley Stadium.

    AND

    Smeeth also explained that the game could be an issue for the BBC, the publicly funded company that’s scheduled to broadcast the game.

    “Given it’s taxpayer-funded, if we believe it’s a racial slur, then that means problems for the BBC in terms of coverage of the event,” Smeeth told ESPN. “There is going to come a pressure point. The last thing the NFL wants — after putting so much behind its brand in the UK — is a good number of us to begin putting pressure on the BBC in terms of what they’re showing and how they’re showing it. This is not the image the NFL wants portrayed in the UK.”

If Goodell had any balls he would just call their bluff and pull all of the league’s games out of jolly old England forever.  It’s all just about merchandising anyway – at least on the US end of things – and there would probably be many other eager hosts in old Europe. Besides, the sissy Brits are more into faggy non-contact sports like soccer and (GAG) cricket so other than the money and media attention that that the games will bring in the common folk will hardly miss them.

You can already see the wheels turning over this one at the DNC, with the game with the Redskins and Bengals scheduled only days before the election they are going to milk this for all that it’s worth.

http://downtrend.com/donn-marten/war-on-redskins-nickname-goes-global-as-brits-whine-to-nfl-about-racism

[PzLdr]

That would be a good alternative name for the Deadskins.

I'd go with "Washington Foreskins", in honor of our government.

[PzLdr]

This from the folks that gave us "Wogs"?

[Bill Cipher]

The world is burning; the EU is coming apart; hordes of illegal aliens are threatening to swarm England through the channel tunnel; and this is what the UK's leaders think is a pressing problem?  Nero with his fiddle was a piker in comparison. 

[EC]

Opposition back-benchers. About as relevant as tits on a stallion.