Former Bears coach and ESPN analyst Mike Ditka has weighed in on the Washington Redskins nickname controversy, saying he finds it “so stupid it’s appalling.”
In an interview with Redskins Historian, Ditka made it clear he had no plans to refrain from using the team nickname during the season, as some NFL announcers have said they are considering.
From the interview:
“What’s all the stink over the Redskin name? It’s so much [expletive] it’s incredible. We’re going to let the liberals of the world run this world. It was said out of reverence, out of pride to the American Indian. Even though it was called a Redskin, what are you going to call them, a Brownskin? This is so stupid it’s appalling, and I hope that owner keeps fighting for it and never changes it, because the Redskins are part of an American football history, and it should never be anything but the Washington Redskins. That’s the way it is.”
Later on in the interview, Ditka identified what he saw causing the controversy:
“It’s all the political correct idiots in America, that’s all it is. It’s got nothing to do with anything else. We’re going to change something because we can. Hey listen, I went through it in the 60s, too. I mean, come on. Everybody lined up, did this. It’s fine to protest. That’s your right, if you don’t like it, protest. You have a right to do that, but to change the name, that’s ridiculous. Change the Constitution — we’ve got people trying to do that, too, and they’re doing a pretty good job.”
As for how he views Dan Snyder’s fight to keep the team’s name what it is? “I admire him for it,” Ditka said.
