Former NFL player and coach Mike Ditka has lashed out at "liberals" and "politically correct idiots" who are calling for the Washington Redskins to change the team's name because it's a "racial slur" offensive to Native Americans.
In an interview with
RedskinsHistorian.com, the ESPN analyst made it clear that he plans to continue using the football franchise's Redskins nickname during the season even though some NFL announcers are considering just calling the team "Washington,"
USA Today reported.
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"What's all the stink over the Redskin name?" said the former Chicago Bears coach and tight end. "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."
Last year, 10 members of Congress sent letters to Redskins owner Dan Snyder, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Redskins sponsor FedEx, and the other 31 NFL franchises, calling on the Washington team to change its name.
The Native American Oneida tribe in upstate New York has also called for Goodell to "stand up to bigotry" by denouncing "the racial slur" in the Washington Redskins name.
Although 50 Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter to Goodell calling for the change
in May, Snyder has vowed that he will not give the team a new moniker.
"I admire him for it," said Ditka, while blaming "all the politically correct idiots in America," for the furor. "It's got nothing to do with anything else. We're going to change something because we can. I am not very tolerant of the liberals who complain about everything."
The franchise was started in Boston in 1932 and was initially called the Braves, according to the
team's website. It adopted the Redskins name the following year and moved to Washington in 1937.
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