Commander Country

Redskins Legend Gary Clark Says Name Not Offensive

Redskins great Gary Clark is defending the Redskins name and he has every right to based on personal experience.

Chris Russell

FootballPerspective.com

Gary Clark is a two-time Super Bowl Champion and one of the best receivers in Washington Redskins history, a franchise that has seen several greats at that position.

He's apparently not happy with the reality that the Redskins will be no more in short time and his opinion comes from some personal experience.

Clark told Julie Donaldson of NBCSportsWashington about his frustration. 

"The reason I initially visited the Native American reservation was because people were saying that saying the word 'Redskins' was like saying the [N-Word) to a black person," Clark told Donaldson. 

Some have indeed made that observation. I've never thought that to be the case but to each his own.

Clark continued to NBC Sports Washington: “What I found was Native Americans wearing Redskins gear and saying that they were proud to be a Redskin fan and the 5% that weren’t Redskins fans were Cowboys fans and that’s why they didn’t like the name.”

Clark further explained that if he had found the comparison above to be true, he would have been in favor of changing the name.

Instead, he is even stronger in his belief that he's right and the people that he spent time with are correct in their support of the name 'Redskins' and are not offended in any way.

Here's the bottom-line: I didn't need a poll of 504 people (frustrating I know) to tell me that 9-out-of-10 Native Americans sampled weren't bothered or offended. Yet that's what was done and is part of the story.

I don't even need Clark to say what he did to Donaldson, even though it's certainly an interesting perspective.

I know that the term while defined as a racial slur is not offensive to many and also not even important to many.

What is important is healthcare, jobs, education, being treated fairly and equally along with financial stability. That's for 100% of society, regardless of where they are from or what their history is.

It's more important than a word that may be offensive to some but is clearly not to many others.

The national media which drove this train and were relentless over the years don't really care about those issues, because it's not important to them that the people who need help the most, don't have it.

Again - an offensive to some word or real legitimate help? They chose a somewhat recently defined slur over help and a plan of action to bolster the group that they were trying to protect.

The Redskins organization didn't do enough to help either. As always, they could have done a lot more.  

In the end - nobody wins. The Redskins organization are enormous losers in the short-term and probably longer than that.

Those that need help the most still do not have it.

Mike Wise, Mike Florio, Peter King and many others can take a proverbial victory lap because they won a battle, but not the real 'war'

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Chris Russell is the Publisher of RedskinsReport.com & Sports Illustrated's Washington Redskins channel. He can be heard on 106.7 The FAN in the Washington D.C. area and world-wide on Radio.com. Chris also hosts the "Locked on Redskins" Podcast and can be read via subscription to Warpath Magazine. You can e-mail Chris at russellmania09@Gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @Russellmania621.

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Chris Russell
CHRIS RUSSELL

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